France - Paris - Montmartre - March 1970

  Pennie on the Stairs leading to Rue du Cardinal Duboise from Rue Feutrier and the Basilique, below today with the trees in leaf.

La Basilique du Sacre Coeur sur la Butte Montmarte, with David the only one about - bit different today from Google Maps.

 View from the top.

 The Funiculaire or the stairs?

 Rue Chappe with the stairs leading up to Rue Saint-Eleuthere and the Basilique clearly seen in at the back of this photo.  Same spot today from Google but with the trees in full leaf.

France - Paris - Buses - March 1970

 The Arch de Triomphe is just behind us in this photo, then today from Google Maps.

 Fiat Showroom on the Champes de'Elysee.

 David had, still has a passion for old buses, he's written 'Regie Autonome des Transports Parisiens.  R.A.T.P. Autobus.'

 On the bus to Montmartre.

France - Paris - The Louvre - March 1970

We spent at least two days visiting this wonderful Louvre, looking at it from Google reminds me why we needed more than one day and of course we didn't see it all.

View from the Louvre of the Pont de Tuileries.

Same bridge from the road outside the Louvre.

View of the Pont de Arts.

Musee du Louvre from Google, what an enormous building!

Venus de Milo.

Mona Lisa.

It was fascinating watching these artists reproducing some of these masterpieces.

France - Paris - Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe - March 1970

 I can't remember if we asked someone to take this photo or David put it on automatic, photos of us together are rare on these trips.  I couldn't find this same place on Google, it looks like a bridge but it might be somewhere higher up.

 Don't worry, the top bit isn't falling off, Google Maps does that sometimes.

 Wow... look at this, cars driving under the Eiffel Tower and check out that weird bus, it looks like someone has just plonked the top bit on for the day!

 Another Wow... look how many people are here!

 A typical David photo.

 When we were living in England in the late 70's we took off with the three children to see a bit of France.  We just wanted to see the country side, visit our friend Marie-Therese in the South of France and avoid the big cities but when we were driving around the outskirts of Paris, 4 year old Tomos saw a sign to Paris!   He wanted us to go to Paris, we did wonder why a 4 year old was being so insistent about visiting Paris so asked him why!
Babar the Elephant went to Paris... was the reply... so to Paris we went  :-)   I've just looked closely at his face in this photo, what a poo-face he has!  That was probably because we wouldn't pay the huge price to go up the tower!  Did Babar go up the tower, I will have to check :-)  we still have all the books upstairs.

Same spot from Google today.

 Arc de Triomphe and below from Google.

France - Paris - Notre Dame - March 1970

 Paris Metro - Porte de' Italie which was near the Youth Hostel we stayed in for four nights, on Boulevarde Kellerman.

 Notre Dame from the Pont Saint-Michel.

 Notre Dame.

 Much busier today from Google.

 There are a lot of people dressed in Pink in this photo from Google, must be a choir.

This is a Citroen, Ile de la Cite, so writes David.

Oh my gosh... there is still scaffolding in this same spot 41 years after we were there... different scaffolding so guess the original problem was solved.

I tried to find some modern Loos in Paris on Google but I think they must have been taken down.  It was very frustrating being a woman in Paris and other cities for that matter,  David could just pop in to one of these (actually I think those are his legs in there) when he wanted to go but we had to search and search for a Loo for me.  Just recently I was watching a show on TV about the beginning of Department Stores and one of their winning factors was that they put in a Ladies Room which meant Ladies didn't have to go home early to use the Loo!  Fascinating  :-)


Back on the Metro to the Youth Hostel after a busy and exciting day.