On 15 April 2019, disaster struck Notre-Dame. The 850 year-old medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris had a catastrophic structural fire, collapsing the spire and roof. It was closed 5 years for restoration. When we heard the cathedral was reopened to the public in December 2024. we jumped at the opportunity to see it. We planned the France portion of our trip just to see this historic landmark. It was not easy to get tickets to view the interiors though. There is only one official site, and tickets are only available online 1-2 days before entry. Added to this difficulty to get access, the cathedral was partially closed to visitors in April in remembrance of Pope Francis, who had just died. We were fortunate to get a time slot. We were told that it would take at least another 3 years to complete the exterior. We did not see any of the gargoyles from before; just construction cranes outside. The restoration is expected to cost $928 million, and they were able to raise one billion dollars for the work. No one has been charged with starting the fire. Some suspect it was started in the roof from faulty wiring, or smoldering cigarette butts from a scaffolding crew.

More than a 1000 artists from around the world were hired to restore the interiors. We saw no fire damage inside. The structure and artwork was immaculate. We were shocked to see that the interior looks like there had never been any damage. In fact, it looks far better than it did prior to the fire, when we saw it a couple decades ago. At that time, centuries of soot and grime dimmed the colors, which were now as vibrant as we expect it was when first built. Three Americans were part of the restoration team.

Fortunately, most of the main Cathedral building did not burn. Therefore, much of the original art work was saved.

22 paintings were taken down from the chapel a day after the fire, and delivered to restoration artists. Some were smoke damaged, but otherwise unharmed by the catastrophe.

Seeing how well the Cathedral was restored was one of the highlights of our Paris experience. We visited Notre Dame decades ago, and expected a damaged cathedral looking dark and old, as it was on our first visit. With the restoration, we could see the brilliance of the original ight and art.

For us, Paris has always been a great stopover for a few days, enroute to somewhere else. This time, we’re enroute to Morocco and Southern France. In Paris, there are 20 arrondissements, or districts, where one can stay, each with a distinctive personality. For this trip, we chose to stay in the Bohemian village of Montmartre, the 18th district, which is crowned by the Basilica Sacré Coeur. We stayed at the bottom of the village and took the Funicular to the top. Previously, we’ve stayed in the Latin Quarter, as well as the 8th arrondissement, the home of the Arc de Triomphe.

Montmartre is filled with street performers and street artists. In addition, the village is full of tourists this time of year, and it is not uncommon to see tour leaders with more than 20 tourists in tow. The crowds are gone early in the morning and evenings, so we get a chance to eat at the outdoor cafes without the parade of tourists. The hotel owner of Mom’Art reserved a table for us at her neighbor’s restaurant, L’Entr’Acte, a gem serving authentic French cuisine where the locals dine. Gille is a one man show, being simultaneously the chef, waiter, and bartender.

We had the pleasure of taking a “Secret Food Tour” in Montmartre. We both love food, so we jumped at the opportunity to learn more about French food and wines. When Parisians buy food, they go to high-end boutiques. The stops were mostly artesanal hole-in-the-wall spots we would never have discovered on our own, but they were clearly expert in their craft. The guide share their history, then introduced us to the food. We sampled macaroons and chocolates, a freshly made crepe (Evelyn had a sticky one with Grand Marnier), sampled classic French breads, many cheeses, and at the end, taken to a no name Speak-Easy establishment. There we were given an assortment of cold cuts, cured sausages and hams, cheese and wines. We learned how to tell a good baguette from a bad one. The poster above (bottom center) was from the 1930s, stating how bad alcoholism was — but only bad if from base foods not grown in France, so wine was considered good ! Marcel, our guide was quite a character. He was a former attorney who transformed himself into a professional photographer and film maker, as well as a food connoisseur.

These are some of the places we visited on our tour. Christophe Roussel was our chocolatier, and our first stop. I am not a large fan of sweets, but these were fabulous! Pain Pain was the bread store where our guide bought our baguettes. He can be seen holding a bunch of them in the prior photo block (lower right). He told us that the French never bend a loaf to get a piece of bread to eat it. Instead, they twist the bread to release the loaf. If the bread will not easily twist off, then it is a stale loaf and disdained by the French. Our last stop was Les Petits Points Parisens. This was a “speak-easy” during the 1930s. It looked closed, but the guide had the key to open the door, and we all entered to sit around a ring of tables and enjoy cheeses, sausages, and a variety of wines. The right column above shows the labels from a couple of those wines.

Some fun photos from our stay. Burt and Evelyn are touring the city in vintage side cars around the narrow streets of Paris. It sounded cool, but in the end, we probably wouldn’t recommend it. They had no intercom to hear the description from the driver of the landmarks we saw, meaning we mostly drove past unknown buildings in unknown neighborhoods. The busking tap dancers (bottom center) were engaging at the metro entrance. we found the wall of love (lower right) at the Metro station in Montmartre as part of our walking tour.

We took a tour just outside of Paris following the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet. Both Van Gogh and Monet lived and spent time in Paris in the 1800s. Although they never met in person, Van Gogh was influenced by the impressionist style that Monet pioneered, which resulted in Van Gogh abandoning the somber colors of his earlier Dutch works to a more vibrant and light color palette. Above are a few paintings by Van Gogh, which were posted along the pedestrian trail near his last stay in a small rented room at Ravoux Inn, Auvers, a small village outside of Paris. He could only afford the smallest room from May 20th to July 29th, 1890, the last 70 days of his life. During this short period, he created 80 paintings. We walked through the small studio where he passed at the age of 37, shocked by how small his room was (approximately 7’x10′). His last words were “La tristesse durera toujours” (Sadness will last forever), before he reportedly died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound. Along the artist’s trail, we were shown the subject matter that Van Gogh was inspired by, then saw a copy of his painting on sign posts. Roots (bottom right), was initially thought to be a painting from Van Gogh’s imagination and for years was hung upside down at exhibitions. Years later, someone recognized the tree roots along the path where Van Gogh walked, then the painting was turned right side up.

We also toured Giverny, at the recommendation of our friends from Ecuacor, the Krafts, who thought this was the most beautiful place in France. This is the location of the famous water lily ponds and colorful garden created by Claude Monet (top middle). Monet is known as the father of impressionism and lived in his Giverny home for 43 years, from 1883 to 1926. A delight to see, but filled with tourists.

An interesting article about Claude Monet is here. We saw lots of flowers that were well maintained, as Monet loved painting landscapes. For visitors, there was only one toilet, however we weren’t warned of such ahead of time, so ended up rushing through the garden area. Monet and Renoir were lifelong friends, often setting up easels side by side. Occasionally, they painted together at Monet’s home and garden. Monet painted a series of 250 oil paintings inspired by his water lilies. Monet did not paint with the color black, as he felt it dulled his paintings. Compared to Van Gogh, Monet lived quite well as an artist, and a recent painting of his was auctioned for more than $65 Million.

This is an eclectic collection of photos from our Paris trip. Top left is the bright yellow flowers grown for Canola oil, as seen from our flight approach to Paris Airport. We also visited the Paris Zoo one afternoon and captured images of deer and penguins (middle and left middle). We would not recommend it though, as there were few animals, and not kept in very ecological enclosures. We also enjoyed the many fruit stands throughout Paris. We couldn’t help but comparing them to Portugal, which had almost none. Evelyn also brought her sketch book on this trip. Here is her paintings ifrom Montmartre at the base of Basilica Sacré-Coeur (bottom right) and Eglise Saint-Jean de Montmartre (bottom left) were her inspiration. Paris is a fun stopover, so we’ll be back to explore more of the city in the future.