Tag Archives: travel

Churches of Paris

Posted on by

1

Paris has close to 200 churches. On our recent time in the city, we visited about a dozen of them. I find the architecture and art in each of these churches fascinating and I would like to share a few facts and pictures about some of them!

Notre-Dame Cathedral is packed with history and is the most famous religious building in Paris. The world watched in horror on April 15, 2019 when a fire ignited and quickly the blaze grew. More than 400 firefighters battled the flames for 9 hours and were able to save the building from total destruction. The 13th century roof and the 19th century spire were destroyed and the interior was littered and damaged from falling debris. Almost immediately, rescue and restoration work began and the French have vowed that the Cathedral will reopen in 2024 prior to the Paris Summer Olympics.

Looking at the building at this time, it is hard to believe that they will meet that deadline but they remain steadfast in the commitment. If you are interested in more detail on the cathedral, the fire and the restoration, the February 2022 National Geographic has excellent information.

At the other end of the Ile de la Cité is Sainte-Chapelle. This 13th century gothic chapel is a cathedral of stained glass. The 15 separate stained glass panels depict more than 1100 scenes. The chapel and altar were built to house and honour the Crown of Thorns. This prized relic was eventually moved to Notre-Dame (where it did survive the fire).

Today, no regular masses are held at St Chapelle. You require a ticket to visit (€11.50 at the time of our 2022 visit). To skip the ticket line, you can buy your tickets on-line: pick a time early in the day and one where there are lots of tickets available and hopefully, you will beat the crowds.

Église Saint-Eustache was built between 1532 and 1632. It is a similar size to Notre-Dame with a Gothic exterior and Gothic-Renaissance interior. It leaves one with a sense of grandeur with its vast interior and tall granite columns.

The Sacré-Cœur Basilica sits at the top of Montmartre at Paris’ highest natural point (430 feet). The exterior of the five-domed basilica is covered with white gypsum from the mines below it and thus, whitens as it ages. It was built on a foundation of 83 pillars from 1875 to 1919.

We visited Sacré-Cœur at mid-morning and found it over-run with tourists, waiting in a long line to enter and we left promptly. Our hotel was located in Montmartre so we returned after dinner one evening and found it beautifully lit and relatively free of people. We were pleasantly surprised to find it open as we had read that in October it closed earlier. There were no line-ups to enter and we found it had a hauntingly beautiful aura in the evening lighting.

Sacré-Cœur is free to enter; there is a charge if you wish to climb the dome, which is not open in the evening.

From the plaza in front of the Basilica, there is a beautiful view of Paris spread below you.

Église Saint-Séverin hardly garners a mention in the Paris guidebooks and we just came across it while wandering. What a wonderful discovery – it is possibly my favourite Paris church!

It was originally built beginning in 1230 and was rebuilt and enlarged in the 15th to 17th centuries in the Flamboyant Gothic style. The upper walls are lined with deeply-coloured 14th century stained glass windows.

The Abbey of Saint Germaine des Prés is Paris’ oldest church, dating from the 11th century. It again was a wonderful find, with it’s Romanesque arches, beautiful stained glass and colourful interior.

The Church of Saint-Germain L’Auxerrois sits directly across from the Louvre Palace. Built in the 13th, 15th & 16th centuries, it again is filled with ornate columns and beautiful stained glass.

Saint-Sulpice Church was modelled after London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral and features a Neoclassical facade with two round towers.

Construction of the Gothic-style Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles de Paris began in 1235 with many renovations over the centuries. It is especially noted for paying particular attention to the homeless of its neighbourhood.

Here are images of a few of the other great churches we visited.

Not a church but a great place to visit was the Montmartre Cemetery, officially known as the Cimetière du Nord. I love a good cemetery and serendipitously, this one was located directly across the street from our hotel. It opened in 1825 and is the third largest in Paris. Interestingly, it has a bridge that passes over it.

