If you want a different experience of Paris then here is your chance. Hook up with the Paris Greeters who will provide a volunteer guide for free. The guides are Parisians who will show you their city as only a local can. The following is from the Paris Greeter website:

All our volunteer Greeters have a love of Paris and willingness to share with visitors it’s art, tradition and culture. We want visitors to feel they have not only seen Paris but have been given a true taste of Parisian life. Our Greeters are not professional tour guides but enthusiastic, friendly individuals with knowledge of Paris who will accompany you on a visit of the city, without charge, as a friend would.

Paris

This service is offered by the non-profit organisation Parisien d’un Jour, Parisien Toujours (Parisian for a day, Parisian forever) which is part of the Global Greeter Network operating in the following cities: New York, Chicago and Houston (US), Toronto (Canada), Fairbanks (Alaska), Melbourne and Adelaide (Australia), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Nantes (France).

Details

· Individuals or group to six people (including children);

· tour lasts 2-3 hours;

· book online using “Visit Request Form” one to two weeks in advance;

· must stay at least one night in Paris;

· subject to availability of volunteers.

www.parisgreeter.org

www.greeters-nantes.com

Gare de Lyon (Source: PTO Ruggeri)

We took the RER (suburban train system) from Bondy, changed trains at the Gare du Nord and arrived at the Gare du Lyon with time to spare. We were meeting Suzanne and Chris on the 7 a.m. TGV to Avignon. As we waited in the downstairs corridor for the platform number to come up on the screen, a man in a blue uniform pushing a sort of movable desk with the sign “accueil” (reception) written on it appeared. He had a huge grin on his face, the gleaming white teeth highlighted by his black skin.

When he launched into his soliloquy, every eye in the place was turned his way. He started speaking of what a wonderful day it was and that we should enjoy it to the full. He spoke of peace and love, harmony between people. We had no idea if this “guide” was real or a paid actor, but the spectacle was highly appreciated. A distraught woman looking for information about an impending departure tried to interrupt the speech, but was immediately made to understand she would have to wait the end of this unusual welcome. She huffed off looking for someone sane to answer her questions.

When the speaker was through, he opened his office for business and got on with the job of helping lost souls find their way – he was real after all! It was a hilarious start to the day and augured well for our journey. As we made our way to the platform, we came across the distraught lady still looking for information. If she had only been a little more patient. . .

Alienor (or Eleanor) of Aquitaine led an extraordinary life. Through an amazing turn of events, she became Queen of France and then later, Queen of England. She played a major role in the corridors of power of these two countries and has been blamed with starting an 800 year conflict between the English and the French.

Eleanor & Louis

Alienor was born in either 1120 or 1122, the oldest daughter of Guillaume IX, the last Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony, and Alienor of Chatellerault. The year 1137, when she was just 15, was tumultuous – her father was assassinated and she became Duchess of Aquitaine. An advisor to the monarchy instigated her marriage to the king’s youngest son, Louis le Jeune, aged 17. When her husband’s father, Louis VI le Gros was killed a few days after the wedding, Alienor found herself Queen of France.

In 1147, two years after the birth of her first daughter, Alienor took part in the second crusade alongside her husband. They crossed Europe and Anatolie by horse and the Mediterranean by boat. During the crusade, Alienor was suspected of having a good time with some of the knights who weren’t as dull as her husband. “I thought I was marrying a man, not a monk” she is supposed to have said.

This may be due to the fact that Louis VII was brought up at the St Denis Abbey as he was not normally destined to be king. However, in 1131 his older brother Phillipe was killed in a fall from his horse which was apparently spooked by pigs running about in the streets of Paris. As a consequence of the accident, pigs were no longer allowed to run wild in the streets. In any case, Louis VI had little taste for military affairs and couldn’t have been of great attraction to the young, headstrong Alienor.

On their return to France after the crusade, their marriage fell apart and Alienor demanded a divorce, pleading to the church that she and Louis were too closely related (fourth cousins!). The church granted her wish.

In 1151, Alienor met Henry Plantagenet, 11 years her junior and son of the Count of Anjou. On his mother’s side, Henry was the grandson of Henry I Beauclerc, King of England. Not long after the annulment of her first marriage in 1152, Alienor married Henry, eventually bearing him eight children.

When Henry Plantagenet became king of England in 1154, he and Alienor were sovereigns of England and all the western part of France. Unfortunately, the handsome Henry had affairs with several courtesans, the most well-known being “Fair Rosamund”, who died mysteriously from poisoning.

