Halloween in Paris

One of the best ways to explore Paris is on foot. Aside from the major touristic attractions, there are so many little alleys, and historic places that it is almost impossible to ever see all of them. But one can at least try. And since both the Mayor’s Office, as well as several other sites (for example Time Out Paris) offer walking tours to print out, nothing is cheaper, or easier.

            For Halloween, a friend and I decided to use Time Out Paris’ “Paris Walks the Purgatory” tour that leads on to some of the most famous places of the Revolution. And also some of the most gory. What do I mean by gory? Well, the tour for example leads you by the place where one of the revolutionists was first stabbed to death in his bad tub, to then mention quite casually that his rotting corpse was displayed in the city, so the people could see it. And that’s not the end of it. Apparently, the fella somehow lost an arm, so they just sewed on the arm of another dead body to make up for the loss. As I said, just the right walk for Helloween.

            Also, since I’m fascinated by the Revolution (as far as my interest in historical events goes, this is only superseded by my current fascination on the American Civil War – haven’t read that many history books in a long time), it was a fun way to explore Paris and learn more about the city’s history – and there’s a lot of it. The Revolution on its own has filled countless books. But then there’s also Paris in the Middle Ages, or, even further back, the Roman city of Lutetia – ruins from both historical periods can still be seen underneath the courtyard of Notre Dame, another fascinating way to spend an afternoon in the City of Lights. (Whenever I do something related to the history of Paris, I feel the urge to rush to Shakespeare and Company and buy Edward Rutherford’s Paris. But that will have to wait for the holidays.)

            So, of we went on this walk, and as I said, we both enjoyed it a lot. Also, when we were talking pictures of some of the marble badges commemorating the events, you could see Parisians turning around, and actively noticing the badges for once – which goes to show that living in Paris permanently probably takes some of the magic out of it. It happens in every city though. When I lived in Salzburg, I sometimes forgot how beautiful the city was – and how much history it had seen in its own right. It take going away and coming back to remember.

            Anyway, the one small defeat we had to accept was that we did not manage to do the whole tour. After four hours of walking and picking our way through small alleyways we’d never have entered otherwise, we hadn’t even covered half of the way. What we had achieved, however, as to arrive at Café Procope, close to the Pantheon.

 Now, Paris has its fair share of cafés famous for the people that used to go there, and the Procope is no exception, as it used to be visited by such divers men as Voltaire, Robespierre, Danton, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson even has a plaque dedicated to him in one of the rooms. 

So we decided to stop here and take refreshments in the form of a “café gourmand” – a cup of coffee and a dessert. The dessert we chose to share was “Pain Perdu” which neither of us had had before, and which turned out to be French Toast; or which it would have been, hadn’t they used a piece of fruitcake rather than old toast – quite a good idea in my opinion.

            Even though we did not manage to finish the tour – which would have lead all the way up to the Place de la Bastille where the famous prison used to stand – it was an enjoyable afternoon, and I have since done other walking tours – one following Hemingway around Paris for example, but that, as they say, is another story.