Planning aside, sometimes I simply stumble upon some things that capture my interest, without having it planned. In this installment of Besides le Louvre, Versailles and la Tour Eiffel, I will talk about two of such places – Chateau de Vincennes and Jeu de Paume.

Chateau de Vincennes

I was staying in a hostel in the 12me arrondissement, in a north-eastern corner of the city. It was the first day of the public transport workers’ strike and I had to arrange my activities so that I did not have to rely much on public transportation. The city of Vincennes happened to be just within walking distance from where I stayed in the 12me arrondissement. That became a natural choice for me to spend my afternoon.

In the compounds of Chateau de Vincennes were several buildings built over the course of a few centuries by the kings of those eras. It was first built in the 14th century and more buildings were added to it by the later kings. The buildings were originally the residence of royalties. In the later years, parts of them were used to hold prisoners.

A remarkable building at Chateau de Vincennes is its donjon, a fortified medieval tower. It consists of a 8-storey high tower, where Charles V, King of France in the late 14th century, resided and had his office housed. The building is well-restored and the thing I like about visiting historical buildings like this is that it ignites my imagination, getting me started to try visualise how a person’s life is like hundreds of years ago.

The donjon is one of the buildings – the oldest – in the compounds of Chateau de Vincennes. It is made up of a tower and its fortified walls.

The donjon’s tower, at 50 m high, is the tallest medieval building of its kind that remains in Europe.

In the days of King Charles V, the doors (only one is visible here) on the ground floor of the donjon’s tower were not present. Access to the tower was through the bridge, which led to a door on the 1st floor. A flight of steps brought (and it still does) the visitor up the first level of the fortified wall of the donjon to access this bridge.

Photographs of the painted interior decor of King Charles V’s quarters in the donjon.

A wide spiral staircase in the donjon. I believe these were the stairs the king used to move between his bedroom and his office, which were housed in different levels of the donjon.

The donjon was used as a prison in the 17th and 18th centuries. This room was used to house prisoners. The paintings on the walls are works of the prisoner who was imprisoned here.

More information is available at the chateau’s website.

Jeu du paume

I was not aware of the existence of this place and only came across it by chance and stepped into it out of curiosity. I noticed this little building at the northwestern corner of the Tuileries as I stepped out of the metro at Place de la Concorde. My original plan was to walk across the river to visit the Musée d’Orsay, but the interesting name of this place caught my attention.

Literally, “jeu du paume” means “a game of palm”. It was a game similar to tennis that was played in France and we can think of it as the “ancestor” of tennis. So, what is there in a place with such a name, which sits in a royal garden in front of the Louvre? It was curiosity that prompted me to walk over and take a look.

Jeu du Paume is a gallery, or some may call it a museum. Its role is to promote photography and mechanical or electronic images and is a key venue for exhibitions of this nature. The building in the Tuileries is one of its two venues in Paris. This building was constructed by Napoléon III as a jeu du paume court. It later became an exhibition hall in 1909. In 1922, major works to the building transformed it to a museum that housed permanent art works. In 1987, the interior of the building was remodeled and the Jeu de Paume that we know today was inaugurated in 1991.

When I was there, they had the photographic works of Edward Steichen on exhibit. Walking through the exhibition hall was an interesting journey, which brought me through the different stages of Steichen’s career. The subjects of Steichen’s works varied widely, given the different appointments he has held throughout his career. He was involved, as photographer, in both World Wars, in between which, he has also served as chief photographer of Vogue and Vanity Fair and made commercial photos for an advertising agency. His last appointment before retirement was Director of Photography at New York’s MoMA.

The exhibits on Steichen will run until the end of 2007. More information on Jeu du Paume can be found on its website.

There are many museums and galleries in Paris, many of them of good quality. What I got out of the unplanned visits like mine left me with a deep sense of satisfaction.

These are just some of the iconic Parisian attractions. They certainly have plenty to offer to visitors, but they definitely do not set the limits to what can be discovered during a visit to Paris. For my recent trip to Paris, my plan was to visit two neighbouring cities – Chartres and Fontainebleau.

Chartres

I was there, in this city 96 km southwest of Paris, a couple of years back. This historical town is known for its well-preserved Gothic cathedral, la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, dating back to the medieval days, and which today dominates the skyline of Chartres.

