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July 2005

Paris

Jeremy Koh
2005-11-05 12:16:49

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of Paris and it contains the remains of buildings dating back to pre-Roman times. The crypt itself is not large. It's beneath Notre Dame and it's definitely worth a visit. Once out of the crypt, we walked on to Notre Dame itself. The interior of Notre Dame is very dark. It took a while to get the eyes used to the darkness. There's some nice artwork in there and spectacular rose windows of stained glass. But I think I like the facade a lot more, with its ornately crafted spires. It sounds quite ridiculous but there's something very French about Notre Dame. Anyway, looking at the queues to go up the north tower of Notre Dame, we decided that we couldn't spare the time and so we walked over to the Memorial to the Victims of Deportation, which is just beside Notre Dame.

The Deportation Memorial, which is underground, honours the memory of the 200,000 French men and women who were deported by the Nazis, Jews and non-Jews alike. Below, a single, barred 'window' separates the bleak, rough concrete courtyard from the waters of the Seine. Above the exit as you leave is the message you'll find at all Nazi sights: "Forgive but never forget." Well, it seems as if Man never really learn from their mistakes. Just two days after I left Paris, and just one day after London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics, London was rocked by bombs which killed scores of innocent people. Just when will such indiscriminate killing stop?

Back at street level, we decided to head towards the Latin Quarter on the left bank. Basically, from here onwards, I was just following the historic Paris Walk suggested by Rick Steves in his guidebook. And time was really not on our side, so we quickened our steps and tried to cover as much sights as we could. We overshot a little but eventually we found the Shakespeare & Company bookstore. In the 20's, it was famous as a meeting place of Paris's literary expatriate elite. Ernest ...