#15 - The most marvellous monuments of France

Marvellous, magnificent and mesmerising monuments of France! The biggest and the best, the strange and the quirky, their history, legends and fascinating facts from the Eiffel Tower to the most incredible palace in France – built by a postman from pebbles collected on his delivery rounds more than 100 years ago. Notre Dame, Versailles, Mont-Saint-Michel, Pere Lachaise cemetery and more, come with us on a whistle stop tour of these amazing places.

And we answer a listener’s question – want to know where to buy the best baguettes in Paris? – tune in and we’ll tell you!

Follow us:

Thanks for listening!

Episode 15 : The most marvellous monuments of France

Janine: Bonjour and welcome to the Good Life France podcast – everything you want to know about France and more. I’m Janine Marsh, I’m an author and travel writer and though I was born in London, UK, I now live in a tiny village in the far north of France with 60 animals – perhaps 61 soon as we may be getting another dog to join our naughty Labrador puppies Ronnie and Reggie!

Olivier: Bonjour, I’m Olivier, but usually English-speaking people call me Oli or Oliver. I’ve lived in Paris for 13 years and then moved to London where I still am today, 20 years later. So, I suspect that Janine knows more about France than I do nowadays. But when you are born French, you stay French forever. And that IS than certain Je ne sais quoi that French people have that I am bringing here, in this podcast.

Now. What’s on the menu today Janine. What are we going to be talking about in what is the 15th episode of The Good Life France’s podcast?

Janine: Marvellous, magnificent and mesmerising monuments of France is what we’re going to be talking about! The biggest and the best, the strange and the quirky, their history, legends and fascinating facts from the Eiffel Tower to the most haunted castle in France…

JINGLE

Janine Ok – let’s start with France’s most visited monument the Eiffel Tower. And not just France, it’s the most visited paid to enter monument in the world …

Olivier: And beyond, if aliens visit the earth, they will definitely want to go to the Eiffel Tower… I am sure of that.

Janine: Haha - you have to say it don’t you, even beyond Earth, France is the most popular place! Named after Gustave Eiffel whose company built it which took little more than 2 years – it opened to the public in March 1889. It was made to showcase French engineering know how for the Paris World Exposition. The first visitors were Buffalo Bill and the British Royal Family! Thomas Edison visited it and Eiffel entertained royalty and celebrities in his apartment at the top of the tower – which is still there! Not everyone loved it, many artists and influential people signed a petition to have the building of it stopped – including Charles Garnier who designed another Paris monument – the Opera Garnier… They wrote that it was a ‘giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame etc etc.’ they called it a hateful column of bolted sheet metal. Thankfully they were ignored. The tower was an instant success with most people though it is a metal column. 7,300 tonnes of iron, 18,000 parts, were used to build the lattice work tower, held together by 2.5 million rivets.

For 40 years it was the tallest man-made building in the world and the views from its platforms over Paris are marvellous. I remember going up in the lift age 13 – terrifying if you’re frightened of heights like me! But it was worth it. And beats climbing 1665 steps to the top! On very windy days the tower sways up to 7 inches!

It’s hard to say why we all love it so much. I think it represents overcoming people’s prejudices, those who didn’t like it, it represents genius, and it’s a symbol of Paris and France. I’ve seen people burst into tears when they see it for the first time. I’ve stood there as the famous twinkling lights come on and you can hear a collective sigh all around, even Parisians are in love with the Tower and it’s very romantic – if expensive – to head up the tower for a glass of Champagne! The singer Mariah Carey and her husband renewed their wedding vows up the Eiffel Tower about 10 years ago!

Olivier: Paris is of course full of monuments – the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre palace, the Musee d’Orsay, the Conciergerie – so many… and one of the most famous and talked about of them all is of course the great cathedral of Notre Dame. I think many people will remember watching the news in April 2019, horrified at the fire… almost 1 billion dollars was pledged from around the world to restore this symbolic heart of France and of French heritage - which used to be visited by 12 million people a year. The cathedral is made up of a mixture of architectural styles created over many years. The North Tower was completed in 1240, but the South Tower wasn’t finished for another 10 years. They look as if they match perfectly but look closely and you’ll see the north tower is a little bit taller. The two towers were the tallest structures in Paris until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889.

Building of the Cathedral began in 1163 on top of the ruins of previous churches, and before that a Roman temple. Pope Alexander III attended the ceremony in which the first stone was laid. It was completed in 1260, almost 100 years after building first started, longer if you include the addition of the flying buttresses added in 1345.

There are 10 bells at Notre-Dame, all named after Saints. Marie, Emmanuel, Gabriel, Anne-Genevieve, Denis, Marcel, Etienne, Benoit-Joseph, Maurice, and Jean-Marie.

