This was is the story of our trip to Paris to see what we could see of the Rugby World Cup Finals weekend. For those of you who don't know, the semi finals were between New Zealand and Argentina then England v South Africa. The results of these games meant that England contested the bronze final against Argentina, leaving the final to either New Zealand or South Africa to win.
We have never used the Eurostar train before, I would like to share our experience with you. Our destination will be Gare du Nord nearly in the heart of Paris.
You may recognise the clock tower of what was a high point of Victorian Gothic Revival. George Gilbert Scott's Grand Midland Hotel which despite the best efforts of British Rail to demolish it, remains an iconic London landmark.
Originally built to connect their midlands network with the capital by the Midland Railway Company, St Pancras was one of the last great London termini to be constructed in 1868. It really flourished because of beer. The Midland Railway had signed a contract with Bass from Burton-upon-Trent to transport and store their products in London. Such was the popularity of their pale product over the locally brewed dark porters that the station vaults and warehousing were given over almost entirely to Bass.
An incidental footnote on that story is that a bottle of Bass appears in Edouard Manet's famous 1882 painting of the "Bar at the Folies-Bergere". Easily recognised by the red triangle trade mark (the world's first), this bottle could be the first to be carried by the Eurostar of its day.
It does seem a little odd to leave by a station facing north west for a journey that is basically south east.
There is a corner of England that is forever France. Eurostar tries quite hard to pretend that it's a plane. We are sitting in what is effectively a departure lounge. As always the word lounge is something of a euphemism, but to get here we had to pass through UK Border Force (such an unwelcoming name), followed by the French passport control and we are now officially in France. The reverse procedure happens at Gard du Nord on our return.
The front of the train, facing Burton-upon-Trent. Lovely blue sky, but we were never far from the rain, look at the puddles between the rails. The difference between economy seats and business class was almost as extreme as on an aircraft. The seating was just as cramped as an aircraft and further impinged by the pull down table from the seat in front. Speed is, of course, the selling point but even this was something of a disappointment through England and the tunnel but the 250 kph in the open French countryside much more like what I expected.
First day out in Paris and we make for the heart of the city. Notre Dame cathedral is still recovering from its roasting. This is the west front, one of the few parts of the cathedral to be relatively unscathed by the disastrous fire. This photo puts me in mind of L S Lowry's painting "Going to the Match". The spectators crossing the square, the dominant image of the grandstand cathedral, the once a week obligatory visit to worship the team. More of paintings and Notre Dame later.
The oldest of Notre Dame's three rose windows, the one in the centre of the west front dates from 1225. It features the Madonna and Child between two angels carved outside the window.
This is at the end of the Boulevard Saint-Michel with Pont of the same name behind Helen. Also immediately behind her is one of the surviving Metro entrances designed in the Art Nouveau style by Hector Guimard about 1900. She owns the walking stick, not the bike and she's looking towards the subject of my next photo.
The Boulevard du Saint-Michel has an appropriate fountain to the eponymous Saint, or more accurately Archangel. This monument was part of the reconstruction undertaken by Baron Haussman during the Second Empire and is in stark contrast to Epstein's famous one next to the entrance of Coventry Cathedral. The area is called the Latin quarter and was the location of the pub where we enjoyed the cup final.
Place de la Concorde was one of the two official fan zones which the French described as Rugby Villages. Entry could only be gained by passing through the souvenir shop and as you can see there was quite a queue for that. The matches kicked off at 9pm local time, so we arrived 8 hours ahead of that for a recce. I enquired of the stewards about seating, especially for those hard of standing, as it were. Yes there were seats and, because of Helen's walking stick and limp we were directed to the front of the queue.
Once inside it became clear that there was no seating apart from that immediately in front of the bars which were full already. Frankly we didn't fancy 8 hours standing on the cobbles in the cold and wet and that was before the start of the game. We decided to make other arrangements.
After sampling the Rugby Village we bought some lunch nearby and decided to head for the Musée d'Orsay for a little art therapy. Helen could have a rest as they can provide wheelchairs and we would be out of the wet and the wind.
I took a number of pictures that appealed to us both, so a few brief words about each. Firstly Claude Manet's blue water lilies. My father could have had an artistic discussion with Claude had he been able to speak French and visit Giverny when aged 10.
By the early 20th century Monet was making quite a lot of money out of his paintings. He had moved 50 kms from Paris to Giverny where he enjoyed his gardening along with a team of 6 gardeners. His works consisted almost entirely of his lilies, his lily ponds and the bridges crossing them. Having cataracts in both eyes may also have limited his subject matter.
Is it a song? Is it a clique? No, it's a Super........picture. Spot the constellations, there's Ursa Major slap bang in the middle and, I think Ursa Minor in the top right. Deservedly a great crowd pleaser, by a man who couldn't sell a single painting in his lifetime.
Would you buy a picture from this man?
Vincent produced approximately 2100 works of art including 860 oil paintings in just over a decade, most of them in the last 2 years of his life. His bedroom in the house he rented in Arles.
Edouard Manet painted this picture in 1863. Rejected by the jury for exhibition at the Salon, Manet decided to enter in the Salon des Refuses where unsurprisingly it caused notoriety and controversy. But it was certainly noticed. In some respects it was a family portrait. The figure on the right is a combination of Edouard's brothers, Eugene and Gustave, the other male is based on his brother in law. The woman in the foreground is Victorine Meurent, a favorite and frequent model. She is most famous for being the model in Manet's equally controversial painting Olympia.
We had previously selected a pub/sports bar where we would try to watch the final. They couldn't promise us seats but suggested we tried to get there at least one hour before the kick off. This we managed to do, but even then seats were at a real premium. Fortunately one of the waiters helped and the three young South African supporters in the picture agreed to let us join them for the proceedings. These three young people turned out to be delightful company, though not as knowledgeable about rugby as I expected.
Where I could help with the technicalities, they provided boundless enthusiasm, so much so that we switched our support from the black to the green. So we had a table "in Union".
I make no apology for including this illustration which appeared on the Sunday after the game. The reason I chose this shot is because it shows the strangle hold of defence that the Bok's operated throughout the game. We see one Kiwi with three "in his face" defenders, one of whom is that superb lock forward Eben Etzebeth.
This one that I selected features the man of the match Pieter-Steph du Toit. He put in a phenomenal 28 tackles. You really have to know his back story to fully appreciate the magnitude of his achievement.
The poster boys! They won all three knock out matches by a single point.
The street on which our pub was located. It was busy day and night, parallel with the Seine and one street in. It links the Rue du Petit Pont with Boulevard Saint-Michel.
A final view from the RER of the Stade du France. This railway was our daily link between our accommodation and Gard du Nord.
I said that I would come back to the Notre Dame rebuilding an have another photo taken from the boat trip that we enjoyed on Sunday after the final. The Cathedral was built from 1100 up to about 1300. By the 18th century it was in a state of severe decline. Largely inspired by Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" the building was restored. This was when the unfortunate and inappropriate iron spire was erected. A huge amount of damage was caused by the 2019 fire on the cathedral is still closed to the public. Here is my progress report photograph.