Paris is a city of beautiful churches and I’m sure you could find your favourite while wandering the streets. I hope you enjoyed seeing some of mine. Stay tuned for more blogs about this wonderful city!

Cheers,

Bev & Harvey

Fall in London

Posted on by

4

Here we are, just a few short months later, back in London. We are once again in the routine of a fall Europe trip, and of course, that involves a stopover in London to see our girl!

We visited a few new areas on this stop as well as returning to a couple.

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon to climb Primrose Hill and to stroll around Regent‘s Park. The park was home to a free public art exhibition of outdoor sculptures – Frieze Sculptures 2022

The park was lovely, as was the view of London from Primrose Hill .

We spent an afternoon wandering around central London – the streets were much less crowded than they had been in July.

Our travel companions, Debbie & Larry, met us in London and we enjoyed a couple of great areas. We travelled to Canary Wharf and Greenwich for a great day of seeing the sights.

Canary Wharf
Greenwich

We spent a morning exploring the village of Hampstead Heath, with its picturesque streets and massive woodland heath.

It gets dark earlier in London in October so after a fun Uberboat ride down the Thames, we were actually out late enough to see the night scenes!

As always, we had some great meals in London – some old favourites and some new.

The Warwick Castle Pub in Maida Vale
Meat People in Islington
The Old Brewery in Greenwich
Cafe Laville in Little Venice
Sun in Splendour Pub in Notting Hill

Always a great time in London! And now on to Paris – stay tuned!

Cheers,

Bev & Harvey

Summer Days in London

Posted on by

4

We spent a few more days in London before and after our Cambridge trip. We stayed at the lovely Hayden Pub and Rooms in Notting Hill. We loved this establishment – nicely appointed rooms, extremely friendly and accommodating staff, upscale pub, great neighbourhood and the bonus of being only a 20 minute walk from Kristin’s flat in Maida Vale. And they offer you a complimentary drink while you check in. 😃

We are Downton Abbey fans and had planned on a Downton tour with Brit Movie Tours in the spring of 2020. That trip of course was cancelled, but the company refunded our payment and gave us a 20% discount code for the future. We were happy to take advantage of that this trip and booked the small group (maximum 15) tour.

For the tour, you board the bus (despite the fact that there were only 13 of us on the tour, we actually had a full size bus) in mid-London and travel for ~1.5 hours to the village of Bampton (with a comfort stop at a very impressive motorway rest stop). On the way, our guide Emma provided a lot of interesting information about the show and the locations and played a Downton highlight reel to heighten our excitement for seeing the sites.

Bampton is where the majority of the Downton Village scenes were filmed. Emma gave us an informative walking tour of the main shooting sites in the village including the exterior of Downton hospital, the village pub, and the former home of Matthew Crawley. The village green that is the location for so many scenes is actually quite a bit smaller that it appears.

The second part of the walking tour included a guided visit to the exterior and interior of the local church where the weddings occurred and Matthew Crawley was laid to rest.

Although in the show, it appears to be a short walk from Downton Abbey to Downton Village, it is actually about a 45 minute drive to Highclere Castle. Highclere is used as the main Downton Abbey set and on the way, we learned about its 1000 year history and life ‘above and below stairs’.

Tour guides are not allowed to lead tours within Highclere Castle, but our tour provided us with a very helpful self-guided information sheet. On the ground floor, we visited the library as well as the music room and the smoking, drawing and morning rooms. The dining room features a table that has twelve leaves that can be added to increase the size and a painting of Charles I that is an original van Dyck. On the first floor (which in North America would be the second floor), we viewed a number of the family bedrooms. Interestingly, Lady Mary’s bedroom was actually filmed on a set as so many scenes took place there. As well, the kitchen and servant’s dining room were also sets – the current kitchen is of course modernized. Photography was not allowed in Highclere so I have no pictures to share with you.

We wandered the grounds of the estate for a while. However, as the day we took this tour was a record temperature setting day in the UK (a high of 40.5 C had never been seen before), we soon found a spot in the shade to relax, have a bite to eat and visit with some of the others on our tour.

