In the late 1800s, a house was built at 249 Victoria Street in Toronto. A Macedonian entrepreneur, Robert Angeloff, converted the house into a diner named The Busy Bee Diner. In 1948, George Nicolau renovated the Bee, re-opening it under the name The Senator. Nicolau’s son Nick and nephew Cecil Djambazis purchased the diner in 1964.

With Nick quietly toiling in the kitchen and Cecil cajoling with the customers, the Senator became a downtown landmark, earning accolades for the `best egg sandwich in town’ and coffee to go from the three famous urns still in our front window. – from the menu

At night, Notre Dame is a whole different scene. You can see here a ramp set up outside the cathedral. Kids on rollerblades were jumping over bars held up by flaming sticks. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the spectacle as they soared 20 feet into the air, only to land just as gracefully as they launched.

The bell tower of Notre Dame by day

This panoramic photograph was taken with a lengthy exposure to highlight the cathedral and the people in the square. While many walked past the camera during the long exposure time, only those that stopped actually showed up on digital film, so the square seems strangely empty except for the exhibitionists on wheels.

A short distance away along the Seine, other kids are gathered. Their drinking, singing and dancing can be easily heard from the streets that follow the river.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

Outside Eglise Ste Eustache

Ste.Eustache was modeled on Notre Dame and built between 1532 and 1637. Moliere’s funeral was held at the church in 1673 and it was the first church to contain the tombs of some of Paris’ most influential people of the day (Louis XIV’s finance minister). Despite the dust topped arches and sculptures inside, the grand organ inside has been restored and the church’s current organist plays a free concert each Sunday at 5:30pm.

What also makes this cathedral worth visiting is its sculpture display at its entrance. 15 foot tall thin golden figures appear frozen in play near the doors of the church while a giant rock man seems stuck in the earth, looking away from Ste. Eustache.

We had been in the neighbourhood the night before, enjoying a late dinner on the patio of an Italian restaurant on a pedestrian walkway nearby. From this vantage point you can also see the gardens of Les Forums Des Halles.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

Thispart of town isn’t as swanky as most of Paris. In addition to being the only area in which we saw the park benches occupied by bums, it was the only part of town in which I saw electronics and adult video stores.

Paultells me that this was not always the case. In the early 1900′s, this was a very popular neighbourhood among Paris’ upper middle class. The Gare du Nord train station was the big draw. In the day, few but the wealthy could afford to regularly take a train, and those who did moved into the neighbourhood for the convenience of easy access to the rail line.

The apartment spans virtually the entire fourth floor of the building, and would have likely been home to a wealthy factory supervisor. At one time, servants would have lived on the fifth floor. The top floor, in contrast to today, was considered the least desirable floor due to the fact that heat rises and air conditioners hadn’t been brought to France by until the late 1920′s by Willis Haviland Carrier. It’s rarely too hot in Paris, and with the noticeable lack of bugs, Parisians leave their floor to ceiling windows wide open to let the cool breeze in. Carrier never really made it big in France, it seems.

Paul fed Ann and me a lovely dinner of what was believed to be beef tenderloin, but turned out to be pork. That’s the problem with just recently becoming fluent in French: someone waves some meat at you and mumbles, and you just shrug and reply, “oui” and next thing you know you’ve got pork.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

Alsoat this time, people’s cries about the unsanitary conditions of the local cemeteries and the lack of new land hit a peak. Louis the XVI’s committee had the brilliant idea: fill the catacombs of Paris with the bones from the cemeteries.

Six million bodies were dug up and carted to the catacombs and stacked — by order of body part, not individual — within the 2,100 acres of tunnels and caves. By some reports, many of the bodies hadn’t finished decomposing and had to be stripped of their flesh.

Stop! Here is the Empire of the Dead

A sign was erected above one of the main tunnel entrances, reading “Stop! Here is the Empire of the Dead” and the French Resistance used the catacombs to travel throughout Paris and avoid detection by the Nazis. They could use only the most secret passages because the German army was aware of the existence of the massive network of tunnels. Before that, smugglers used the tunnels to evade taxes and police. Today, only a very small portion of the network is accessible, and even then it takes about a half hour before you reach the sign warning you of what awaits.

"Headstones" mark the original cemeteries

What you’re seeing here is a section of bones stacked about 5 feet high that go back about 100 feet. In this shot alone, there are about 15,000 square feet of bones. If you zoom in on some of the skulls, you can see that, mysteriously, there are holes in foreheads — murder perhaps?

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night

TheGrand Salon was originally the offices of the Ministry of Finance within the North Wing of the Richelieu Pavilion. After renovation in 1870, Bonaparte became the first ruler to live in the Louvre since Louis XIV. (more…)

Gustave Eiffel(1832-1923) built the tower in 1889 and it was intended to be a temporary structure for the World’s Fair. At the time, architects and artisans screamed bloody murder over it’s construction, arguing it would damage the view and reputation of Paris. At a cost of 8 million francs to build, The Eiffel Tower was never taken down.

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the top of L'Arc De Triumph

The Eiffel Tower from our room at Hôtel Littré

Not only can the tower sway under high winds, but during the day it can actually tilt as much as 12 centimeters at the summit from the expansion of the iron by the heat of the sun.

During the Nazi occupation of France during the Second World War, the Germans unfurled a banner down the tower proclaiming victory on all fronts. An American from Greenpeace did something similar in 1979, but the banner read “Save the Seals”. Some might argue he was as ultimately successful as the Germans.

You are standing on one of the corners of the second level. The lineups were so long, the ticket office wouldn’t sell tickets to the third level until you made it to the second and judged for yourself whether or not you wanted to wait even longer. The Eiffel Tower has three levels, the first is quite low to the ground and is home to a restaurant. You can slip a 1 euro coin into the binoculars to get a close up view of the action on the ground below.

The Paris QTVR Portfolio:

• La Tour Eiffel, Paris
• Napoleon’s Apartments, the Louvre, Paris
• The Catacombs, Paris
• Gare Du Nord, Paris, France
• Saint Eustache, Paris
• Notre Dame Cathedral by Night
• Musee De La Poupee, Paris, France
• Paris at Night