Paris' Unexpected Treasures with Griff Rhys Jones | The Greatest Cities in the World | TRACKS

by the year 2010 half the people of the world will live in cities the center of this one is probably the most influential is Italy but it's no bigger than the whole of London's parks put together oh yes it's Paris small intense butter full of flavor what are the ingredients of this astonishing creation [Music] over the course of an ordinary Parisian day I want to investigate the ideas that have made this city the way it is I want to burrow into it to try to get beneath its skin I want to meet its citizens and they're eccentric obsessions and by experiencing its astonished traditions get to grips with its appeal why do people adore Paris [Music] and I think I'd better start at first light here in the Place de la Concorde well this is a very good time of the morning so they tell me to come here and pass the Concord to see the Lintz but Paris will go to - not a perfect seven and a half kilometers in fact that's how long the triumphal way is from the front door of the Louvre along here past this gigantic obelisk and on up here for another four kilometers on up the shores Alizee there to the top of the hill flew straight through the middle of the Arc de Triomphe there what a magnificent triumphal way and it would be perfect except with this arch the brand new square one at ladder forms is not in line with the others for some reason it was built off center the architects the state the people of Paris wanted perfection but there's always one awkward bugger who refuses to conform so the rest of them talk about and that is the glory of Paris Paris has probably had more ardent admirers than any other place on earth from the Roman Emperor Julian who called it his beloved City to Adolphe Hitler who in 1914 wrote that he had always longed to visit Paris having just done so with his army and 40,000 tanks it was considered too beautiful to bomb and survive the Second World War intact when many other places were razed to the ground Paris is exquisite in scale and content it has over 40,000 public monuments New York may boast bigger taller London more extensive but Paris knows it has the finest it's the attention to detail that makes this city tick you can't just make bread here you've got to make the world's best bread at the palarm bakery that means making it by hand now I'm gonna go and strangle the kneaded dough has to be moved to a proving bin to rise and it has to be done to schedule all the bread will spoil French bread is special because of its simplicity the law dictates it must be made from flour yeast salt and water and nothing else except perhaps the odd drops Felix wants me to hurry up because we have to do all this before before daybreak as it were Sibbi Anna hey even the oven is hard work the bakery uses wood the frames have to reach 300 degrees centigrade we're not making baguettes they were a Viennese invention we're making traditional French country bread round sled the tough and beyond compare in this city 70% of the bread is made by hand in Britain 3% [Music] it's just continuous physical action it's hard work linking bread with no preservatives in it fresh bread has to be collected twice a day so Parisians have to work to get hold of the stuff as well you cube for good bread in Paris luckily there's a bread shop on average every hundred meters lack of bread was a course of the French Revolution so I hope I've made enough for this not as the markets open Paris is preparing herself for another day showing off to the world for its size Paris is the world's biggest spender on keeping up appearances as I negotiate the center of town I have to jump over a puddle but it's not a casual party actually it has been raining there there are two water systems in Paris one for drinking and one which was the old water system which they just left and now they use for cleaning the street and every now and again they turn a switch and it starts pouring out of the curb it's a major industry keeping Paris clean and there's a lot more to it than swilling out the gutters on the left bank in the east of the city I'm joining an elite unit of sanitary engineers they have their spies at all the major monuments with specific instructions to move into action at a moment's notice [Music] this is the crack graffiti eradication squad deep alley [Music] it's been estimated that graffiti artists hit 300,000 square meters of Paris surface every year 40% of the houses have been tanked and in 2004 there was a concerted campaign to write advertising kills on every single billboard in the city we skirt the pond fill rush past not to DOM to get down to the banks of the sin to find our offending dog some years ago parisian politicians needed to debate where the graffiti was an eyesore or a form of free expression they decided any graffiti should be removed immediately from all monuments the other priorities of politics which have to go like that and racism no racism so rest of the graffiti if you're in the mind to come and decorate policy you know you can get away art would stay for a bit longer but those things we we had to be here straight off the shell starts up the machine and i get to grips with the blast I