Paris 2000

<body bgcolor="#ccffcc" text="#000000" link="#ff0000"> <script type="text/javascript">  </script> <center> <table border=0 width=760> <tr> <td align="left"> <a href="index.htm"><img src="tricouleur.gif" align="right" width=150 height=90 border=0 vspace=0 hspace=10 alt="To Paris Visit menu page"></a> <h1>Four Days in Paris</h1> <h4>A photographic record of my visit to Paris in September 2000</h4> <br clear="right"> <hr> <center><h2>Memories of Montmartre</h2> <h3>by Nicole (now in the USA)</h3></center> <br> <center> <table border=0 width=700 cellpadding=0> <tr> <td align="left"><p align="justify"><b>After seeing my photos of the Place du Tertre, Nicole was stimulated to send me these memories of her childhood in Montmartre during the early 1940s, when France was occupied by German forces in the Second World War. Nicole's own words now follow:<br> <hr width=700> <br> <i>"I was born in a second-floor apartment at 36, Rue Muller, in the afternoon's east shade of the Sacré-Coeur. Rue Muller climbs straight up to Rue Paul Albert, then it turns into a set of steps (renamed Rue Maurice Utrillo). Utrillo once painted an oil of the steps. When I was one month old, my parents moved to 1, Rue Paul Albert, where all three streets meet.</i><br> <br> Click <a href="javascript:openWin('d3c-map.htm');">here</a> to call up Nicole's street map of the area.<br> <br> <i>"I was baptised in the parish church of St Pierre de Montmartre. She is the second oldest church in Paris, begun in 1174, second to St Germain-des-Prés. The baptismal font is still there. It too is one of the oldest in Paris."</i></b></p> <p align="justify"><b><i>"St Pierre is the only remaining building of a huge Benedictine monastery. That is why there is a Rue Abbesses. St Pierre has a long line of history. You would enjoy reading about the church and the monastery. A French queen is buried in the floor of the nave. Joan d'Arc once attended a retreat at the monastery. This is my fifteen minutes of fame - to have my name on the list of famous people. It was the parish people of little St Pierre who raised the money for the land to place the huge Basilique du Sacré-Coeur behind its parish church.<br> <br> "If you look on my map at the switch-back (where Rue Muller, Rue Paul Albert, Rue Feutrier and two sets of steps meet), you will see where I played as a youngster. There is also a footpath gate at the corner between the two sets of steps. The footpath is very lovely and curves around to the front lower entrance to Square Willette. All these pathways for walking and driving made our switch-back very popular and busy. The switch-back had a wide half-moon-shape pavement at the base of the Rue Utrillo steps. This was our playground. We were protected by concrete stumps that kept wagons and cars from hitting our corner. Such vehicles turned the sharp corner to continue up the Montmartre hill on Rue Paul Albert.<br> The map cannot possibly show you the surrounding height and depth of the switch-back. The second set of steps belong to Rue Paul Albert; from our switch-back the stairs went steeply downward. So we children were never allowed to play near them.<br> <br> "At the the place marked '23' on the map was my married uncle's apartment. On his ground floor was a baker's shop. It was there that my parents and I were assigned to shelter from air-raids. The baker had a son my age; we were good friends. The bakery was opposite our apartment. The half-moon sidewalk was our playground and home.<br> Whenever there was a night-time air-raid, my mother would grab the three gas-masks and Papa would grab me. Down the stairs we ran across the walkway to the baker's shop cellar. I have never forgotten the adults' fear as they wrapped their arms around me during an air-raid.<br> All was well until one day in April 1944 when bombs fell around the Basilique. One bomb fell at the top of Rue Paul Albert. It hit an orphanage, but all the children and nuns were safe in an underground tunnel.<br> When we all came out of the shelter, all we could see was broken glass everywhere. It took days for everyone to replace their glass. I remember Papa opening the large French windows and working with putty to install the new glass. It was good that most people could do it from inside their apartments. Some of the Basilique's stained-glass windows were also destroyed. And some people lost their lives.<br> <br> "In the park in front of the Basilique is Rue du Cardinal Dubois. The road is supported by a huge wall. The wall has water-pipes supplying a large pool. The pool is fed from three lovely bowls that are inserted in three sea-shell shaped coves. In the winter time, the fountains are turned off and the pool becomes a dry concrete pool. As a child, my cousin Daniel and I were allowed to roller-skate in the dry pool. It is large enough to hold four or five children roller-skating. It was much safer to roller-skate in the dry pool than to do so in the open spaces of the park where we children might have fallen on the way down the hill.</i><br> <br> Many thanks to Nicole for allowing me to publish her memories on my Paris Visit webpages.</b><br> <br> <b>Now rejoin my <a href="d3c.htm#nicole">exploration of Montmarte</a>.</b></p> </td></tr> </table> </center> <br> <br> <center><b><a href="index.htm">Four Days in Paris menu page</a><br><br> <a href="../index.html">John's Homepage</a>.</b></center> </td></tr> </table> </center> </body>