Eighth & Final Day in Paris

A bit colder today, some rain about and overcast. We began the day with a light breakfast in our apartment then dressed in jackets and scarves and headed out for our last day in Paris. We didn't get very far ... Angelinas is just at the end and to the right of our street. Next to Angelinas is a French and English bookstore called Galignani which was incredible. Simon browsed through the bookstore while I waited for a table at Angelinas. Angelinas is a famous tea house created in 1903. It is most famous for "Chocolat L'Africain" which is melted chocolate (with a little hot water added) - it's quite thick - Simon had his with a spoon. We also shared a Choc Africain desert which was delicious. The hot chocolate was served with little pots of cream on the side - quite rich! Coco Chanel was a famous patron of this tea house enjoying a cup of L'Africain hot chocolate when needing time out from her work. Quite decadent really! The queue was out the door ... a famous Parisian treat.

Something else I learnt about dear Coco Chanel! She didn't like the Jews and did in fact have a liaison with Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage, an SS officer during WWII - charming! A new biography that has been published about her indicates that she was a collaborator and in fact, a spy for the Nazis.

What I found most interesting was regarding her fragrance, Channel No. 5 - Pierre and Paul Wertheimer (Jewish brothers), financed Parfums Chanel. In 1924, Chanel entered into an agreement that removed herself from involvement in all fragrance business operations, providing her with 10 percent of all French sales in exchange for licensing her name. During the Nazi occupation Jews were no longer able to hold business rights. Chanel tried to gain control of Parfums Chanel but the clever Jewish brothers had actually transferred ownership to a French businessman who transferred the rights back to the brothers after the war - very

smooth! Don't feel pity for Coco Chanel - after the war, the brothers renegotiated their agreement with Chanel to grant her two percent of worldwide perfume sales - she made $25 million in one year alone and the brothers agreed to pay her living expenses and requests, trivial or larger for the rest of her life!

We left Angelina’s and took a photo in front of Hotel de Maurice. This hotel was the headquarters of the German General Dietrich von Choltitzm who claimed after the war that Paris was standing thanks to the fact that he disregarded Hitler’s order to destroy the bridges and landmarks of Paris before retreating. He claimed he disregarded the order because Hitler was clearly insane at that stage of the war. Hitler rang Choltitz several times and asked “Is Paris burning?” French historians are skeptical of Choltitz’s claim, arguing that he could never have destroyed Paris with the troops he had as he was retreating and that he was just trying to garnish his war record after

the war and to avoid war crimes trials. Choltitz dies in 1966 sticking to his story to the end. There have even been movies made about Choltitz ignoring Hitler’s order and it has become accepted in the general consciousness, even if the French are loath to accept his version.

We walked to the Carousel de Louvre, the three-storey, below-ground shopping precinct under the Louvre. We visited Hertz to ensure our rental car was correctly booked for our drive to the Loire Valley tomorrow. They confirmed that all was in order.

We strolled towards Les Halles Shopping precinct, dropping in on

Palais Royale on the way. This latter building is yet another Royal Palace in Paris which Louis built for his prince regent. Les Halles is another below-ground shopping development that has a garden on ground level and then three levels of shops below ground. It is linked to the major train station called Les Halles-Chatelet. The shopping centre lacks taste in the midst of Paris. It doesn’t seem to fit. It’s like Tuggerah Westfield in the middle of chic Paris - not a good mix.

We further wandered through the streets until we reached Pompidou Centre, a modern art gallery in a building which pushes the architectural boundaries. The internals of a building are placed on the outside - the stairs, ramps, lifts, access walkways, and so on. It is so bizarre that it seems to fit in with the district it is built in.

We love Le Marais district so we wandered through these narrow streets again. This is a very Jewish area of town and we came across the Memorial de la Shoah, but being a Saturday, it was closed. We wandered down the the Seine and had some lunch.

We stumbled across the Hotel de Ville, the Paris town hall, another extraordinary building. In this building Robespierre was arrested by

his Revolutionary Comrades to be taken to the guillotine which he had so effectively wielded against his own enemies in his reign of terror in 1793. When he was being arrested in the Hotel de Ville, he tried to shoot himself but only managed to shoot his cheek off. The rest of his head was severed the following day by Madame Guillotine.

We walked across the bridge to Ile de St Louis, then over the bridge between the islands to Ile de la Cite, past Notre Dame, the Concergierie, the Palais de la Justice, and then to Place de la Dauphin.

We crossed over the Seine again towards the Louvre. We took a photo of the large Cathedral opposite the main entrance of the Louvre, Saint Germain de l’Auxerrois. This Cathedral is famous because its bells rang out at midnight on 24/25 August 1572 marking the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the commencement of the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, a day in which thousands of Protestants were massacred in Paris. Further massacres followed right around France, the total number of Protestants killed for their beliefs across the country estimated to be about 30,000.

We walked back to our apartment at about 4:00pm for a rest as we were meeting Sophie Aubury, the owner of the apartment we were staying in, at 6:30pm at a cafe near the Palais Royale.

At 6:15pm we left our apartment and met Sophie. We had a good chat for a couple of hours. We got on really well. We were so thankful, and a little guilty, that she had moved out of her home for a week to allow us to live in it while we were in Paris. It was greatly appreciated. We message her often now to keep her up with what we are doing.