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Home Page > Travelogues > France > Paris

Subchapters in this travelogue:  [ Paris-Est ] [ Paris-Ouest ] [ Versailles ]

Ah!  'Gay Paris'!  If you were asked "Name all the famous places in Paris," how many of you would rattle off at least five?  I bet many of you would have immediately come up the following without breaking a sweat:  The Eiffel Tower.  The Louvre.  Notre Dame de Paris.  The Arc de Triomphe.  Les Champs Elysées.  The more knowledgeable among you could have added plenty of others -- Napoleon's Tomb at Les Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Ritz Plaza might have come to mind.  For extra credit, there was always the Palace of Versailles which was technically not in Paris, but we wouldn't complain.

Why was Paris so renowned?  Because it was historically the center of high society, fine art, and European culture bar none.  From cuisine to canvas to keyboard, Paris had for centuries attracted the world's greatest creative thinkers for study and inspiration.  And with the beautiful River Seine, the grand parks, and the mild (though sometimes wet) weather, there was plenty of natural inspiration around.  Paris was a place no one tired of.

This travelogue covered a bus trip I took in the dead of winter in January 2001.  It was one of only two times I set foot in the city, the other being a God-awful layover at the Charles de Gaulle Airport, but I digress.  The bus trip lasted one full day and a half, with the first day covering the Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, and Les Champs Elysees, the second covering Versailles and the Museum Quarter.  Because I was unfamiliar with the traditional use of the terms 'left bank' and 'right bank' when referring to different parts of France, and because this was one of my earliest travelogues in this site, I elected to eschew the traditional references and simply divide the city geographically.  Consequently, the first two chapters are simply named 'Paris West' (Paris-Ouest) and 'Paris East' (Paris-Est).  The former refers to those attractions to the west (and primarily south) of the Ile de France (the island in the Seine River in the middle of the below graphic).  The latter includes the island and all locations to its east including the museum quarter.  This division provided an equal distribution of attractions, so it worked out.  When I gave this site a significant update in 2006, I decided it was not worth the effort to reorganize this travelogue into a more traditional layout.  However, we do hope to pay a visit there some time in the future, and perhaps at that time we will redo this page from scratch.

The below graphic provides a cartoon of the layout of the city and its relationship to Versailles, showing the areas covered by the different chapters.  Choose one of the colored regions below or the photograph to proceed to a chapter.  Et bon voyage!!!

Trip taken 12-13 January 2001 -- Page Last Updated 04 October 2006 -- (C) 2001 Tom Galvin

Subchapters in this travelogue:  [ Paris-Est ] [ Paris-Ouest ] [ Versailles ]