can only give a Gallic gesture of satisfaction ah Bravo it's now 7:30 and I take to the river going west I don't want to be late for school and I'm heading to the world's tallest classroom the river sin is the reason why the city of Paris is here two hundred years ago Paris was the second biggest port in France it's still one of the biggest river ports in the world but somehow manages to be a little more alluring than felixstowe docks it's rush hour for the three million students who live here I'm joining a school trip to the tiny air-guitar the Eiffel Tower dominates this town has indeed it was meant to it was built in 1889 to convincingly demonstrate that France was the top of her class today madam Baron will teach her pupils firmly on the significance of the world's largest Meccano model with special reference to its 2.5 million rivets what Madame it's probably not going to tell them is that all the intellectuals all the writers absolutely hated this tower when it went up G de Maupassant the notice used to come here and have lunch every day and when he was asked why he said because having lunch here it's the only place in Paris but I can't see the damn thing but it didn't stay unpopular for long 10 years after it was built 50 million visitors or one-fifth of the whole population of Europe came to the 1900 World Fair to have a look at the thing it has remained the world's most visited attraction ever since the Petit Palais the Grand Palais the musee d'orsay and the Trocadero were also war built for these mammoth expositions and all have stayed to adorn the city they were meant to demonstrate notice that France was perfect food wire fashion most of France was perfect at science manufacturing and engineering for all its obvious visibility the real wonder this place is hidden away out of sight a hundred and twenty years ago the lift mechanism was hailed as a miracle of French engineering incredibly it's still faithfully lifting and lowering can I've been invited to keep it lubricated once a week a special grease has to be applied to the mechanism while it's still moving it's boiling hot and it smells incredible and that's because it's molten mutton fat and it gets everywhere you just get the impression assume no lectures but it's good to slip on the mountain recent into the machinery dearie me [Music] again no fat flying them up and away good stop me singing the wheels no doubt if I was a proper French with what I do nice take a big scoop of that but spread it on a piece of bread and have it for my lunch the tower was meant to be temporary but stuck around as a symbol of French pride in their engineering prowess it also came to symbolize French pride in their military prowess during the First World War the Germans came to within 50 miles of Paris and the Eiffel Tower was used as a giant lookout post to direct the French troops who were ferried to the battle in Paris Ian taxis this had two results first of all it made Parisian taxi drivers rather rich because well fifty miles is a long way and they charged the full fare and secondly it turned the Eiffel Tower into a monument of victory so the tower celebrates yet another victory for the French army as if there wasn't quite enough of that sort of thing around here anyway the west of Paris is dominated by grand military buildings and fast parade grounds like the Officer Training School where I have a 10:00 a.m. meeting with born and bred Parisian captain Biddy gee what do you think is the great secret of Paris trade secrets Paris I don't mean secret hidden what is the Hillary perhaps you're one of the few people who probably have that done quite efficiently are they indeed he could because the school proudly leads the world in unarmed combat and I'm deal sergeant is explaining that he now has the complete attention of the recruiters and could break his arm in four places it's probably very worth remembering if you should ever come to Paris that means I surrender I hope after subduing me captain better she reminded me how France had once dominated the whole of Europe one of the most famous cadets st. celebrated graduates I was going to say of this of the school was Napoleon that's right that's why it was a great graduate he returned the course of a one-year instead of three years is that because he was so good no was it wasn't a hurry you know you had to conquer Europe so that's reason why he was so through the whole thing okay just did his here and then and then galloped off to conquer Europe and conquer it he did the Arc de Triomphe is a monument to that boast it dominates northwest Paris completed 50 years after his death the only time Boni ever came here was during his funeral procession today as every day French war veterans commemorate their fallen comrades by relighting the flame on the tomb of the unknown soldier this eternal fire has been a light since 1920 the flame has only been extinguished once and that was by drunken a Mexican football supporter on the night that Brazil beat France here in Paris the tomb of the Mexican football supporter is unknown army maneuvers are why Paris is one of the most magnificent layouts of any city in the world and the Arc de Triomphe is the perfect place to appreciate it in 1852 after 