One morning, we strolled around Notting Hill, a lovely area of course made famous by the movie of the same name (I made a point of watching the movie on our return flight and recognized many of the locations). Portobello Road runs almost the length of Notting Hill from north to south. It has one of the most famous street markets in the world and is home to one of the UK’s most diverse communities. It has a rich history dating back to the 19th century with millions of visitors visiting the market each year. We were not there on market day, but there were still a number of street vendors set up along the street.

We spent a few hours at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is large, with over 150 rooms and more than 12 miles of corridors. It has something for everyone. We briefly toured the sculpture and Asian exhibits on the ground floor, but then travelled up to the first floor where we enjoyed the British Galleries, that travel through British history. Our favourite gallery of the visit was the Design 1900 to Now exhibit. We found many very interesting items to view.

On our way from The Hayden to central London, we passed through Kensington and Hyde Parks a number of times. These parks provide a lovely respite in the centre of a very busy city.

Parakeets in Kensington Gardens. Shortly after this, a parakeet flew right at my camera – I think he thought that my red phone was an apple!

This is the first time we have been in London when Buckingham Palace was open for tours. This normally occurs only in the summer months when the Queen is not in residence (although we have heard that she is spending very little time there now so perhaps the tour schedule will expand). We booked our tour for the first slot of the morning (0930 h), which proved to be a good plan as it was becoming much more chaotic in the area when we exited from our tour.

The tour of the Palace is excellent. You are provided with an excellent audio guide and can then take your time travelling through the State Rooms while listening to the information. Again, photography is not allowed in the Palace. Here are a few shots of the rear of the Palace where the famous garden parties are held.

When we first travelled to London in 1983, the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the Big Ben clock, was shrouded in scaffolding. Fast forward to our next visit 35 years later in 2018, and again, scaffolding. Same thing on both of our visits in 2019.

1983, 2018, 2019

But finally, the scaffolding is gone and we were able to view the tower and the clock in all of their splendour!

After viewing Big Ben, we quickly left the area as it was swarming with summer tourists. We have visited most of the central sites and will leave any revisit until we return in the off-season in the future. If you want to read more about London, check out our earlier blogs on this trip or search London on our home page to see blogs from previous trips.

We had some great meals in London. Here are just a few highlights.

The Waterway, Little Venice
Sun in Splendour, Nottingham Hill
Sunday Chicken Roast at The Hayden
Gail’s – our favourite of the bakery chains
Pizza at Cafe Laville, Little Venice
Jacks – at the Hilton Garden Inn, Hatton Cross

And then it was time to say goodbye to the UK – but you know we will be back! Thanks for reading about our trip – we hope you enjoyed our musings! We will be back soon!

Cheers,

Bev & Harvey

Barcelona – Gaudí & Protests

Posted on by

1

Here we are in Spain! This is the first time to this country for Harvey & I, as it also is for our travel companions, Debbie and Larry.

Our journey took us by Air Canada from Calgary to Heathrow in London. The new e-kiosks for passport control at Heathrow are wonderful – we were through in about 5 minutes – quite the change from the 45 – 60 minute waits on our last two trips. After a 4 hour layover, we boarded a British Air flight to Barcelona. All was fine – then shortly before landing, the first officer came on the speaker to tell us of a situation at the Barcelona Airport.

A court ruling had been handed down during the day, sentencing nine individuals, who had been instrumental in the Catalunya independence referendum – which was not sanctioned by the Spanish government. The sentences varied, with a maximum of 13 years. Supporters of the independence movement took to the streets in protest – and 10,000 blockaded the airport.

We soon discovered that our well laid out plan to shuttle to another terminal where we would catch a train to within blocks of our hotel was not going to happen. Although information was sketchy, we learned that the buses and trains were not operating, nor was the metro and there was no access in or out of the airport by taxi or private car. We were trapped at the airport, where we sat back at a safe distance and watched squadrons of police and crowds of protesters face off against each other. After about four hours, the metro line started running and we rode with hundreds of others into the city. A short walk and we were at our lovely Grand Derby Hotel.

