Ah, Paris, For All the World's Lovers

Photos and article by Eleanor S. Morris

The City of Lights has long been a magnet for lovers and today its historic sites recall many romantic legends...

Everybody knows Paris is for lovers. It's in the air, in the language, in the wonderful sights to see with your beloved. First, a romantic hotel, whether the posh Ritz or a small and very French hotel on the Left Bank.

Then off to see the sights as you breathe the Parisian air of enjoyment of life, the delight in good food, the pleasure of beautiful architecture, romantic paintings in the beautiful museums, flowers blooming in the parks and gardens.

Of course first is the magnificent Tour Eiffel, a wonder of design soaring over the Seine and the Champs de Mars (the Field of Mars, a drill ground for the Ecole de Militaire. Louis XV created the military school at the request of his mistress Madame Pompadore). The tower appears light and lacy, and you'll appreciate the lattice-iron as hand in hand, you climb the first two floors. (Or you can take the elevator.) An elevator to the third floor takes you up to a fabulous view of the entire city spread below.

L'Isle de la Cite, an island in the center of the Seine, is considered the heart of Paris. Originally inhabited in the 3rd century by a Gallic tribe (unfortunately defeated by Caesar's legions), it has remained city center, with all distance points in the country measured from a circular sundial in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

On the island, the beautiful Cathedral de Notre Dame is not only a church but a monument and history book in stone as well. Here Napoleon I, impatient man, snatched the crown and planted it on his own head! (This historic moment is preserved forever in a wonderful painting in the Louvre.) Climb the 387 steps of the North Tower for another stupendous view of the Seine, the Cite, the Sainte-Chapelle, and the rooftops of the houses in the Latin Quarter. When you're safely down, whatever your persuasion, light a candle to a long and happy life together.

Time for food for the body as well as the soul? Paris has a wealth of wonderful, historically romantic outdoor cafes where you can watch other happy lovers stroll by. Cafe Cluny on the corner of Boulevards Saint-Michel and Sainte- Germaine in the Latin Quarter faces the Musee de Cluny built atop the ruins of Roman thermal baths. The museum's 24 rooms contain 20,000 items--including chastity belts!

Cafe des Deux-Magots, also on the Boulevard Saint- Germaine, has been the home-away-from-home of famous writers, so who knows whom you might spy while downing a glass of wine with your croque-monsieur sandwich?

On the Right Bank of the river, the Hotel de Sens (1, rue du Figuier) one of the city's few surviving examples of medieval architecture, was the residence of Queen Margot, Henry IV's first wife, dubbed "Queen Venus." One day in 1606 she drove up to her front door to discover two current lovers arguing. As one turned to open the lady's carriage door, the other shot him dead. Without a second thought, she ordered the other executed while she watched the next day from a window. Such was love in Paris in the 17th century! (Now the building's a museum of fine, decorative and graphic arts.)

Another romantic liason is part of the history of the Hotel du Beauvais, built in 1655 for Pierre du Beauvais and his wife, Catherine Bellier. Catherine used her fortune to build the house, and where did the fortune come from? Catherine was Anne of Austria's chambermaid. The story goes that Anne was so pleased that Catherine had a tryst with 15- year-old Louis XIV in order to teach her son how to please his future wife, more than her impotent husband Louis XIII had pleased her, that she so rewarded her.

On a more sombre love note, there's Pere Lachaise Cemetery, at Boulevard de Menilmontant, with its winding paths and elaborate monuments. Here you'll find the beautiful tomb of those famous star-crossed lovers of song and story, Heloise and Abelard, And attesting to the fact that many visitors to Pere Lachaise have love rather than death on their mind is the multitude of incongruous graffiti.

The Louvre is a must, and especially to see the lovely Mona Lisa. She's as lucky as you are to be here: One morning in 1911 she turned up missing. After two artists, namely Guillaume Apollinaire and Pablo Picasso, were wrongly accused of the theft, the lady turned up two years later in the hands of a museum employee, who had smuggled the painting out under his coat. Now you can view her safely ensconced under glass.

In front of the Louvre are the magnificent Tuilleries Gardens. Designed by Marie de Medici some 400 years ago, she wanted to provide a "corso," an Italian garden where strollers could be alone with each other amid flowers and sunshine, Italian fashion. Today the gardens are very French- -and still popular with lovers.

No lovers should miss a romantic boatride on the Seine. Bateaux-mouches cruise night and day, but best at night when many monuments and riverside buildings are illuminated. A perfect way to bid Paris "adieu,"--until the next time!

Copyright Eleanor S. Morris