80 years of fighting in the streets Paris's narrow medieval lanes some of which exist today were seen as overcrowded congested and perfect for riots the city was set for its makeover King or perhaps I should say Baron now here we are this is what I'm looking for because this is the name house of the baron who completely and utterly transformed us into we think of it as being today and working for his boss Napoleon the third what he essentially did was bash a series of enormous streets right the way through the middle of Paris called boulevards they were designed to get cavalry troops straight to the heart of any future trouble from Paris citizens but they also bizarrely got rid of all the working classes and turned Paris into a city of rich people living in expensive houses this essentially made inner-city Paris into one big Kensington and Chelsea even today Paris is the richest city in Europe to service the wealthy it's stuffed with expensive shops and natty boutiques if you know your way you can virtually cross the center of the city far these hidden passages they were built to stop the rich from getting wet naturally Paris is thick with Beauty Salons and I've met up with a natural Parisian redhead for her 12 o'clock appointment here we are this is van a who's named after a teen named and she's an apricot colored Ganesha poodle she's here freckles and blow-dry I'm here to assist [Music] it's clear that fashion is a serious business even for dogs [Music] into the bath wooly what uh smash eeeh she's taken on a different sort of demeanor now I'm fairies in this world without her finery Barney she's gonna blow her off the table hold on tight [Music] [Music] we walk seventy-five euros lighter I'm ready to walk my poodle about a bit and walking about a bit really is a parisian obsession Baron Haussmann may have developed the boulevard but he didn't invent it that happened a hundred years earlier when King Louie the 14th the Sun King knocked down the city walls to show how sunny he was the walkways he made in their place were called boulevards after the Dutch word for walls and they created another side effect the Parisians started parading about in fact they're like parading about so much that they had have lots of extra places made for doing it like the tweet of the guards here outside drawings not really parks places for walking up and down and of course if you walk up and down like that in front of lots of people you have to look good so fashion became extremely important [Music] but I'm in search of another great historical tradition lunch lunch is so important in Paris nearly all office workers are still given luncheon vouchers to ensure that they eat properly Paris is actually the center of ot cuisine because of the Revolution when the palace is closed their chefs opened a recent invention called the restaurant the grow over for actually dates from before that time it's been here since 1760 it's an appropriate place to meet a Parisian socialite called Florence I brought Vahini pretty and the dog well she's perfectly welcome in one of Paris's perfect restaurants it seems in London we like to have lots of things in Paris it's completely different people don't like to consume like these like crazy they like to take the time and to make the nice choice the right shows the right selection so other things are expensive people are being very demanding yes very demanding about the quality so that shows the ticket of time for this you have to to work for the pleasure but when you get the pleasure you're so happy at 98 euros my lobster wasn't cheap but of course it was excellent as far as the dog was concerned it was choosiness also applies to relationships [Music] Paris is known as the city of love but in reality it has the highest proportion of singles in any city in Europe [Music] unsurprisingly pets have become essential alternative companions to the east of the city is a cemetery which certainly shows the intensity of that relationship to my prince who left me with a great sadness now it's not very well tended unfortunately brave I wonder whether tappity to Nam or Louisiana has gone to the great walkies in the sky provides I'm finish I don't think the prisons were sentimental about animals I think that that select everything here but not their pets put yourself together while in Paris many visitors like to pay their respects at the grave of Jim Morrison the late lead singer of The Doors but in fact he wasn't the only American star to end his days here the very bricks stones and cobbles remind us of the past in Paris although it is a few years since they were torn up and thrown about in the name of revolution but we should not assume that the spirit of rebellion is dead Parisians are still fiercely independent of all petty rules and regulations particularly at the wheel of a car I've got to get across town dr. Thierry has lent me his prized vehicle to do so we intend to negotiate our way past the greatest obstacle to road safety in the whole of Paris it's got a cent a second yes the after tree on the great monument is in the middle of a monumental roundabout 12 massive highways converge on it this is the Wild West [Music] Paris does not try to control the traffic it lets it