We've only got a day and a half to explore the city, so we were pretty much planning on sticking to the highlights. But with lots of walking, we would see other stuff along the way.
And, we had a project on the go. My dad was here 70 years ago in June 1954, and we wanted to match up some of his photos. Fortunately, most of them were taken at prime attractions that we wanted to see anyhow.
Ruth, Lindsey, and Sadie looking at the baked treats.
As expected, Paris has a lot of bakeries, pastry shops, and cafes.
Parisian neighbourhood butcher shop.
Making fresh croissants.
Scenery along the way.
Paris fashion in a store window.
The one on the left looks like she's wearing a carpet!
I saw a "viewpoint" marked on my map, so we headed over to see what there was to see. It turned out to be at the Terrace level of the big Galeries Lafayaette Department Store. But when we walked into the department store, we were wowed by the store itself...
It's pretty fancy.
Don't forget to look up!
As you can see, there is a platform up above that you can walk out on. It turned out to be free, but you have to sign up on a website and register for it, and it all seemed to complicated so we passed. Plus there was a line up.
Up at the platform level.
Zoomed in on the stained glass that decorates the dome.
Sure enough, at the 7th floor there is an outdoor terrace with a view. Obviously many people know about this attraction because it was pretty busy up there.
Paris Opera House with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
Zoomed in on the Eiffel Tower.
Interesting lamp posts.
The front of the Opera House.
The front of the Eglise de la Madeline Church.
My father took one of his photos while standing on the steps of this church looking the opposite way...
Paris 1954.
Standing at exactly the same spot in 2024.
Inside the church.
Church organ.
The pulpit.
Some of these photo match ups turned out to be a bit difficult. There is a lot of temporary construction going on due to the upcoming Paris Olympics, and it blocks the views that we were looking for. Especially at this spot...
Approximately the same spot in 2024.
We couldn't do any better than that due to the temporary fencing prohibiting us from getting to the same spot where my father would have stood.
There are now some beautiful fountains in the plaza that weren't there in 1954.
Paris 1954.
Paris 2024.
We walked through the park leading to the Louvre Art Gallery. And stopped at a bench to have some lunch that we had made ahead of time. As you can see from the photos so far, there was no sunshine and we were all actually a bit cold! High of about 13C (55F).
Mom and her babies.
Scenery along the way.
The Louvre 1954.
The Louvre 2024.
Nowadays, everybody stands on those concrete blocks to get their funny photo of the glass Pyramid.
Like this...
Sadie and the glass pyramid at the Louvre.
If you turn directly around from that spot, this is the photo my father took...
And this is what is there now...
From there, we walked along the river and then crossed the river over towards the Eiffel Tower.
Ruth, Lindsey, and Sadie.
Next photo matching opportunity...
Petit Palais 1954.
Same photo 70 years later!
The Seine River.
Can't get a normal photo with these three around!
Our next photo match up.
1954.
2024.
Scenery along the way.
We were all freezing, so I found the cheapest coffee shop I could find and Lindsey splurged on buying us each a hot chocolate at €5 ($5.35 USD, $7.35 CAD) each! At least it was really good hot chocolate!
Getting our hot chocolate.
Yummy!
And then it was off to the Eiffel Tower.
Looks like my dad had better weather for his visit in 1954!
A cloudy day in 2024!
We couldn't get to exactly the same spot my dad would have stood because of this...
Things are fenced off, once again because of the Olympics.
Ussie with the tower.
Crazy people.
Kevin and Ruth with the Eiffel Tower.
Lindsey and Sadie with the Eiffel Tower.
My dad has three more photos that were taken on the tower itself. We were going to go up, but a storm came in and they closed the upper level. So we took the bus back home, and we will try again this morning!
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Great shots and good matching up with the 1954 photos, despite all the temporary Olympic infrastructure in the way. Nice job anyway. Too bad about the dreary, chilly weather. We are hogging all the heat here in NC - it was 91F yesterday (crazy hot for early May)! Glad you all got to experience Paris, even briefly. It's nice that things haven't changed too much even in 70 years...the architecture still looks beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWe had fun once again trying to match up Kevin's father's pictures and overall there really weren't a lot of changes on those pictures but one of the ones Kevin took yesterday there was quite a change.
DeleteThe weather wasn't the best but at least the rain held off for the majority of the day so we were happy about that. We dressed a little warmer yesterday though. Yeah, 91F does sound hot for your area at this time of the year, it makes you wonder what the summer is going to be like?!
We really enjoy the match ups. So cool! Have fun!!
ReplyDeleteLol, we really enjoy the match ups too. They are always fun to do.
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