Chapter Eleven: Montmartre & Walking Through Paris History
February 12, 2025
Chapter Thirteen: Cruising Strasbourg
March 21, 2025Mai Tai Tom Stays On Track Through Belgium, Paris and Strasbourg
Chapter Twelve: Inside Paris City Hall & A Sea of Sculptures
Day Twelve: No Place For Breakfast, Oh Baby!, Take Your Tickets & Go Away, This Is Some Hôtel, Versailles-Like, Psychedelic Ceiling, Watch Out For That Door, Trocadero Time, Patrimoine on Patrimoine, Macron’s Prime Reason A Trip To Italy and After Further Review, We Will Return
Since our previous night’s sleep was not the best (blaring fire alarms will do that to you), we got a restful, deep sleep. I had wanted to visit one of the Journées du Patrimoine sites before Hôtel de Ville, but even I welcomed a long, uninterrupted night of shut eye, so sleep in we did.
In search of a place for a croissant and coffee, we walked briefly through the Place de Vosges, stopped at one outdoor café whose service, for a lack of a kinder term, sucked. At that moment we wished we were back in Montmartre at Armande.
We briefly ducked into Église Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis,, which is a lovely church, however, we decided not to disrupt a baptism taking place.
Kim and Mary arrived at the Hôtel de Ville a little before noon. I, in my infinite stupidity, told us all to stand in line, because maybe they’d let us in with an earlier group. Of course, they said, “Non!” It was then we saw another line. 
(Digression: When we visited Hôtel de Ville during Journées du Patrimoine in 2014, we got up very early, stood in line and were one of the first people in. Because our hotel said you had to have a timed ticket, I thought that meant you could only enter at your allotted time.)
We inquired about the line, and were told it was for people who didn’t have timed tickets. With nothing to lose, we queued and got in 35 minutes before our 12:45 reservation. Seems we could have gone early. Oh well.
The City Hall of Paris dates back centuries. It was burned in 1871 by the Paris Commune (“a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris”) and rebuilt between 1874 and 1882. We and dozens of our friends climbed the 50 marble steps with symbols of music on each side to the entrance, and the light show inside made the ceiling even more gorgeous.
I recalled that in 1792 Place de l’Hôtel de Ville (called Place de Grève at the time) was where the guillotine was utilized for the first, but not last, time. We were not going to stick our necks out here.
I think this is Joan of Arc, since she is virtually everywhere in France.
This was only a prelude to the ceilings we’d see in here.
There was an exceptional piece called Table and Boat, Baccarat. From the Baccarat website: “For the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Baccarat Table and Boat will be unveiled inside the Paris City Hall. These two crystal masterpieces, created for the World Fairs of 1889 and 1900, will be on display at the foot of the grand staircase, paying tribute to Paris and its motto “Fluctuat nec mergitur,” symbolized by the ship that adorns the city’s coat of arms. The faithful reproduction of the Boat alone required the masterful craftsmanship of forty-nine glassblowers and cutters, including five Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, who dedicated 3,700 hours to the project.”
The carvings on the Monumental Fireplace in the Salon des Lettres have been called by some, “Michelangelo-esque.”
Speaking of Baccarat …. how ‘bout those chandeliers? Also from the Baccarat website: “The Paris City Hall houses 90 Baccarat light fixtures. The ten large chandeliers in the banquet hall, some weighing up to 250 kilograms and suspended eight meters from the ground, are being carefully restored … Twenty hours of work are required to restore each chandelier to its original luster.” I believe they had all been restored by the time we were there.
Fifty different artists took part in designing the Salon des Arcades. This ceiling is called Triomphe of Art. From my new friend AI, the painting by Léon Bonnat “depicts a man holding a flame and riding Pegasus, the white winged horse, that is trampling over ignorance and savagery.”
The salon is divided into three different parts representing science, arts and literature. Another painted ceiling showed the Muses of Paris (Les Muses Parisiennes) by Jules Joseph Lefebvre. They represent Tragedy, Comedy, and Music.
In the Salon des Sciences is a painting called something we need more of … Truth and the Science by Albert Besnard.
Le Entree de Louis XVI is made even more beautiful by the chandelier.
Entering the Great Dining Room, we saw Jules Michelet’s History of France …Louis VI gives the Parisians their first charter and Étienne Marcel protecting the Dauphin from the massacres of the day of riots of February 22, 1358.
Giant vase alert!