fight it out for itself there are no lane markings but there are lots of cars and just two rules one give way to go right to obey no other rules to add to my difficulties [Music] any measure is my delight - no don't secret of the Arc de Triomphe regarding accidents who is to blame you're always options we're down here is that right yeah you turn illegal normally you can't you can't well no way okay there we go thank you bye-bye oh thank you ah well that was exciting made just a little bit more demanding by the fact that I drove 50 percent of the way with the brake on leaving the driving to those who do it worst I continued on one of the city's free bikes at the top of Marmara behind the Cathedral sacre coeur I'm looking for one of Paris's little unexpected treasures this area used to be the largest winemaking region in France now it's the smallest and this is the last working vineyard in the capital like the middle of a city here but this isn't a toy vineyard at all in fact it produces 2,000 half bottles of red wine which are much sought after and which one a whole series of prizes for the region after half an hour of chatting about the vines Presi don't miss your lawn Swan decided to entrust me with a little secret is really a sick thing sure Jessica the Tribhuvan here solace in Bausch apparently some of the vines here of an illegal grape type band in the rest of the country it's a strictly stability of break because it makes you hallucinate oh yes well yes but it goes in this one well I don't find and neither does this be as it makes its round of Paris's exceptional outdoor spaces flying from the vineyard of Montmartre to the flowers of the Botanical Gardens and all to the finest fruit blossom in the country which just happens to be grown in the Luxembourg Gardens eventually it'll come home but this bee doesn't live in an ordinary hive it lives on a roof that roof is on top of the Paris Opera the hive was set up here by Jean the opera prop maker he did it at the recommendation of the fire department as Albina tries to explain one of the firemen of the opera house who himself starts breeding trout's at the basement of the opera house right wait a minute now so there was a so there was a fireman of the Opera House who is breeding trout already exact in in the basement of the operas yeah because there is a secret lake underneath the Opera exactly so what makes it so good if you go to the French countryside you don't find exactly the same quality of honey because of the pesticides that they use I'll sing so that wonderful so this is not just a sort of crazy hobby having the bees on the roof of the Opera House seduction produces the very finest honey in France absolutely lovely honey vicious bees as soon as I took off my knitting they said we came and got me on my hand and one just circled on my head pretty cool it hurt [Music] the Opera House was designed by Charles Gagne using a mishmash of exotic architectural details when he was asked by the Emperor's wife what style it was supposed to be he hesitated and in a moment of inspiration named it after her husband the style Napoleon the third is now everywhere in Paris and part of architectural history [Music] as the five to seven Bell calls the audience to their seats and the bees go off to sleep on the roof I joined some hardy people who like their evening entertainment these Parisians are lining up to skate across Paris and so I hope Am I though I've never inline skating further than the edge of the curb it's still the rush hour but in Paris they closed the streets for this every Friday evening as it happens tonight is Wednesday my new companions head straight into the traffic and I head straight into a bus [Music] Paris is the skating capital of Europe some of these rambles attract up to 24,000 people the inline skates were originally seen as the solution to the out of line public transport workers who are going on strike [Music] I am now the major instruction in the Paris streets potentially going to cause a gridlock of my own at any moment this is your correspondent on the inline skates in the streets of Paris heading towards the Marais sweat bucket most of it pure fear that was the most dangerous thing I have ever done in my life the City of Light lives up to its reputation and switches itself [Music] 80,000 tourists would have enjoyed its pleasures today [Music] twenty-five thousand of them will have pondered the smile of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre the world's largest and busiest museum and now many of them are pondering the menu you sure it may be approaching midnight but the Brasserie was invented to satisfy the desire to eat good food no matter what time of day or night last orders here at both IJ are at 1:00 a.m. but you can stay until you finish they won't throw you out however long you need of your coffee yeah just to close the restaurant you help in any way I care there are 120,000 waiters at work in Paris what's the view from the other side of the table this place is a favorite with French prime ministers and presidents but if they come tonight I won't be let loose on them Thierry takes his job seriously things must be done correctly never know [Music] yeah great when are they go