Most of the original bells from the cathedral were melted to make cannons during the French Revolution. New bells were not installed in the cathedral until the mid-19th century. The South tower is home to the largest bell, Emmanuel, installed in 1638. Weighing in at 13-tonnes, it’s clapper alone weighs 1,100 lbs.

Janine I remember sitting at a café just opposite the Cathedral on a cold day, I was drinking hot chocolate and those bells started ringing, gives me goosebumps thinking about it…

Sound of bells

Olivier In fact there is a lot of work going on with the restoration to do with the famous sound of the cathedral. The French writer Victor Hugo said its sounds were filled with benediction and majesty that soothed the soul, the organ, the singing, the prayers… but the fire and destruction affected the acoustics and specialists are trying to restore it. We shall see when it hopefully reopens to the public next year…

Janine We could probably do a whole series on Paris monuments – and we are in fact planning a what to see in Paris podcast very soon but now, let’s move out of Paris and to the south of France, to a small town called Haute-Rives in the Drôme department, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, is hardly known outside of France. There are around 2000 inhabitants, a friendly bar and a couple of restaurants, a cosy bakery, a few shops, B&Bs and a camp site. It’s a typically French country town – tranquil, sleepy even for the most part. But Hauterives has an extraordinary secret. Drive through the town and you may miss it. Swerve to a side street a stone’s throw from the boulangerie and you’ll discover something quite extraordinary.

A palace, built by hand from pebbles collected by a postman as he performed his delivery rounds. I honestly think it is one of the most amazing monuments I’ve ever seen.

Ferdinand Cheval born in 1836 in Drôme, and on his postal rounds which he did on foot – some 25 miles a day, he would see beautiful postcards from around the world. And he day dreamed about these places which he would never get to see. One day on his rounds he tripped over a stone, and picked it up and put it in his pocket not really thinking about anything much. But when he got home, he later said that he thought “if nature is the sculptor, I will be the architect.” That little pebble kickstarted a dream – he decided to build his own palace, a fairy tale palace and he began filling his pockets with pebbles as he walked his long rounds delivering post. It became an obsession and he started filling a little wooden barrow on his rounds so that he could collect larger stones and more of them.

He was 43 years old when he started. And he finished that project when he was 76 years old. He spent 33 years, 10000 days, 93000 hours building his ‘palais ideale’ his ideal palace. And he did it at night, after he finished work. By candle light.

It is truly incredible, artistic, quirky, a little bit bonkers but amazingly beautiful with giants and animals, fountains and strange figures, it looks like an Aztec temple, an Indian palace – exotic and not remotely French! His neighbours thought him crazy but he became famous in his own lifetime – Picasso visited and many artists, wowed by his creation and dedication.

Then he built his own tomb in the same style. He finished that at the age of 83 and died the year after.

Incredible. I’ve been renovating my old farmhouse for 19 years and his story is an inspiration to me

What would your partner say Oli if you were out the garden all night building a palace from pebbles by candle light?

Oli: Well, she would not be impressed… but she knows she’s safe. I am not a DIY or manual person, at all. And she knows that very well. My darling, don’t worry if you are listening to this. That will never happen and you know it.

There are many palaces in France and at the complete opposite of the Postman’s Palace there is of course, Versailles near Paris, world famous for its bling bling as we say in France.

When Louis 14th was thinking about how to create the most magnificent palace the world had ever seen, one that truly showed off his glory and absolute power, he can’t have had any idea just how many people would tread in his footsteps and gaze in wonder at his legacy. The Chateau de Versailles is world famous. But, I promise you, nothing you see on the TV or in photos prepares you for the sheer absolute golden glitz and glamour of the real thing. 700 rooms, 1250 chimneys, 67 staircases and 2000 windows. The chateau of Versailles is monumental, a colossus of a building. It was originally six storeys high, but the top layers were levelled off in the 19th century after the French Revolution.

Janine: Did you know that during world war II the beautiful wood panelling of the walls was hidden in a coal mine in the Pyrenees to protect it? It’s completely detachable – a sort of tongue and groove!

Olivier: And did you know that more than 1000 fireplaces didn’t make it warm, it was recorded that in the winter of 1695, the King’s glass of wine froze on the table while he was eating his dinner. In fact dinner here was a problem, hundreds of courtiers lived in little apartments at the palace and they mostly didn’t have a kitchen so they had to send their staff out for food and a sort of town of food booths grew around the castle! And the town of Versailles is even now known for having one of the best markets in France

Versailles is on the UNESCO World heritage list along with 48 more incredible sites including the fortified city of Carcassonne, Bordeaux’s Port of the Moon and the Palace of Fontainebleau and the great Gothic cathedral of Amiens…

Janine: One of my favourites on the UNESCO world heritage list is another Gothic marvel - the Palace of the Popes in Avignon in Vaucluse, Provence. I’d heard of the Palais des Papes and I’d seen photos and even knew a little bit of history nothing prepared me for seeing it in person – I’ve been there three times now, every time the sheer overwhelming size and incredible history of this towering palace in which Popes once lived is mind boggling.

