Paris

Et deux têtes qui tournent en regardant Versailles, et c'est Paris la France.
Brel.

Paris, the capital of France.

I had a very mild version of Paris syndrome (see here for a better description). Interestingly, not the very first time that I went there—this was with my father—but I believe on the third visit. The city suddenly appeared gross to me, dirty, full of obnoxious and arrogant people. A deep, complete, total disappointment of this place and its people. I can certainly understand it reaches traumatic proportions for delicate foreign visitors.

Although it is not, by far, our favorite European city, it remains one of the most important ones.

There are plenty of beautiful tributes to Paris. My favourite is of course Brel's les prénoms de Paris:

Et savoir que demain

Sera comme aujourd'hui

C'est Paris merveilleux

Most tributes to Paris are tributes to love. Some, equally beautiful, are to freedom and resistance, but in the sight of history, these are farcical. Maybe more believable are those to a realism à la Zola.

Notre-Dame

We never go to Paris without passing by Notre-Dame, the heart of France and one pillar of Catholicism, where the Crown of thorns has been placed by Saint Louis for safekeeping while the Sainte Chapelle was being built (as he died before, it seems the relics remained in the temporary location). Witness of the slaughtering of the wolves of Paris, defaced by Napoléon for his coronation, the resonance chamber for the Requiem of the last French leader, and, of course, the inspiration for a major work of French literature, it is the real symbol of our capital.

Notre-Dame. All photos onward are from February 2013.
The famous facade (id.)
The portal of the last judgment.
Saint-Denis waiting for it.
The temptation of Adam and Eve.
Detail of the snake.
Another figure in great expectation.
What is awaiting us.
Although we'll say we hadn't been warned.
Some are merely artistically interesting.
Others are gripping you by the soul.
Maybe one of the original sculptures (most were destroyed during the French revolution).
Inside, the scene of Gethsemane.
Fabrice with one of the new bells of Notre-Dame.
Notre-Dame at night.

Sacré-Cœur

A rather odd-looking church to crown Paris, it was built under Mac-Mahon following the popular uprising of la commune to reestablish moral order and monarchy. It is difficult to put it one side or the other: Kitsch or architectural masterpiece, perpetual adoration or touristic trap, national penance or national sin.

Le Sacré-Cœur (and Fabrice). All photos onward are from February 2013.
Nicer view, with warmer colors and with Elena.
The people up there.
From below.
Paris as seen by the Sacré-Cœur. On the right, hiding in eerie colours, the Tour Montparnasse,
that you see again here.

Visits on 2 August (2006) and then again on 16 February (2013).

Le Louvre

Le Louvre. All photos onward are from February 2013.
Palais des Tuileries.
Detail of one of the statues on top from the previous image.
Another one.
A statue grazing the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.
On the wall of the Jardin des Tuileries.

Palais Garnier

The magnificient Opéra house which should be known as the Opéra de Paris but is so opulently designed that it is known after its architect instead, Charles Garnier, an unknown 35-year-old architect when he was entrusted with the work. The construction, from 1860 to 1875, was interrupted by numerous incidents, including the 1870 war, the fall of the Empire and the Commune.

Details of the roof: Apollo, Poetry and Music over the European Union flag. All photos onward are from February 2013.
La Renommée retenant Pégase with the National flag.
Sitting at the foot of the Harmonie.

Colonne Vendôme

The famous copy in bronze of the the Trajan Column (itself in Marble) in Rome to serve as a pedestal to Napoléon who erected it from the cannons captured to the combined armies of Europe.

Sadly, the statue remained that of Napoléon as a Roman emperor, instead of the iconic pause en petit caporal, with the bicorne and in grey-coat with hand-in-waistcoat, which would have been much more dramatic.

Elena and Napoléon. All photos onward are from February 2013.
A thousand cannons melted in the sky.
Detail of the relief.
A lion.
And an imperial eagle.

Saint-Vincent-de-Paul

Vincent de Paul was a middle-age priest whose life was up to the greatest Biblical sagas, like that of Joseph. From peasants parents who sold their oxen to afford him an education, he was taken captive by Barbary pirates who auctioned him as a slave in Tunis. Later chaplain to the galleys, he led an order (the Vincentians) vowed to poverty and chastity and devoted to the poor in smaller towns and villages, making de Paul the apostle of charity. The Church in its name, built after the model of Roman basilicas, retains an original architecture, particularly due to the two towers. It is the latest major classical church of Paris.

Saint-Vincent-de-Paul as seen from the butte Montmartre. All photos onward are from February 2013.
Side view.
Façade with the Biblical scenes in enamel, onced removed for picturing nudity.
Detail of one of them (with dressed Adam & Eve) in the lights and shadows.
Vincent de Paul.