Barcelona is a sophisticated, vibrant city – rich in history and architecture. At the centre sits Placa de Cataluñya. This 12 acre square links old Barcelona with the new city. The inverted-staircase monument is meant to mimic the shape of Catalunya.

Radiating out from the Placa are four main thoroughfares. The main tourist promenade is La Rambla. Sloping gently down to the waterfront, the street is lined by storefronts, sidewalk restaurants, souvenir shops and flower stalls. But when you look up, you appreciate the typical Barcelona architecture – beautifully adorned with decorative features and narrow balconies.

La Boqueria Market has sat just off La Rambla since 1850. Your senses are overwhelmed with beautiful sights and smells – the display of the goods is a definite art form!

The Barcelona Cathedral has a beautiful gothic exterior, with three tall steeples topping a front adorned with robed saints and winged angels, as well as the bell tower.

We didn’t visit the interior of the cathedral, although it is said to have a lovely cloister and many ornate chapels.

Also in the Barri Gótic is Santa Maria del Mar (St. Mary of the Sea). This church was consecrated in 1384 and has survived fires and an earthquake. The interior gives an impression of light and spaciousness, with its three aisles forming a single space with no transepts and no architectural boundary between nave and presbytery and the spacing of the columns being the widest of any Gothic church in Europe.

Modernism is Barcelona’s very unique style of Art Nouveau. Led by Antoni Gaudí, Catalánarchitects created curvy, playful fantasy buildings. Casa Battlo and Casa Mila are just two of Gaudi’s iconic works.

Gaudi’s masterpiece is the Sagrada Familia. Gaudí worked on this church for 43 years, from 1883 until his death in 1926. It is still unfinished and work continues with a generation of architects and others who have shared his vision. The hope is that the main construction will be completed for the centenary year of Gaudi’s death – 2026. The exterior of the church is a wildly creative mixture of architecture, much of it inspired by nature, as well as the story of Christ’s life.

The interior of Sagrada Familia is absolutely awe-inspiring. Fifty-six columns emulate tree trunks connecting with the arched vaults of the ceiling. The stained glass windows are incredibly beautiful and the reflection of the late afternoon light was amazing!

The main gate to the 1888 Universal Exposition was the Arc del Triomf. Today, this is the gateway to a lovely pedestrian stroll.

We spent a morning wandering about the neighbourhood of Gràcia. This area feels removed from the busy metropolitan life that is just a few blocks away. We enjoyed the streets, the architecture and a couple of delightful refreshment breaks.

We happened upon an interesting area of new development. The skyline is dominated by the Torre Aghar, a domed cylindrical tower of 33 floors – this structure has been much criticized and is often referred to as an upended blue cigar.

In the same area, we stopped by the Mercat Fira de Bellcaire Els Encants – a flea market on steroids. The amount of ‘treasures’ piled in absolute chaos in this mirrored roof building was a sight to see – and to get away from as quickly as possible!!

Overlooking the city to the southwest is a large hill, Montjuic. The hill is home to a number of interesting sights – we focused on the Olympic Stadium, which was originally built for the 1929 World Expo, and was updated and expanded for the 1992 Summer Olympics. We enjoyed wandering about the stadium and surrounding grounds, imaging the excitement that would have filled the area during the games.

Also on Montjuic is the Museo d’Art de Catalunya. Although we didn’t visit the museum, we admired the beautiful structure. Sloping down from the museum are the 1929 World Expo Fairgrounds and the Las Arenas (the grand Neo-Moorish building that served as an arena for bullfights from 1900 to 1977, and is now a mall).

We had some great meals in Barcelona, including fabulous paella!

We thoroughly enjoyed our days in Barcelona and are saddened by the chaos and destruction that has been occurring over the last week due to the civil unrest. We would certainly return in the future to further explore this great city.

Cheers,

Bev & Harvey