Invitation - Paris City Hall

(I got the Internet back!)

Yesterday evening I was invited to the Paris City Hall. I will revert to the reason further down. It was a good opportunity to see the building not only from the outside.

There was a similar, but smaller building, here since the 16th century, but the Commune events in 1871, led to this building being burnt down. A new building, the present one, stood ready in 1892, to a large extent copied on the previous one.

The inside contains a number of large reception rooms. We were invited to the so called “Salle des Arcades”, which may not be the biggest nor the most spectacular one, but defintieley good enough.

Each pillar has a painting, the ceilings and the floors are spectacular.

I was especially attracted by the Baccarat crystal chandeliers.

There were nice views of the inner court and the Notre Dame.

So, the reason for my visit was a meeting of an organization called “PARISIEN D’UN JOUR”, which is part of the Global "Greeter" Network. You can read more about this by clicking on the widget in the sidebar. The City of Paris sponsors the activity and stood for the invitation.

“Greeters” are volunteers who work as (unpaid) guides in a number of cities around the world, NYC, Chicago, Toronto, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, The Hague, Paris…. We are some 180 in Paris and it’s expected that we shall have guided some 7.000 visitors by the end of this year. We would rather make tours with smaller groups and concentrate on specific neighbourhoods, more unusual or “hidden” places. You may of course use this free-of-charge-service for yourself or recommend it to friends.

I joined a couple o f weeks ago and have so far made four tours. The latest one was this week with four very nice visitors from Minnesota - Rebecca, Michael, Jason and Nick. We made a three hours tour of the Belleville area.

I wish you a nice weekend!