Skating Anyone?
Read about our family ski trip to
Ste Foy Tarentaise,
December 2012
Paris December 19-20 2012
Skating outdoors in the middle of Paris sounds like
a great idea! It was Wednesday and the boys were off school. There was an
article in the Ottawa Citizen Travel section on Xmas in Paris, highlighting
outdoor skating rinks in the city. Erica suggested we go to the rink at the
Place de la Concorde, near the Louvre. We got there easily on the Metro and
found a narrow ribbon of ice in terrible condition, snaking around the park
behind a series of Christmas market stalls. Paris was experiencing a very
warm Christmas season; no snow and temperatures above 10˚ C, not ideal for
maintaining artificial ice. Much to the boys disappointment we rejected the
idea of paying to skate on ice that was likely to trip us all up. The
alternate was a ride on the large Ferris wheel across the busy Place de la
Concorde. Roman dragged his feet trying to persuade us to return to the
rink. Bribed with a bottle of water and the promise of skating in the
afternoon at an indoor rink the family had visited the previous weekend, he
agreed to try out the Ferris wheel. Both boys were soon charmed by the view
from our bubble covered chair. We had three tries identifying the familiar
buildings as we circled high above the street.
After lunch back at the apartment, we set out
to go to an
indoor rink in the Boulogne, a nearby suburb. We chose to take advantage of
an Autolib’ electric car, conveniently located close to the apartment,
rather than transfer twice on the Metro. Paris has branched out from renting
bicycles to electric cars. Erica had an annual pass, which meant she is
charged 5€ for each half hour, rather than pay 7€ for each half hour of use
on top off a one-time fee of 10€. You drive to your destination, park the
car and when you are ready to leave, you check for the nearest available car
on your iPhone App. The cost turned out to be less expensive than buying
Metro tickets for the five of us as you just pay for the time actually
driving. We all piled into one of the tiny cars, emblazoned with “libre
comme l’aire” (free as the air) on the car doors. The cars are only built
for 4 passengers so the two boys shared one back seat and the seat belt for
the trip. They are still small enough for it to be comfortable, even if it
not up to North American safety standards. It took about ½ hour to reach the
rink. The entrance fee included skate rental and helmets and, after
exchanging the rental skates several times to get the right size, we made
our way onto the ice. There were several skaters of all ages on the rink but
it wasn’t too crowded. Several young children were there for lessons with
young instructors. The rest of the skaters just enjoyed themselves circling
the rink.
It
took Roman more time than Atticus to feel confident enough to skate on his
own but we all had a good time. We got another car from the Autolib’ stand
and after waiting at least 15 minutes unsuccessfully trying to enter the
main road, Erica backtracked and took another route.
The boys went back to school Thursday so Erica, Ray
and I were free to visit another of Paris’s tourist attractions. One of the
bridge players in Ottawa raved about the “war museum” in Paris. Erica said
it was actually in Les Invalides, formally known as L’Hôtel National des
Invalides, near where she works. The building is one of the architectural
landmarks in Paris, with it wedding cake gold dome of the chapel, inspired
by St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, shining above the surrounding buildings.
Louis XIV established a military hospital and old age home on the site in
1670. It now incorporates the graves of Napoleon and several other military
notables as well as a military church and several museums. The dome itself
was the inspiration for the American Capital, San Francisco City Hall and
the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
We focused on a special exhibit of pocket
handkerchiefs, designed with illustrations and handy hints for the military
forces. The luxury goods company, Hermes, was one of the first suppliers of
handkerchiefs. Several of the examples came from their private collection.
Erica and I remembered our father/grandfather’s souvenir of his air force
days during WWII. He marked a few of his bombing raid routes on a
handkerchief map of France, Belgium and Germany. The kerchief is now framed
and in Erica’s possession.
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We didn’t
have the time or the inclination to visit all the museums in the complex. We
did visit one large room full of scale models of fortified locations as they
originally existed centuries ago paired with photographs of their current
state. We discovered we had visited several of the fortifications. We ended
our visit with a tour through the military chapel and a visit to the
mausoleum where Napoleon rested in the smallest of a series of coffins,
nestled like Russian dolls inside a huge red quartz esophagus. Napoleon had
lots of company. Almost all the French Marechals (military heads) and other
military notables from the 17th to the 20thcentury
shared space in the mausoleum.
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