At first I thought this paining was of Freddie Mercury at Wembley Stadium, but instead it’s a ploughman along with his oxen in Georges-Jules Bertrand’s L’Hymne de la Terre au Soleil (Hymm of the Earth To the Sun).
The carved oak formal dining room had three statues, representing hunting and fishing. To me, the one holding the fish would make quite a catch.
I forgot to bring my Rudy Vallee and Al Jolson records to play on this 1912 Gramophone.
Now the colors started popping all over, changing by the second in the Salle des Fêtes. If the room feels similar to the Hall of Mirrors at Château de Versailles, it should. That’s the effect they were going for.
Tracy was in ceiling heaven.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité!
Watching the ceiling, you had no idea what color you’d see next.
I felt like I was in a Royal Disco.
Our time was ticking down in this part of City Hall, but we did take a look at the Monumental Clock designed by Ferdinand Barbedienne between 1878 and 1889.
We loved all the colors in the Salle des Fêtes …
… although I still love this photo Tracy took in 2014.
It was time to turn the page, and book it up to La bibliothèque de l’Hôtel de Ville.
The original library burned down during the 1871 fire. I could speak volumes about this area, but we moved on.
We headed toward the Salle du Consil, and along the way were numerous stained glass windows illustrating some of the city’s professions.
The Council Chamber attempts to replicate the Throne Room that was located in the City Hall that burned.
The Aubusson tapestries are from the Second Empire in the mid 1800s.
Before leaving, we even paid a visit to the Mayor’s office.
Back outside, Kim and Mary decided to go for a boat ride on the Seine, while Tracy and I headed to the Trocadero to grab lunch and take one final look at the tower. Interestingly, about ten minutes later we were both in the same métro station going in the same direction.
We thought we had missed the train as we got to the bottom of the steps, but the train’s doors stayed open for a longer time than expected. Kim and I led the charge onto the train, however just as our first foot hit the inside of the car, the doors closed abruptly. For about a second, I thought Kim and I and might only be half the men we used to be, but thankfully the doors eventually opened and we all climbed aboard.
Once we hit Trocadero, we split up, but not as painfully as minutes before. Tracy and I grabbed some frites and cheddar (a sort of French poutine?), with a view of the Tour Eiffel through the trees of fall..
The Trocadero is where many people come to have their photos taken with the iconic monument in the background. Today was no exception.
Everybody was paying it forward by taking each other’s photos, including ours.
As we were deciding where to go next, we saw a massive building. People were wandering inside, so we decided to wander with them, and, as it turned out, we were plenty glad we did.
I’ve been to Paris a dozen times, and I am a pretty meticulous planner (some say too much of one), but for reasons unknown, I had never heard of Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine. Since it was Journées du Patrimoine, we thought “why not visit a museum that incorporates the name” … and it was free. Located in the Palais de Chaillot, the museum dates back to the late 19th century when it was commissioned to document the architectural heritage of France. There are actual-sized, replica casts of many of France’s most important structures built between the 12th and 18th centuries. The permanent collection called Musée national des monuments français had us hooked when we walked inside.
The museum is the “largest architecture center in the world,” and we started our journey in the Galerie des Moulages where we saw Saint-Pierre Portal of the Moissac (Tarn-et-Garonne) Abbey Church.
The 12th century doorway to St Peter’s Church Carrennac (Lot) was next.
You can see how large these casts are, as this one dwarfs a kid.
It looks like both of these guys are asking, “What took you so long to visit?”
To my credit I did not sing anything about a bullfrog when we came upon Jerimiah from Sainte Marie-de-Souillac (left). Next it was a Trumeau (vertical architectural) of the Church of St Lazare in Avallon.
We visited Rouen back in 2012, and this portal of St John is from the Cathédrale de Notre Dame located there.
I’m not positive, but I think this room shows the mural paintings of Chapelle des Moines de Berzé-la-Ville.
As you walk through the museum, you’re appreciative at the amount of work that went into making these plaster casts.
This museum, maybe more than any other we’ve been to, seemed to have a lot of school-aged children, many with their parents, admiring the architectural wonders.
I did a little digging to find out about this piece. It’s an Overdoor sculpture of a galley at 15th century French government official Jacques Cœur’s home, Palais Jacques Cœur, in Bourges.” His “rise and fall” story is an interesting one. 
One of the coolest things we saw here were the actual sculptures done for the 19th-century renovation of Notre Dame-de Paris. These were the only statues that survived the devastating 2019 fire. The 12 apostles and four evangelists were fortunately removed a few days before the blaze for restoration.
