Varsovie

I just learned that the Trocadero Fountain at the Chaillot Palace, across the river from the Eiffel Tower, is more formally known as la Fontaine de Varsovie (the Warsaw Fountain), named for the Polish capital city. The intersection between the fountain and bridge across the river is named Place de Varsovie. I wonder if the name originates from the Universal Exposition of 1878? My exhaustive quick and dirty research didn't turn up any information to explain it.

I took this photo in the spring of 2009. Friends and I planned to go up into the tower, but it was closed because of a strike.

The current fountain dates from 1937, the original having been removed during the reconstruction of the Chaillot Palace and gardens in preparation for a special exposition that year. The fountain is big, and it's quite impressive when the water cannons are operating, which they're not in this photo (but you can see them in the lower right corner).

The view is quite popular from the terraces of the Chaillot Palace (behind me), across the fountain and the Pont d'Iéna to the Eiffel Tower, then along the Champs de Mars to the École Militaire and beyond to the Tour Montparnasse.

Zamansky

The Université de Pierre et Marie Curie is a modern university campus constructed in the 1960s close to the river in Paris' Fifth Arrondissement. It's built on the site of a former abbey (destroyed in the early 19th century) and the old Halle aux vins (the Paris Wine Market). The architecture of the main buildings is striking, typical of the modern influence, a rectangular grid of buildings set above a podium, with a 29-story tower punctuating the center.

The base of the Tour Zamansky, set at right angles to the rest of the campus, seen in 2011.

The tower is named for Marc Zamansky, a directing member of Paris' school of the sciences in the 1960s. I never knew the building by that name. Indeed, what I've read is that most Parisians call it the Tour de Jussieu (Jussieu Tower) or simply la tour (the tower). Jussieu is the name of a prominent family of research scientists and doctors who worked and taught at the university in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The tower was stripped down to it's steel skeleton between 2004 and 2009 to remove asbestos. Once renovated, it became home to the university's administrative offices.

Métropolitain

It's called the métro for short, but was originally conceived as the chemin de fer métropolitain (metropolitan railway), then officially known as the CMP (compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris, the Paris metropolitan railway company). Since 1949, it's been run by the RATP (Régie autonome des transports parisiens, the autonomous public transportation authority). I'm sure you were curious.

A southbound train pulls into the station early on a Friday afternoon. Not a very busy time of day for this station.

This station is on the number 12 line, which runs between Front Populaire on the north side of the city to the Mairie d'Issy on the south side. The northern endpoint used to be at Porte de la Chapelle, as many of us old-timers will remember, but the line was extended in 2012. Another extension is planned for 2019 further north to the Mairie d'Aubervilliers. This station, Assemblée Nationale, is right smack in the middle of the city on the left bank.

The system currently has 16 lines operating with four more planned, along with numerous line extensions. There are over 300 stations in the system. The métro is the central part of a sprawling regional transit network that includes suburban rail lines that connect to the center city (the RER), light rail lines in the inner suburbs (les tramways), and city buses (les autobus).

I got most of the technical information in this post from the Wikpedia entry for the métro. And, if you didn't know, I spent much of my professional career in public transportation and am somewhat of a transit nerd. I could go on (and on) about the métro system, but I will spare you that.

Montmartre

Here's a not-so-good shot of the basilica of Sacré-Cœur in Paris. I was inside the Pompidou Center, 3.5 kilometers away, taking the photo with the camera's zoom fully extended. The church sits at the top of the Butte Montmartre in the famous northern Paris neighborhood of the same name.

Le basilique du Sacré-Cœur, seen from the Centre Pompidou in 2011.

The church was built between 1875 and 1923 on the hill, the highest point in Paris, where there had previously been numerous windmills used to grind grain, corn, plaster, and stone. The well-known Moulin-Rouge (red windmill) cabaret, just down the hill in Pigalle, harkens back to those days.

Cité

On the left side of the image is the Ile de la Cité in Paris, with the spire of the Sainte Chappelle and the bell towers of Notre Dame de Paris clearly identifiable. On the right side is the Left Bank (ha!) where you see the dome of the Institut de France, home of the famed Academie Française.

Cité is the center of Paris. Tour boats carry thousands of visitors each day. Photo from September 2011.

The Left and Right Banks of the Seine are so-called because, when you face downstream (behind me in the photo), the Left Bank is on your left and the Right Bank is, well, on your right. Cité is one of two islands in this section of the river, an agglomeration of several small islands and the location of the first settlements that became the city of Paris. When the Romans took over the settlement in the first century BC, they built their new town on the Left Bank just opposite the islands. Vestiges of the Roman city, called Lutetia or Lutèce, are still visible today.

Eiffel

The wind picked up over night and is gusting rather strongly this morning. According to the forecast, it should calm down during the day, but pick up again tonight. Joy. Except for taking Tasha out, we'll probably stay hunkered down in the house today.

Gustav's tower on a sunny September afternoon, 2011.

We'll eat leftovers, of course. The turkey dinner was a great success yesterday. The turkey was moist and tasty, the stuffing was delicious, the sprouts perfect, the squash very squashy. We even had cranberry sauce that I made by re-hydrating dried cranberries (the only kind we can find here). I whizzed them in the food processor with a whole navel orange and some sugar. And there is more of everything left. We're planning to turn the turkey bones into broth for a pumpkin soup later this week. Now it's time to plan the New Year's festivities.

Concorde

This is Place de la Concorde in Paris, a very busy square, traffic-wise. It's the place where Louis XVI was beheaded back in the 18th century, when it was called Place de la Révolution. Here is where the Tuileries Gardens are connected to the Champs-Elysées. The US embassy is just outside the photo to the left. The rue Royale connects Concorde to the Madeleine church (in the background) where Johnny Hallyday's funeral was held earlier this month.

Place de la Concorde, looking north. These cars are headed for a bridge over the Seine, at my back.

Today will be a quiet day as many French people were up well past midnight for the Réveillon de noël, the traditional celebration of Christmas. They have their big gatherings and feasts late on Christmas Eve and into the wee hours, then sleep it off on Christmas morning. I got up last night around 01h00 and noticed our neighbor's lights still on, and somebody leaving in a car.

Ken and I don't stay up that late, especially to eat a big meal, so we will have our traditional American style Christmas dinner today, mid-day. We'll start out with either snails or foie gras (haven't decided yet). Then it's a roasted turkey, stuffing (with chicken livers, chestnuts, and figs), some Brussels sprouts, and other goodies. I'll make a pumpkin pie for dessert.

Whatever your plans, enjoy the day!