Paris Noël

Bright lights and sweet scenes around Saint-Germain

By Jamie Martin

January 12^th, 2020

Paris for Christmas sounded romantic. And despite a three-week-long transportation strike that shut down the trains and saw nearly two million people protesting in the streets, it was.

As the day of our flight approached, we monitored the French news hourly, hoping for some resolution or reprieve. None came. A friend visiting a week earlier reported miserable conditions: site closings, extreme gridlock, irritable locals.

But we were lucky: other than a three-hour taxi from CDG to our hotel in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, we didn't notice the disruption. Staying in the Sixth, surrounded by cafés, boutiques and galleries, we were only a short walk to the Seine and the Île de la Cité.

Saint-Sulpice

A block from our hotel, the second-largest church in the city stood quietly, undisturbed by crowds. On December 26, the only sign that Saint-Sulpice had just hosted the largest Christmas service in France was an army of chairs, still standing in rigid formation.

The church was begun in 1646—the second built on this site—and was dedicated to Sulpitius the Pious. It saw the baptisms of the Marquis de Sade and Charles Baudelaire, witnessed Victor Hugo's marriage, and features prominently in Dan Brown's, The DaVinci Code.

Jardin du Luxembourg

A block from our hotel, the gilded gates of Luxembourg Palace open to reveal her lovely gardens. Conceived in 1615, the palace was built for Marie de' Medici, following the death of her husband, King Henry IV. Following the French Revolution, it became the legislative chambers of the senate. The gardens are a popular public space, featuring statuaries, fountains, and flower beds. A model for the Statue of Liberty stands solemnly near the northwest edge of the garden's 62-acre expanse.

"Polyphemus Surprising Acis and Galatea," by sculptor Auguste Ottin, 1866.

Sainte-Chapelle

Built in 1248 AD, Sainte-Chapelle was designed as a reliquary to house the Crown of Thorns. Louis IX had purchased the relic from the cash-strapped Byzantine Empire for 137,000 livres. Built within the medieval Palais de la Cité, Sainte-Chapelle is connected to the palace by a short bridge. The royal chapel is made almost entirely of stained glass, towering over visitors who bask in the blue light from fifteen panels depicting stories from the Old and New Testaments.

During the French Revolution, much of Sainte-Chapelle was damaged or destroyed, its relics looted; but Napoleon saved the Crown, which was eventually moved to the treasury at Notre Dame, where it is displayed to the public each year on Good Friday. The Crown was not damaged in the 2019 fire.

Promenades Nocturnes

By day, Paris is a classic beauty: stylish, ageless, photogenic from any angle. At night, she's a lustful mistress: languid, bathed in the golden glow of gas lamps and the lurid reds of sidewalk neon, which the City of Lights invented, not long after leading the world with the installation of electric streetlights.

After midnight, the city stills. Cafés close. Traffic evaporates. A lonely night bus swings around a tight corner, its only passenger standing near the back, a helmsman tacking his sloop. Paris is silent, but present. A panther in the inky night.

Notre Dame

2019 was the first time since the French Revolution that Notre Dame did not host Christmas services. On Monday, April 15, 2019, just after workers performing roof renovations left for the day, fire broke out. Two hours later, despite the efforts of over 400 firefighters, Notre Dame's iconic 295' tall spire and 859-year old roof collapsed into the 1500°F inferno below, vaporizing 400 tons of lead that had wrapped the roof timbers. Ironically, the fire was most likely caused by either an electrical fault or cigarette butt near the site of the renovation. Fortunately, most of the art and holy relics (including the Crown of Thorns, and the recently-removed rooftop statuary of the twelve apostles) were not damaged or destroyed.

As the estimated cost and time to rebuild balloons beyond $1bn, new concerns arise that restoration may not be possible—at least, not in its original form or construction materials. Reconstruction has focused on excavating the foundation, but this has been complicated by the fact that over 50,000 scaffolding poles (erected before the fire for the roof renovation) were fused together on top of the ancient stone framework.

A number of proposals were made for modernizing the steeple and roof, but the French parliament passed a law requiring reconstruction to "preserve the historic, artistic and architectural history of the monument."

There are an estimated 29,000 homeless in Paris.

The estimated cost to rebuild Notre Dame is $1B...if she can be saved.

Bon Appetit

Sacré-Cœur

The second-most visited monument in Paris, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica is perched atop Montmartre, the highest point in the city. Visitors enjoy sweeping views of Paris from the basilica's steps. Sacré-Cœur was conceived on September 4, 1870, during a speech proclaiming the Third Republic, following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, which many viewed as divine penance for "a century of moral decline" since the French Revolution. Completed in 1914, Sacré-Cœur was dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a reaffirmation of Catholic devotion.

The Louvre

Don't visit on a Tuesday (it's closed), and don't stand in line at the main entrance. We made both of those mistakes, which limited our remaining three hours to a furious-paced Griswolding of the Sully and Denon wings.

I once read a Google review of the Louvre titled, An Embarrassment of Riches. I can't beat that. At times, you may feel like a Jacobin creeping into the palace of nobles just beheaded to find their treasures untouched. Lost in labyrinthine corridors, we looped back, looked left, and paused: "Oh look: Venus de Milo" I say to my wife.

Just as casually, we turn a corner, and enter a vast room where a sea of people raise their smartphones to capture the world's most famous smile, La Joconde: the Mona Lisa.

Lunch at L'Arpège

Alain Passard's ode to vegetables has maintained three Michelin stars for twenty-three years. Our eleven-course Christmas dinner unfolded over four hours, featuring the bounty produced by Passard's own gardens, each with a unique terroir: Sarthe's sandy soil for growing carrots and leeks; the clay of Eure for cabbage and celeriac; and alluvia in Manche for aromatic herbs.

Saint-Clotilde

After a four-hour meal (and several glasses of wine), we walked around the 7th and stumbled onto a mini Notre Dame: the inspiring, twin-spired Eglise de Saint-Clotilde. Completed in 1857, the basilica is a reminder that there are more awe-inspiring churches in Paris than Michelin-starred restaurants...and that's saying something.

Window Shopping

Vol de Retour

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."