The Long Sunday Stroll

Have Shoes, Will Travel
I certainly didn't leave the house intending to walk five and a half miles, but that's what happened. I was on the way to top-up my metrocard at Les Halles and I took a right on rue St. Denis because it was blocked off from traffic - which I like. It was a beautiful, sunny day which made for good picture taking. This is a shot looking north up rue St. Denis at the Porte St. Denis.

Porte St. Denis was built by Louis the 14th in the 1670's to celebrate his various victories. It's the model upon which the more famous Arc de Triomphe was based. It's also the model for the arches that support the Manhattan bridge in New York, believe it or not. I wish you'd been there with me as I walked rue St. Denis - what I didn't know is that it's some kind of "ladies of the night" alley. Even on a sunny Sunday morning, a few were still out showing their stuff. Looked to be the 3rd or 4th shift - these ladies weren't the most attractive. If you click on this photo, you can see the birds flying through the arch.

Funny enough, I keep running into Sainte Foy. On Armand's behalf (Foy is his last name) I finally looked it up. It means "Saint Faith" or "Holy Faith" as in Christianity. It's the same thing as Santa Fe, the Spanish equivalent.

St. Denis leads to a "grand boulevard", in this case Bonne Nouvelle, which turns into Boulevard Haussman as it nears the Arc de Triomphe, miles away. I liked how this super-skinny apartment looked against the sky.

I turned off Bonne Nouvelle onto a smaller street because I liked the building in the distance.

It turned out to be the Eglise St. Vincent de Paul. I crossed rue Lafayette, walked up the stairs and sat in the sun for a bit. A woman was training her sheep dog on the stairs, as strange as that sounds. The dog wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a good shot.

Further along, near Gard du Nord - the immense train station, I found an unexpected neighborhood. The writing looked familiar to me from Singapore - I was now in a Tamil neighborhood. There were all kinds of restaurants and stores specializing in southern Indian and Sri Lankan fare. I made a mental note - I will come back for some food here.

The neighborhood is known as "La Chappelle." Puffin, you can guess why I took this shot... No idea what a Singapore Silk Point store is, do you? I continued west to Sacre Coeur, and then south on rue Des Martyrs, one of my favorite food blocks. I bought a baguette at a famous patisserie and some Spanish clementines before heading home.

I made a map out of my walk. If you click on the various icons, you will get more info. The starting point is the man in the lower right corner of the map. Enjoy.