As a matter of fact, Lawrence's former State Sen. Carol Berman chose to spend the first week of September touring Paris with her grandson Jeremy Berman and visiting with her daughter Elizabeth Berry who has a top position with the American Embassy in Paris. She told me that she and Jeremy spent that week from morning until night exploring the Louvre and Museum D'Orsay and other French treasures without a mishap until the last week of September when she made news by falling through the "gap" at the Long Island Rail Road station in Lawrence after a visit to the Frick Museum in Manhattan. Unfortunately, she spent that last week of September at the hospital with severe bruises and underwent surgery for a broken ankle.
However, visiting the Louvre, retracing the route of The Da Vinci Code and viewing the glorious Impressionist paintings of Manet, Monet, Pissarro and Van Gogh at the Orsay Museum are memorable experiences. This is also the year that movie-goers will see the sad tale of Marie Antoinette, who made her niche in world history by telling the starving French masses to eat cake if they didn't have bread.
I learned of four guided tours described in a new book, entitled "Walks Through Marie Antoinette's Paris," published by the David Brown Book Co. The walks go through modern Paris and the palaces and key places associated with Marie Antoinette. The history of Marie Antoinette dates from her majestic arrival in France in the spring of 1770 to her macabre journey to the Bastille (on the Left Bank of the Seine River) and then to
the guillotine in 1793, over a span of 23 years. Marie Antoinette spent those years of her life primarily in the glamorous world of Paris and Versailles. The marriage of the 19-year-old Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette to the awkward unattractive French Dauphin Louis (later, the French King Louis XVI) was arranged to improve French and Austrian relations. The ceremony had all the pomp and splendor of a royal union. The bride was showered with jewels, an extravagant wardrobe of gowns and furs and the admiration of the French upper classes.
The lavish world of the Queen Marie Antoinette centered among the French royal palaces and gardens in Paris and the environs. That world came to an end during the French Revolution when the hungry revolting mobs took their vengeance out on the Austrian archduchess. She was arrested, taken to the Bastille and tried by her many enemies. Of course she was found guilty and sentenced to be executed at what is now the Place de la Concorde in Paris in October 1793.
Each of the guided tours in the pocket-sized book explores scenes from Marie Antoinette's life, the famous sites and the less well-known churches, theatres, shops, prisons and courts that involved the life of the unfortunate French Queen.
Paris is a walking city. I have walked from The Boulevard Hausman, the Opera, the CafÈ de la Pais to the Tuilleries, along the Champs-Elysees on the Right Bank of the Seine across the Pont Neuf to the Left Bank. However, I also recommend a ride on the French Metro (subway). There are no "gaps" between the tracks and the quiet rubber-wheeled trains. The station platforms are adorned with colorful murals and I don't remember seeing any graffiti on the Metro.
Other foreign cities that I have visited do light up at night, but there is nothing to compare with the beauty of Paris, the City of Light, during the night hours. A recent New York Times article pointed out that in some cities, lamp posts are designed to light only the sidewalks and streets and not the surrounding buildings that seem to disappear. However, this does not happen in Paris where most of the street lamps are attached to the sides of the structures emphasizing the curves and angles of the buildings. The wonderful architectural details such as the balconies and niches of Paris' City Hall or Hotel de Ville and the Pont Alexandre-III candelabras, cupids and other fabulous decorations are highlighted with magnificent
voltage. I understand that there is a delightful illuminated tour of Paris monuments from the Place Vendome on an electric bicycle leaving at 8 p.m.
The sightseeing tour is Paris Charms and Secrets and the English-speaking guides also have wonderful tales about the glittering gold dome of Napoleon's tomb and the beautiful illumination of the Louvre pyramids.
The lights are turned off on most of the public buildings by the city at 1 a.m. and the Metro stops running at 12:30 a.m., but Parisians party through the night, and you can always walk or take a cab.
Copyright by Marcia Abramson
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