I left the city after my first visit with regret, the reason being that I could not capture the beautiful stained glass in the cathedral on film, for I was too lazy to carry my tripod with me and left it in my Paris hostel. This was the main reason for my return.

Apart from the cathedral, Chartres also boasts a well-preserved old town. A walking tour in the old town brings one in front of numerous houses built in the Middle Ages. The oldest house in Chartres dates back to the 12th century. Bridges, wash houses and water mills from the olden days are still present in today’s old town.

Chartres has its own delicacies, which visitors can purchase from the local artisan confectioners. Among them are the macaroons and the mentchikoffs that satisfy my sweet tooth so well. The latter is a sort of chocolate praline covered with meringue, which is a white, crispy shell made from beaten egg whites.

Plenty of information is available from the website of Chartres’ tourism office.

Fontainebleau

My original plans were to visit Fontainebleau’s chateau and to have a hike in its vast forests. The chateau of Fontainebleau has served the monarchs of France for more than 700 years. The kings and emperors who have used and restored the chateau include Louis XIV and Napoleon. I heard the city mentioned several times by different French teachers of mine and I thought I ought to visit it when I get a chance to.

My visit to Fontainebleau turned out to be not like what I had originally planned for it to be. I ended up visiting the campus of a renowned educational institution over there. That was on a day where the Parisian rail workers were still on strike. Despite the strike that badly affected train schedules on some Parisian lines, I managed to make my way to this city about 80 km southeast of Paris.

I did catch a glimpse of the chateau, and had wanted to return the following day. However, seeing that train services was not going to improve much the next day in light of the strike, I decided to put away my plans. I believe I will get a chance to go there again.

Website of Fontainebleau’s tourism office.

I flew into Paris via Frankfurt, which was where I went through the immigration checks. Here is an excerpt of the exchange I had with the immigration officer.

Yours truly: (Handed over my passport) Guten Morgen!

Immigration officer: (Removed the boarding pass that was in between the pages of my passport and threw a glance on it) Ah! Nach Paris! What are you doing in Paris?

Yours truly: Well, I’m there for business!

Immigration officer: Be careful, when you are in Paris. They call it “the city of love”, you know…

Yours truly: (Trying to play along with the humour while still feeling very tired from the overnight flight) Hahaha…

Paris is indeed known by many to be a romantic city. In fact, that was the very word used by my colleague when he tried to describe his impression of the city.

While I like the character of the city and I savour every moment when I walk down a parisien street, the romantic theory does not have much effect on me. You do not need to go to Paris to feel romantic, I feel.

I have openly declared my fondness of Paris and being in Paris. It is an alluring city. I have just one complaint about the city – her tourists. There are so many of them, and it only goes to say that Paris is living up to her name of the most visited city in the world.

We see already a few of them behind the Notre Dame.

There a plenty more of them, walking along l’Avenue des Champs Elysées.

Hordes of them choking up the street right at the foot of the hill where the Basilique du Sacré Coeur is.

And I could not believe my eyes when I saw an entire congregation sitting right in front of the Basilique itself.

It turned out that a wine harvest festival was held around the Basilique that day, which probably explains why there were so many people.

These observations were made at places that are meant to be tourist attractions. So I perhaps should not complain so much since it was me who chose to revisit these places. I should have been prepared for what to expect.

On the contrary, I should be happy that in the madness of the crowd, I was still able to capture some instances of still beauty and human concentration.

A street artist working on a portrait for his customer by the river Seine.

Colourful paintings for sale at one of those street-side stores along the Seine, just north of the Quartier Latin.

I am very particular about restrooms, especially those public ones. I like them to be clean, and I suppose so does everyone else.

When I am out at a place where the state of the restrooms does not have a good reputation, I would avoid going to them as far as possible. For instance, I would try to find another restroom that is more acceptable by my standard, and hopefully not too far away, where possible.

We have all seen our fair share of restrooms, lavatories, or anything that is improvised to serve the means of that nature as we travel to different countries. If I am in the mountains where it takes just a huge rock or some bushes to answer nature’s call, so be it. Or if I am in some places where the restroom cubicles with no doors are just separated by walls that are knee-high, so be it.