In 1309 Pope Clement V established a Papal residence in Avignon making this French city the capital of the Christian world. There were issues within the running of the Catholic Church and the French King pretty much insisted that Clement, a French pope, stayed in France. Successive Popes elaborated and extended the building until it became the soaring, majestic palace we see today with a maze of rooms and chapels and courtyards. The fourth Pope, Clement VI bought the city of Avignon from the Countess of Provence. Cardinals built grand palatial mansions around the Popes Palace and the old city of Avignon became to all intents and purposes an enclosed city much like the Vatican in Rome. Seven official Popes lived here until the court was moved back to Rome in 1376. Two “anti-popes” continued living and attempting to rule the Catholic church from Avignon for a further 39 years until finally being made to give up. The Palace then became a residence of the legates of Rome but without investment it became quite dilapidated. Under Napoleon the palace became a barracks – can you imagine that? Soldiers putting up makeshift beds in the huge halls. Sadly some bits of the building were destroyed. But it also saved the building from being knocked down and amazingly some rooms were untouched. There are extraordinary floor tiles and wall frescoes, the kitchen is still there, big enough to roast up to 50 oxen at a time! And the architecture is wonderful. It is the biggest Gothic palace in the world covering a whopping 15000 square metres. If you go there, pop to the wine bar next door, the Carre du Palais in an 18th century mansion with a terrace overlooking the palace of the Popes – perfect spot to view it and people watch!

Olivier: Some monuments are small but incredible. I mean, take the cemetery of Pere Lachaise in Paris – it may sound odd but this is a wonderful place to take a stroll and admire the mausoleums. More than 1,000,000 people rest here and some say it is the most visited cemetery in the world.

The name of the cemetery comes from Pere Francois de la Chaise, confessor to Louis 14th. At first it wasn’t a popular place to be buried – too far from the city centre, even when Napoleon Bonaparte tried to encourage people to choose it as their lasting resting place in 1804 – it wasn’t popular, just 13 graves. So Paris officials came up with a sort of marketing strategy.

They transferred the remains of the great writers Moliere and Jean de la Fontaine here from their original graves. The public ceremony attracted the attention of other ‘applicants’. Then in 1817 the remains of Pierre Abelard and Heloise d’Argenteuil were transferred and placed under a canopy constructed from fragments of a well-known Paris chapel. The couple were one of history’s most passionate and romantic true love stories and their nine hundred year old love affair is known throughout France. Lovers or people searching for love at the time, would leave letters under the canopy hoping to find fulfilment for themselves. The romance eternally associated with Paris spread even to the graveyards. Pere Lachaise cemetery became popular. There are many beautiful mausoleums and gravestones lining the tree-filled avenues, and people visit from around the world to pay their respects to those who rest here including Jim Morrison of the Doors - his grave is always covered in flowers (and people used to have sex on it, as a tribute to Jim, but ssschhhh no everybody know that – and that’s creapy anyway)… and Oscar Wild whose grave stone is now behind a plastic cover because so many people left kisses on it, the stone started to deteriorate. Thousands of little monuments here…

Janine: It’s such a lovely place to take a walk, all those beautiful, haunting statues. But one of my favourite statues is the gilded Archangel Michael in its gravity defying position atop the abbey of Mont Saint Michel…

Mont Saint-Michel is majestic. It’s one of those places that, although its wiggly cobbled streets might be covered by many visitors (around 2.5 million a year – it is after all one of the most popular sites in France) the magic shines through. A tiny town on a granite island cradled between the coast of Brittany and Normandy, which from a distance looks like a helter-skelter. Lopsided half-timbered houses wind their way round the narrow alleyways, topped by this golden statue of Saint Michael. Victor Hugo, the great French writer called it “the pyramid of the seas” and you can really see what he means when you view it from a distance. It is one of the wonders of the world and has attracted hordes of tourists since the Middle Ages.

I took my dad there once. He didn’t want to go, ‘another bloody monument‘ he said, he was a cockney, and he moaned the whole way there! But when we walked through the stone arch entry to the town dad stood there open-mouthed at the sight of this incredible island of monuments. We made our way up a cobbled hill, past chapels and souvenir shops, and cafés in medieval buildings. We peered into the restaurant Mère Poulard famous for its fluffy omelettes. They are made to the same secret recipe and cooked on an open fire in front of customers as they have been since 1888, we didn’t go in, next time maybe and join a long list of fans including Ernest Hemingway and Marilyn Monroe. And we wandered down tiny streets and lost ourselves in the wonder of the ancient architecture.

