PARIS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 58, 9 March 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

PARIS

OP all cities of the world, the gay capital of France is probably first favourite "as a holiday town.

Travellers from all parts of Europe, from the British Isles, from the United States, and, indeed, from every part of the globe, seem to make a point of spending some time, however short, in Paris. Indeed, it has been eaid that if one only sat .long enough at one of the little cafe tables out on the footpath of the Place de I'Opera there, one would see every nation in the world pass by.

A3 wo emerge from the railway station after our trip from Switzerland, we look round for a taxi to take us to our hotel. Very soon we take our eeats, and the driver lets in his clutch with a mighty jerk, vnd we ars off like the wind. No grass grows under the tyres of the Paris taxi cab! As our chauffeur sweeps round the first corner, our hearts are in our mouths, for he appears to be taking the wrong eide of the road. There's a tram ahead, and another taxi, and . . . We shut our yes, and wait for the worst; but nothing happens, and as we open them again we realise that, after all, the right side of the road is the correct side of the road—except in our funny old British Empire.

Paris is the third city of the ■world in point of size. It has a population of eome three million people, and yet, since it is not really a great manufacturing city, it is not clouded with smoke and fog in the same way that many other cities are. From many points one can get wonderfully clear views across mile after mile of massive biiildings, from among which rise the domes and towers of many churches, and the delicate slender nese of the Eiffel Tower o rertops them all. And through che heart. of it all. the beautiful Eiver Seine winds its way, spanned by over thirty bridges.

Many parts of Paris carry with them memories of-dark days in the history of France." One of the greatest of the open spaces in the city is the Place de la Concorde, where, during the JJeign of Terror, the guillotine etood, and where Marie Antoinette and hundreds more were beheaded. Near it is the small "Place of Five Stones," where the foundations of a guillotine are still to be seen. From the Place de la Concorde, the most beautiful street in Paris, the Champs Elysees, leads up a gentle rise, between rows of fine business buildings, to the world-famous Arc de Triomphe,

built by Napoleon the First as a monument to the victories of the French Army. Through this arch, at the close of the Great War, rode the leaders of the Allied forces, headed by Marshal Joffre, with a guard of crippled soldiers.

Just under the Arc de Triomphe to-day is a grave which is honoured by the whole nation. Here lies the body of France's Unknown Soldier, and over him burns a flame which is never allowed to go out.

In the very heart of the most ancient portion of Paris, on a small island in the Seine, stands the grey stone cathedral of Notre Dame, famous as the abode of the Hunchback of Dumas' novel, as well as for its historical associations. It ie a beautiful building, rich with delicately carved i stone, and with windows of wonderful stained glass dating from the fifteenth century. And juet outside the cathedral is a litile bronze disc let into the pavement. It is rather fun to stand on this, for it is the centre of the capital, from which all distances in France are measured.

Speaking of churches, however,, it is worth our while to visit the Sainte Chapelle, a wonderfully beautiful church built by the saintly King Louis IX. to enshrine precious relics brought by him from the Holy Land. In this building, so great is the extent of tho splendid stained windows that there seems hardly any stone between them.

There are ecores of interesting sights to see in and around Paris, but we must leave them for the present; so let us'find a quiet hotel where "English is spoken," and retire to a well-earned rest.