The History of Paris

As a history enjoyer, a major challenge when planning a 2,000 kilometre trip across Central and Western Europe is deciding exactly which sites and sights are worth visiting. For instance, in the courtyard of a medieval church in Paris (now a public park with a view of Notre Dame) is a large, flat stone which used to be part of the pavings of the Roman road back in the days of Lutetia. When you are sitting in a twenty year old house in Australia that sounds really fascinating. But if you've just come from a walking tour of Palatine Hill in Rome, it's far less impressive.

Even such obscure Parisian landmarks such as the oldest house, with its exposed timber frame, are less meaningful after a visit to a town like Colmar and its cobblestone streets that are lined end to end with buildings from a century earlier.

The fact is, you can cover kilometres and plan meticulously, but you can't travel through time. The Pantheon in Rome might be over 2000 years old, but it's not possible to see it as both a pagan temple, a Catholic sanctuary, and its current, restored form. Which is annoying, because I really want to.

The Latin quarter of Paris in the nineteenth century might have been the epicentre of nightlife, culture and innovation, but nowhere in 2023 will let me experience a night there with the same vibe. And even if they do invent time travel and I become fluent in French, I'll never be able to do something about my Australian accent.

So at some point, immersing yourself in history becomes a choice between chasing the sensations of the past through proximity and crumbling marble, and just reading books on the subject in Adelaide. Or a balance in between.

Europe has plenty more to offer than history and photo opportunities, like cheap supermarket beers, great hikes and baked goods. It should be possible to enjoy it without the pressure of gaining a greater understanding of the Western civilization canon. And there are free walking tours that will cover 75% of what you can possibly memorise through books before travelling while also maintaining a 9-5 IT job.

At the same time, a non-superficial understanding of the history of a city does help with finding the right Airbnb location. In the same way that learning the basics of a language might help you get a new bottle of conditioner from the hotel room service. Travelling can be a conversation between yourself and a location. Knowing what a city has been through can break the ice.

But if you really want to intimately understand somewhere you're probably going to want to stay there a month so that you can justify the years of study you needed to do in order to get the context as it applies to the past three millenia. That's definitely the case for Paris and Rome, but I wouldn't rule out anywhere in Europe for a lack of yore.

But Europe also has an opportunity cost, with cities so diverse from each other only a short train ride apart. So what can you do with your time, really?

After another pleasant visit to Luxembourg Gardens for breakfast, we were then turned away from the Pantheon as whatever incident they were facing entered a second day.

That was sad, but the crypt under Notre Dame was open and not very busy in contrast to the huge crowd of tourists above ground posing for selfies in front of the cathedral and its scaffolding.

This museum was quite small, and I learned about the former Roman baths that were on the site, as well as the apparent former shoreline of the island. It definitely wasn't as good as time travel, but there was a cool computer simulation that helped with visualising things.

Bocce players not featured.

Next step on our quest to maximise the Paris Museum Pass was the Concierge, a former palace slash prison with an interactive iPad tour that described both.

That experience was much better than the Louvre's guide, and you certainly left with a connected feeling to the time of the terror, having spent your moment in the former cell of Marie Antoinette, who spent far more than a moment in it herself.

From there, and after another kebab in another city park, we entered Musée Carnavalet. Once again, this was an institution that was an attraction in its own right. Originally the mansion Hôtel Carnavalet was converted into a museum when Hausman was doing his thing on the streets of Paris. And once they ran out of room the Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau next door was annexed to join the fun.

The restaurant in the courtyard of Musée Carnavalet

Musée Carnavalet in Paris is a museum about... Paris. Once again, this sounded amazing in Adelaide. Having consumed a mini-library of Paris content after booking my flights, attending a logical, physical catalogue of so much of what I'd covered was naturally enticing. And I do give this museum five stars in providing a comprehensive history of Paris. The first few rooms contain an archive of physical street and shop signs, for example, and each gives you a glimpse of a moment, a life, a transaction between two Parisians and it's awesome. But then you go downstairs and start the history lesson from the old, bark canoes and stone tools uncovered from prehistoric Parisians and realise you're going to be working your way up to modern day and your feet immediately start screaming. Because Paris is unto itself a museum of Paris and there is only so much content you can absorb in seven days. Also there were way too many exhibits of antique furniture and wallpaper. My advice for Musée Carnavalet is the same as it is for Les Invalides, the Louvre and many other Paris institutions - dedicate an entire day to it. Ideally a day inside a month that you are in Paris but otherwise not going to museums.

However, this model of the Bastille was the perfect size to go in the garden. If only I could find it on eBay.

After the museum we took a break for coffee before riding the metro north to Montmartre. Here we combined further history with even more stairs. Getting out of the metro station by foot was like climbing Giotto's Bell Tower, with a bit less claustrophobia. Then there were more stairs up to Sacré-Coeur, and even more to reach the viewpoint on the dome. It was another good sight though. The inside of the cathedral was also impressive, but I didn't take any photos there. I was sorely tempted to take at least a snap of one of the "No Cameras, No Phones" signs and the many other tourists next to it waving around iPads filming.

Looking out from Montmartre

We then took a walking tour of the Montmartre area for even more history, covering third century Christian martyrs and twentieth century famous artists. There is a lot going on in Paris. And I love it, but it's tiring. Sometimes this week it has felt like it would be better to travel somewhere with histories that no one knows for sure. I don't want to trade Paris for that. But next time, that's probably what we should do. Maybe there I would actually feel like I'm on holiday.

St Denis was killed around ~250 AD for his beliefs.

The St. Denis Gate, a fragment remaining of the medieval city's walls, gives a different view of the martyr. Passing drivers don't seem to register the historical significance of this.