Alienor retired to Poitiers where she held court surrounded by poets and artists, thus carrying on the family tradition. Hurt by her husband’s conduct, Alienor plotted with her sons Richard and Geoffroy against the king. However, Henry II managed to catch her while she was travelling disguised as a page and sent her to a convent in Winchester where she spent the next 15 long years.

With the death of Henry II in 1189, Alienor was liberated by her son Richard the Lionheart, who had become the new king. Alienor was able to live out the rest of her life in the role of King mother until her death in 1204.

The 12^th century was remarkable because of the crusades as well as for the first great gothic cathedrals. Alienor’s extraordinary life was a reflection of the amount of freedom enjoyed by women – at least those of high standing – in the Middle Ages.

The house of Nicolas Flamel (1330-1418) at 51 rue de Montmorency in the 3^rd arrondissement is the oldest in Paris. After the death of his wife in 1397, Flamel decided to donate a part of his money to charitable foundations; he built the house in 1407 as a hospice for the destitute.

Photo: Deror Avi

Legend has it that Flamel was an alchemist who had discovered the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone and used it to transform base metal into gold. What is known is that he was a scrivener and manuscript seller as well as a seeker of knowledge. Flamel has been referred to in the Harry Potter books and the “Da Vinci Code”, he and his wife were characters in an Indiana Jones film and Victor Hugo mentioned him in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.

The house once had a high pointed gable on the third floor, but his has been lost to deterioration and renovations. The ground floor consists of three doors and two windows framed by six pillars adorned with engraved figures in the shape of angels, saints and old people. Some believe that the engraved figure on the sixth pillar of a man sitting with an open book on his knees is Flamel himself. In any case, his initials are engraved on the second and fifth pillars.

Today the house has become the Auberge Nicolas Flamel, open Monday – Saturday from 12 to 2.30 pm and 7 pm to 10.30 pm. Sunday is only bu reservation. The menus are: lunch - 18.50 €; gourmand – 31 €; prestige – 46 €; and tasting – 55/69 €.

http://www.auberge-nicolas-flamel.fr

01 42 71 77 78

Hello all. Sharing-France is back on line, albeit in a different format to the original site. We’ll be bringing you interesting articles and news, so stay posted. And if you have something you think might be of interest, please send us an email.

We’ve been pretty busy these last few months. Rose is continuing with her French lessons while I have been writing a memoir about when we met in Provence nearly 30 years ago. The memoir is part of an Honours degree I am doing at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and will be available online once it is finished. Meanwhile, I’d like to share the following article I wrote after our trip to France last year.

A bientôt,

Richard

A Day in Paris

We were confused and frustrated, and had got to the point where we just wanted out. N’importe ou.. Anywhere. We had left the train at Chatelet en route to that area of Paris called Le Marais. After consulting maps of the streets above us showing where we could emerge from the spaghetti of tunnels beneath the city, we had become lost finding the exit we wanted.

Car exhaust fumes had never smelt better as we finally popped out into the din of traffic. We again consulted a street map kindly provided by the municipality of Paris specifically to help lost tourists such as ourselves. We walked down the main street past the Hotel de Ville, window shopping as we went. Signs above shop windows didn’t always correspond with what was on display for sale.

The Place des Vosges was in lunch mode when we arrived. The chic restaurants and cafés under the arcades were vying for trade. Further along we goggled at some of the works in the art galleries. We went past Victor Hugo’s house, amongst others, as we made our way around the square, carefully avoiding a section that was a bit run down and inhabited by homeless people now sleeping in the shade.

All the walking had brought on an appetite so we decided to investigate the café Camille recommended by Jan, one of Rose’s students. It was one of those meetings that were meant to happen as we could so easily have missed each other. There was Jan crossing the street in front of the café, as surprised as we were. She and her husband John were staying in an apartment just around the corner. Jan invited us to join her for lunch, which we did. After a simple but delicious repas (meal) we made for the main object of our excursion, the Musée Carnavalet.

The city of Paris bought the Hotel Carnavalet in 1866 to house decorations, furniture etc from the buildings Haussman destroyed. The Hôtel Le Peletier de St-Fargeau has also been incorporated into the museum. The exhibitions illustrate the history of Paris from its origins through the Middle Ages to contemporary times. Works of art, documents, furniture, painted ceilings and various objects bring to life the events and figures of historical Paris. Entry is free. Open 10 am to 5.40 pm except Mondays and public holidays. 44 59 58 58. 23 rue de Sévigné.