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***image1***Paris is an interesting place – or rather interesting people built, painted, wrote, sculpted and designed interesting things there. The history of the city looms above and below – it surrounds you as you walk the streets.
A Parisian friend once told me you would need about three lifetimes to take in all the sights and truly grasp the importance the city has held for Europe.
Seemingly inconsequential things like Paris’ sewer systems were revolutionary in design and scope. When a population center grows and changes for more than 2,000 years, adapting to that growth is a feat of genius.
Many things about Paris amaze me. But every time I look at a map and see the island where Notre-Dame Cathedral sits, I am awed to think this is the very spot on which the city was founded.
Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements and are numbered in the order they were created. They spiral out of the center of the city.
***image2***So as the population grew, the city expanded – eventually growing right out beyond the old city walls into what were once farming fields. You can see all this by just comparing a map of present day Paris with one from a few hundred years ago.
On the east side of the city, on the hill of Champ l’Evêque, sits a 200-year-old cemetery. Père Lachaise was planned and built under the rule of Napoléon in 1803, and soon became “the place” for rich and famous Parisians to be laid to rest. Molière was re-buried there; Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Honoré de Balzac, Sarah Bernhardt and Frédéric Chopin are all buried there. It’s a relatively quiet place to walk.
There have been hundreds – maybe thousands – of books written on Paris. The point is, go witness the history and make your own experiences of this amazing city.
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