My namesake saint is always doubting, or has a headache.
It was fascinating to see these pieces up close …
… like Saint Peter and Saint Bartholomew.
The 16 statues were restored in Périgueux, and were on display here awaiting reinstallation at Notre Dame for its December 2025 reopening. We were quite fortunate to be able to see them up close. The statues that represent the four evangelists were on display. On the left is the Eagle of St. John, while on the right is the Angel of St. Matthew.
And don’t forget the spire’s rooster, which was found in the debris after the fire. From Friends of Notre Dame de Paris: “The rooster is considered a symbol of the French people because of the play on words of the Latin gallus meaning Gaul and gallus meaning coq, or rooster. The rooster contains three relics: a small piece of the Crown of Thorns, a relic of St. Denis, and a relic of St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. The piece of the Crown of Thorns was supposedly put into the rooster by Viollet-le-Duc himself in 1860.”
Before departing we also gazed at the lasting image of the cast of the Head of “La Marseillaise” from the Arc de Triomphe. His expression looks like Kim’s when the métro door closed on us.
I heard there was some stained glass and other artifacts to see on the upper floors, but we were running late, so we hopped on the métro (safely this time) and returned our hotel to pack. (It was fortunate we were late. Had we had time, we wanted to go see the Palais de l’Élysée, usually open on Heritage Days. However, we found out later it was closed because president Macron had an important meeting with his prime minister.)
Since one cannot live on Belgian and French food alone, we ventured back to the Marais for a little Italian cuisine. The Marais was its usual busy self on a Saturday night. Kim noted the crowd and determined we were the oldest people in the Marais.
We took a quick look up at Maisons de Moyen Age, This group of buildings on Rue François-Miron include two adjacent half-timbered houses. I’m a sucker for historical marker places.
Walking through the area a little bit more, we arrived at Don Giovanni at 7:30 pm, and, of course …
… we were the first ones seated.
The restaurant had been under new ownership for nine months, and the owner was terrific and pretty funny. He told us he was from Abruzzo. His first comments to us were that if we wanted beer, we were out of luck because his beer delivery guy didn’t show. “He’s from Napoli.” Looking at the menu, he laughingly told us, “Remember, it’s France for dessert, and Italia for everything else.”
We (sans Kim) shared mozzarella & tomatoes with jambon. A good start.
If there’s gnocchi, there’s Tom. I loved my Gnocchi Gorgonzola and Speck; Fresh gnocchi, Gorgonzola, Treviso radishes and smoked ham. Molto bene!
Kim really liked his Spaghetti alle Vongole; spaghetti with clams, garlic and olive oil, lightly spicy and iodized.
Tracy’s Roman Saltimbocca; veal escalope flavored with sage and topped with ham, garnished with fresh vegetables was also very good.
Mary had the special pasta dish with broccoli sauce that she ate before we could take a photo. We would definitely recommend this place.
In the métro station, Tracy got both Kim and my attention by pointing out this sign to us (such a sense of humor). We scurried inside the next train.
Back at the hotel, we prepared for tomorrow. Another very early train (hey, they can’t mutiny now) was scheduled as we traveled to Strasbourg. After dropping our bags at what I think was our best hotel of the trip, we took to the streets of this charming town. After a near trampling, we ducked in the cathedral, but decided to visit on another day because it’s always free.
Since it was Heritage Days in Strasbourg, as well, we checked out the Palais Rohan, housing the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Museum of Fine Arts), Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Museum of Decorative Arts) and Musée Archéologique (Archaeological Museum).
We had lunch underneath a beautiful tree overlooking canal in Petite France before checking out St. Thomas Church, which has an organ designed by a man who wore a number of hats and played by one of the most famous composers who ever lived. I took a little walk around town looking at the covered bridges along the way. The others decided on an afternoon slumber (Slackers!).
Our dinner would be at one of the most historic winstubs in town with a terrific atmosphere. The food and service were mostly good, but I might have gone a little too Alsation with my choice. Finally, back at Petite France, we admired beautiful Strasbourg at night.
Chapter Thirteen: Strolling Strasbourg
Day Thirteen: Gorgeous Hotel, Attack Of The Vikings, A Quick Trip To Church, Napoleon Slept Here, Striking The Right Corde, Underneath The Sycamore Tree, Schweitzer & Mozart Duet, Tom Ambiances For The Last Time (Maybe), Got Your Bridges Covered, Stuebeling In, That’s A lot Of Sour Cream and Beauté Nocturne de Petite France
