No, I am not taking holiday to
France at the moment. I’m writing this post for
#ParisInJuly2023 on my office’s computer, having arrived at
the office 30 minutes earlier. But what about the walk in Paris, then? Do you
know that a
virtual walk in Paris exists? I have found this YouTube channel
last year:
A Walk in Paris. It's basically videos where a Parisian takes a walk
around certain area (different route every time) of Paris. What I love
about this channel is that the guy just walks and never talks; it feels like taking
a stroll with a friend, agreeing that we’ll leave the other alone along the
way. It enables me to be transported to Paris (albeit virtually), soaking up
the atmosphere, the buzz, the scenes, snippets of conversations in French (and English) every
now and then, while curling up in my bed, inside my air-conditioned bedroom on
a hot July afternoon!
Last weekend I was taking a stroll around
Montmartre in 18
th
arrondissement. I loved this area - I remember walking up the hill alone on a
beautiful morning, when I visited Paris 23 years ago. I was too early back then,
the shops are still closed, but I could still feel the atmosphere, even today!
Our 1 hour 18 minutes walk is started from
Moulin Rouge at Place Blanche. We
took the Rue Lepic route to Place Anne Marie Carriere - I
❤
this picturesque place! Then we walked on Rue des Abesses, till we passed Êglise Saint Jean de Montmartre.
Next we arrived at a small garden,
where I found a blue wall full of murals. It's
Le Mur des Je t'aime! (Wall of
Love). Apparently it "
was created in 2000 by artists Fédéric Baron and
Claire Kito and is composed of 612 tiles of enamelled lava, on which
the phrase 'I love you' is featured 311 times in 250 languages" (Wikipedia).
I wonder whether there's an Indonesian version, and what it looks like! A street musician with quite a
decent voice is performing near there. We stopped for a few minutes to watch -
I pictured myself throwing some coins; the music did cheered me up!
We got on through Rue la
Vieuville, at the end of which we climbed a set of stairs, which brought us up
- a bit panting - to Rue Drevet. After lingering for few minutes, we turned
left to Rue Gabrielle. At the corner I saw a cafe with coffee-colored awning
called Les Rendez-Vous des Amis - a proper name for a warm-looking cafe, non?
At the corner of Rue Ravignan we
heard some noisy music, which came from a bar called Bar chez Camille. But
along the narrow road, the voices faded to a silence, and I could even hear
birds tweeting. Then I saw the first of the famous green
Wallace Fountains I've
ever seen! It really looks beautiful. If you're not familiar with these
fountains, here's
some interesting article for you.
Our next route is Rue de
L'Abreuvoir. If you look up the roof top of the buildings, you'd see the top
dome of Basilique du Sacré Coeur hovering in a distant! But don't stop for too
long, because down the road you'll find a picturesque pink mansionette in the
corner - aha! It must be the famous
La Maison Rose, whose pictures I have seen
so often on the internet, now I see it with my own eyes! - well, through a
video, but still! I'm glad we spent quite a while here, admiring the gorgeous
ancient building from every angle. Here's a
little history of La Maison Rose.
Not far from there, at Rue de
Saules, another colorful scenery came suddenly onto my sight. We have arrived
at the
Galerie d'Art Céramique, where you can buy, or just sight-see, handmade
ceramic items with bright colors. Some of these ceramics are hung on the
outside wall, providing quite an attraction in itself. I promised myself that if one day I should come to Paris again, I'd stop by this place - and I bet I won't leave it empty handed!
But we didn't buy anything this time :D.
Continuing our walks, we passed another famous landmark: Le Consulat
restaurant, which was, unfortunately, closed when we're passing there - not that we planned to eat anyway. Just around the corner, there's
Place du Tertre. A small square, but
crowded with cafes and tourists. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to admire
the artists' paintings, as we must soon continue our walk along Rue du
Chevalier de la Barre until we arrived at our last destination:
Basilique du
Sacré Coeur! Strangely, the nearer we were to the vicinity, the atmosphere began to change. There's a solemn hush that you usually feel around churches.
A wave of nostalgia burst inside
my heart, as I could see myself twenty-three years ago at the same place. There
on those steps I had met a couple of middle-aged respectable tourists who took
my pictures using my camera (how I worried that they would run away with it,
but no... my instinct told me they are nice people). All those memories came
back to me, and as our walk ended, I asked myself: Will I ever come back to
Paris some day? I don't know. I wish to, but for now, let me just take a
(virtual) walk in Paris.
C’est tout pour le moment, mes chers amis! Next weekend I’ll take
another walk in Paris, but not sure to which area, I’ll tell you more on my
next update. Until then…
à bientôt!
