The sky on the last day was very cloudy. But since the train home only departed early afternoon, I still wanted to make good use of the morning and took the Metro to La Défense, the business district a few kilometres to the west of the centre of Paris ( Read more... )

Au Printemps, which means spring, one of Paris' grand magasin, big department store. I don't think it's on the same scale as London's Harrods, but it is still quite impressive. What it has in common with Harrods is that both houses are owned by Qatar. I fear one day they will even buy a Football World Cup.


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The last full day in Paris began with a visit of Montmartre, the hill on the northern side of the city. To get there we took the Metro and exited at the Abbesses station. You can leave the station by climbing a spiral staircase. Which, as a very pleasant surprise, turned out to be newly renovated. Not long ago the the walls looked like this.


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The outside of the Palais du Luxembourg. Part of it houses the French Senate, the upper house of the Parliament of France. So especially on the side facing the street there were a number of armed guards.


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The next morning we took the Metro to Montparnasse, a district in the southern part of Paris. This is part of the queue early in the morning, about half an hour before opening, for the Catacombs of Paris. The catacombs are a maze of tunnels, a large scale ossuary that stores the remains of millions of Parisians. A two kilometres long section, ( Read more... )

The July Column at the Place de la Bastille. This is the place where once the Bastille prison stood which was stormed on 14 July 1789. It is now the French National Day. The original building was completely destroyed.


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The sky was already covered with clouds in the morning so it made sense to change plans and visit some lesser known places that day. The visit of a cemetery seemed appropriate.
There was no particular reason to first make a slight detour to the Belleville metro station other than my desire to take a picture to honour the triplets.


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I'd say the prettiest bridge of Paris, the Pont Alexandre III, named after the Tsar. In the background, the Grand Palais.

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Starting the day south of the Eiffel Tower, the École Militaire, the Military School. Another big building complex of which you only see here part of the main building.

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We continue our walk through the centre of Paris. The Institut de France building seen from the Pont des Arts.

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