Well we're back from Paris and I thought I'd write about some of our journey here in the blog. First though a huge shout out to the Make A Wish Foundation What an incredible gift! Not only did they make Sam's wish come true but they allowed our whole family to share in it. Paris is a lot like Manhattan in terms of cost and I don't even want to begin thinking about the cost of the past week. I know we couldn't have done it ourselves and their generosity is truly overwhelming. Thank You.
So ... Paris. An unbelievably beautiful city and very unlike any U.S. city I've ever seen. Part of the reason is the age of course with a great many stone buildings (which restricts their height as a physical limitation). In addition, Paris has a building height rule and has only within the past few years begun discussing the possibility of allowing building construction in excess of 37 meters (about 121 feet) and even then only on the outskirts of the city. Very few exceptions are granted. So the city is built out, not up.
As an example, Philadelphia's City Hall (the one with the William Penn statue) is the 2nd tallest masonry building in the world at 548 feet. More modern steel buildings have much better support and tensile strength and, as such, buildings like the Hancock Building and Eiffel Tower (both in excess of 300 meters or about 1000 feet) are possible.
That said, and I'm no student of architecture by any means, but the design and detail is amazing. As a small example, at one point I was gazing at(what I thought was) a simple apartment building in excess of 200 years old. Then I noticed the decorative faces (yes chiseled stone human faces) as part of the brick work right below the balustrade. It was only when I looked closely that I realized each face was different! Somebody put a lot of thought and effort into that building.
The city streets are laid out in a hub and spoke pattern as opposed to the square grids in use here in the USA predominantly. This does a couple of things from what I could see. One, traffic seems to be greatly reduced on the side streets since there are so many alternative routes, many of which connect to each other without requiring access to the main road. This is greatly beneficial to foot and bicycle traffic of which there is quite a bit.
One of the coolest things I saw there were the bicycle rentals. Pop a Euro into a machine and you've got a bike to use for 24 hours. When you're done with it leave it in a rental area anywhere else in the city and you're done. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of bikes available throughout the city. Incredible value and another good way of limiting motor traffic in a city with a population larger than Chicago's, despite being 1/4 Chicago's size in square miles.
Secondly, the spokes tend to turn the circles (hubs) into huge pumps through which traffic is jettisoned in every direction. That can be good and bad but the Parisians seem pretty good at navigating it all. It really is every man for himself in the middle of those things with a mix of trucks, vans, smart cars, and motorcycles (a lot of cycles and smart cars) all vying for position. Something to see ... I thought the traffic circles in New Jersey were madness, they've got nothing on Paris.
One last thing I do need to mention and that is the "typical" rudeness of the French. Didn't happen. With very few exceptions the French people we met were very engaging and quite pleasant. One in particular, whom I will mention specifically in a future blog, went so far above and beyond that I can say unequivocally I would hire that guy in a minute. So don't believe everything you hear about people and especially not whole populations.
Stay tuned ... next up, day one of the trip ... Dublin Ireland.
sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_City_Hall
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_square_miles_is_Paris
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_square_miles_does_Chicago_cover
0 comments:
Post a Comment