Normandy has its own feel and its own food. And if you go to Normandy, you’d better like butter. And cheese. And garlic… and a whole host of other things. Let’s just say, you don’t go there to go on a diet and don’t forget to pack your stretchy trousers. We stopped at a little restaurant with a terrace overlooking the bay and a wonderful cheese board. a ripe Brie and smelly Camembert, Livarot and pungent Pont l’Evêque, heart-shaped Neufchatel and Pavé d’Auge. My dad had no idea which to choose. I’m not going to do a French accent… ok I am!

“This one” said the waiter “comes from a dairy farm in a sleepy village among the rolling hills…” and “this is one of the most creamy and delectable cheeses in the world.” And “flavoured with a little Calvados, this one tastes of heaven, it’s funky and delicious…” He rolled his tongue around the words, filtering them through his droopy moustache. I told my dad it’s customary to have 3 slivers but of course he had a bit of everything.

My dad stayed at the restaurant while me and my husband Mark climbed the 350 steps to the top of the Mont. It is hauntingly beautiful in the Abbey and the cobbled streets are full of atmosphere. At the end my dad was head over heels for Mont St Michel “one of those places to see before you die” he said… In fact this year is the 1000th anniversary of the building of the nave of the abbey and we have a fabulous article coming up in the next issue of our free magazine which you can read and subscribe to at www.magazine.thegoodlifefrance.com

Olivier: Everyone falls in love with Mont Saint Michel! But how about some really ancient monuments like the megalithic burial mound, the Cairn de Barnenez, is the oldest structure that is still standing in all of France. The Cairn de Barnenez was originally referred to as the “Prehistoric Parthenon” by French author and politician André Malraux.

Janine: And there are prehistoric caves and grottoes galore in many parts of France, Lascaux caves Dordogne, Chauvet in the Ardeche and I’m going to Marseille next week and aiming to visit the Cosquer caves – replica caves to protect the ancient originals in an underwater passageway – 37 m under the sea, filled with handprints and images that are 15000 years old… They are named after a diver called Henri Cosquer – he discovered the original caves in 1985 and when he first visited the replica caves he was moved to tears by it as he was so impressed.

Olivier: We could talk and talk about the monuments of France – and I’m pretty sure we will talk more on this in a new episode, but now it’s time for the Q&A part of the podcast – where you ask the questions and we answer them! It doesn’t matter what your question is – we’ll see if we can help! So Janine, what is our question today?

Janine: Terry Unsworth from Australia asks what’s the best place to buy a baguette in Paris. He says “My partner and I have been dreaming of going to Paris for years and years, and this year, we’re going to do it finally. One of the things I really want to do is buy the most delicious baguette but I don’t know where to start…”

Well Terry luckily for you we know just the place don’t we Olivier…

Olivier: Hmm well it’s actually quite difficult because everyone has their favourite boulangerie in Paris and anywhere in France. Many people think that Eric Kayser is the king of bread, others may thing its Maison Lenotre. And if you go to Paris, just ask a local – they will all have an opinion

Janine: That’s the same everywhere in France, and it’s one of the ways I made friends when I first came to France – I’d ask “where should I buy my baguette, croissant, brioche – everyone wants to share their favourite!

Olivier: But with Paris we do know who is the official best baguette maker in Paris because there is a contest! Each year in May the week long Fete du Pain, festival of bread, is held in Paris on the forecourt of Notre-Dame Cathedral. You can learn about bread and pastries, taste them all, and meet the greatest bread makers and pastry chefs. And there is also a contest for the best baguette maker in Paris and whoever wins gets a contract to supply the Elysee palace, the President’s residence with baguettes every day! Last year’s winner was Damien Dedun who works at the boulangerie of Frederic Comyn rue Cambronne, 15th arrondissement.

Janine: Personally I think Bread Man, the man who delivers the bread to my little village in the middle of nowhere, northern France makes the best baguettes! (if you’re listening Bread Man – best baguettes in France!)…

Next episode

Olivier: Tune in for the next episode when we’ll be talking about more France and fun stuff… Surprise…

Janine: You can find me at thegoodlifefrance.com where there are thousands yes thousands of articles about France and all things French from culture to gastronomy, history and heaps more, and on the website you can sign up for the podcast and for our free magazine The Good Life France which you can find at magazine.thegoodlifefrance.com

Oli: And you can find me at parischanson.fr, a unique radio station playing the French classic songs of the 40s, 50s and 60s non stop. Basically the Paris you love, 24/7…

Janine: I listen to it wall the time! But for now, It’s au revoir from me

Oli: And goodbye from me

Janine: speak to you soon.

The Good Life France's podcast

#15 - The most marvellous monuments of France

Listen to this podcast on