Greetings from the suburbs

Let's just say that oh, about 98 percent of the places I have been in France the very first time I was there I was taken there by Wireless. One exception is Roland Garros. GRider and I wandered a little aimlessly around that neighborhood on the day after our guide had had to return to her school in Nantes. Eventually we stumbled, almost veritably stumbled upon the open gate and went in and looked around.

Today I added another destination that I had to find without the aid of a French speaking guide. We left the City of Lights behind and ventured out into the northern suburbs. Even though outside the city limits we were still on the Metro, this time the 13 line. We got off at the next to last stop before the end of the line and wandered up the stairs into something that looked not at all like the France I have come to be accustomed to in Paris. We were in Saint Denis.

The looks and smells are much different perhaps compounding our uncertainty. The maps that I have are of Paris and do not include the northern suburbs. We had a card from a "Walks of Paris" set that I found in the apartment and we tried to follow clues based on information on the card and the signs in the immediate vicinity of the Metro stop. We made a start in one direction but quickly lost confidence. The only thing to do was to head back to the Metro stop and follow the one sign from there which we had considered but had not used, the sign pointing the way to the Office de Tourisme. The office wasn't very hard to find, and bingo, the tourism office was right across the square from what we were looking for, another big old stone church, la Basilique de Saint Denis.The basilica stands on the site of a Gallo-Roman cemetery with the tomb of Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris, martyred in 250AD. King Dagobert of France was a benefactor to the abbey at this location and after his death in 639 he was buried in the church. Pepin the Short, father of Charlemagne, was crowned king there in 754. From the 6th century onwards, 42 kings, 32 queens, 63 princes and princesses and 10 great men of the realm were buried there. With only a very few exceptions, all of the monarchs were buried there from Hugues Capet onwards. The first official histories of France were written by the monks of Saint Denis.

The major work of building the church as it currently exists occurred between 1137 and 1281. Many of the features of Notre Dame are modeled on the features of the earlier constructed Saint Denis Basilica.

Here then, inside the church is the monumental tomb of Henri II and Catherine of Medici.The tomb was built between 1560 and 1573 inspired by Italian practices, in particular the use of different colors of marble.

Considered extremely significant is the marble tomb of Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne.The royal couple are portrayed dead and naked inside the marble tomb and alive and praying on the upper part.

Here is King Dagobert's tomb (buried in 639).And the Saint Louis Chapel featuring the praying statute of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.We wandered out into the town and had lunch at a working man's cafe of uncertain ethnicity, perhaps Turk, perhaps some flavor of north African. The food was good and they were extremely happy about having some one from America in their establishment. They wanted to know where in America we were from but didn't recognize Minneapolis or Saint Paul so in describing where in America we were from I had to go ahead and go with "Chicago" which they did know about. "Hot" the proprietor said.

But it was all good, he taught me the word for glass (which thanks to GRider's adventures in Nantes I actually already knew) and there was actual backslapping and bonhomie. I love France.

We capped the day of dealing with relics from the 6th through 16th century with a visit to this quintessential 20th century edifice, Le Stade de France.Closed circuit to Wireless again with GRider invited to listen in: Guess where the knight in the fleur de lis will be standing come December.And how much are these Metro tickets supposed to be? I helped Jim buy un carnet a couple of days ago from a human at Chatelet and I am pretty sure he got 10 tickets for 12 euros 50. Today I went to the information booth at Champs Elysee-Clemenceau with 12 and 50 in hand and was refused service, referred instead to the machine. The machine is mostly touch screen with an option for the first parts of it in English so I went for it. I put in 12 and 50 and got twenty tickets. Check it out, it is all there on the receipt. I would appreciate any insight which could be provided by a person who actually speaks and reads French.