Or if, worst of all, when having to do my business in the middle of a journey in the middle of nowhere, I have to bear with flies that are patronising someone else’s bodily excretion left around before me and at the same time avoid losing my footing over it, again, so be it. There are situations where you know there are no better options and you tell yourself, “Just do it,” and you do not even want to take a deep breath or close your eyes before telling yourself so, for fear that you may step on something you do not intend to with your eyes closed.

In a more civilised environment, my expectations on sanitary facilities would naturally be set higher. For instance, in Singapore, I avoid calling on restrooms in coffee shops and hawker centres. I do not rank them highly on my list of “destinations with a pro-business environment”. I know that I can find better ones around.

Today in Paris, I came across the mother of all public restrooms. The address is 26 Avenue des Champs Elysees. Take a look. Can you guess where was this picture taken?

Yes, it was in the restroom, but WHERE in the restroom?

The answer: the cubicle. These shelves were facing the cubicle’s door and they would be what you would see when you head straight into the cubicle.

Before you enter the restroom, the sign at the entrance to the restroom facility announces that you have arrived at the “cleanest toilets in the city”. This was probably true. A pleasant aroma welcomes you once you enter the facility, and I mean it when I said “pleasant aroma”. It smelled of some aroma therapy oil, the kind that they use in spas, and not the kind of air fresheners that smell of antiseptic used to drown out whatever odour that is coming from inside the facility.

A young man greets you behind a counter and asks you the type of facility you wish to use – lavatory, a room to put on your make-up, a place to change your baby’s nappies, and I cannot remember what else they had. Oh yes, it was a young man at the counter and not an auntie who collects 20 cents from you and reluctantly hands over to you a few folds of toilet paper.

Speaking of toilet paper, they had plenty in that little space next to the counter where the young man was seated. They came in different colours and even different patterns and each roll was neatly arranged on shelves placed against the wall behind the young man as well as the other wall facing him. Obviously, the way they were arranged on the shelves was meant for them to be displayed.

There were a couple of other shelves that held items other than the rolls of toilet paper, such as toilet paper stands, toilet brushes and other bathroom items. It turned out that this was a bathroom boutique of some sort. The rolls of fanciful toilet paper were for sale. The price of a roll? Several Euros. I am very bad at remembering numbers and I cannot recall exactly how many Euros each roll cost. However, I did remember that the price of each roll was enough for me to conclude that I would not want to pay that money just to have my toilet paper be black or red in colour, or to have a checkered print.

Using that restroom was a pleasant experience. It was just like going to a nice and clean restroom in a 4 or 5-star hotel. Who would want to complain about a restroom when it is nice, clean and has a stock of supplies you need, such as paper and soap? Using it did come with a price, though – 1.50 Euros. Imagine this, given that some people already scream when they are charged 0.50 Euro to use the bathroom elsewhere in town.

Well, there are restrooms that you may want to avoid for various different reasons. However, sometimes looking for another option is simply not an option. You know what I mean.

No one sentence can describe my fondness of being in France. I have been there three times, if my memory does not fail me. I am going back again, this weekend, to Paris.

There are places in this world where I have definitely spent more time living in, but when it comes to France, there is this thing in her and this other thing reciprocating in me that makes me feel SO at home when I am there. Whenever I am visiting, I do not feel like a visitor. The feeling is not quite like going to a place called home yet, but I feel as if I am going to a familiar place, even though some of these places can be completely new to me.

Maybe a lot of it has got to do with me having spent half a year there, at a stage of my life when an experience like this has the capacity to set the course of my mind. Maybe it is that desire back then to want to live in this country for a couple of years some time in the future. I think, today, this desire has become a wish, hidden somewhere deep within me, making me look forward to every opportunity to go to France.

Perhaps the other reason is that I have been so in tune with things that are French that it makes me take offense if I am given the label of “a typical foreign tourist” in France. For somebody whose life has absolutely nothing to do with French, and with that I mean not living in France, not having to work conversing in French and not being married to a French, I do see myself not as an average tourist – with the kind of French I speak, the French current affairs that I follow and the bits of knowledge on the country that I have gleaned over the years.

Fine, I know part of this could be an ego thing. However I explain it, going to France to me is not simply a matter of “going” to France. It is, rather, closer to the lines of “going back” to France, except that this “going back” is different from how a native person from France would go back there after being in another country.

This time, I am “going back” to Paris. Paris – a city that always makes me go “Oooh! Paris…” at the thought of every prospect of going there. I am really looking forward to this trip.