yeah yeah trays must be carried properly they've just arrived it's 10:00 to 1:00 in the morning and people are still arriving to eat their problem oh yeah meanwhile I'm still struggling with the basics and those damn trays [Music] on the train as well is to say let's go quickly please Feeny and how many copy in France being a waiter is a proper career not an option between engagements in western musical how long will it take me to learn two years two years for data whether a head waiter maybe ten years I have six tables to look after and now I've lost an order [Music] at 2:31 am the restaurant finally closes and I may have even got the hang of the tray tonight here at both Asia they will have served 800 dinners and dished up 20 kilos of foie gras across Paris 82 tons of oysters will have been washed down by 80,000 bottles of champagne as for me I'm feeling a little exhausted [Music] though it's nearly 3:00 a.m. I have one last appointment it's with a group of people who seem to typify the Parisian frame of mind the UX are rebellious passionate and nocturnal they restore monuments to exacting standards without any permission at all in the middle of the night two years ago they broke into one of Paris's most important monuments the porn film they spent a year mending the clock the authorities didn't notice the thing even when the clock started working eventually they took the group to court but a judge decided no Lord been broken Lazar claims they have secret access to anywhere in Paris and these are underground places not obligatory he could be anything the city or doesn't even know they got some they own some building some flats and place tonight they're taking me to look at their latest baby [Music] they've driven me to a street in Paris and I've no idea where I am they open a locked manhole cover and tell me to get in quickly before the police spot us we descend into a tunnel deep underground Lazar doesn't want the authorities to know what he's doing so there are certain things we were not allowed to film suddenly we hear music perhaps this connects to a nightclub or something it's almost a lot of power required here for battle okay we're passing a venue and in order not to be discovered we're told to continue in silence 15 minutes later and we reach what we're looking for it's hole yeah it's an internal interconnection or between two different Network right and I have to go down here do I sure you do the break in the floor is where to tunnel systems meet it will take us into a much deeper and older system of passageways [Music] where are we now sir we are in the last ancient original cry in under progress and we still have a weight again yeah let's go to my office do your office yeah okay in order to build Paris they needed a lot of stone so they carved out huge subterranean quarries where the southern reaches of the city now stand there are nearly 300 kilometres of underground passages some of them are open to the public but this section definitely is not okay guys welcome have a seat Lazar and his team are here to make an illegal survey of this least explored section of the subterranean tunnels under green tile are supposed harm our goal is to try to preserve the most Eden heritage if we can you are the under Goethe yeah and you are a sort of an association of Club no we are distinct group that's not this thing group not only do they restore the forgotten treasures of Paris they also staged private cultural events holding clandestine film festivals in secret cinema well someone told the police someone told the police and the police came and because there was a couscous maker they thought it was a bomb it was a bomb this was a thing for making couscous yeah so you ate couscous why no no yes sometimes we do but yes it wasn't the point it was a purely decorative couscous maker justice this is very French that you had a couscous maker as other curation yes Oh for decoration anyway where's that nother one to make couscous in we would have a popcorn maker at the very least but we have one too but they don't take it for a bomb leaving lazar to his work i take the opportunity to explore another part of the quarry in 1800 all of these underground tunnels were mapped by government inspectors some were marked for the name of the street immediately above them so people didn't get lost but I'm heading to a particular part of the tunnel system with a very particular use it was used to store bones these catacombs contain the remains of nearly six million Parisians you have to imagine it in 18th century France there was quite a lot of death it was a rather gruesome place plagues and things like that and the cemeteries were getting rather full so well they did was they they emptied them out and they threw all the bones down in these tunnels in about 50 years later a long time someone who thought they'd better tidy them up so they made these walls over here you see here the arm bones laid while on top of the other and a row of skulls on the top for decoration with a nice bit of skull work but half way down round here I think it's rather exciting to think that here is essentially the medieval population of Paris we've been exploring this city for nearly 24 hours Nizar offers to take me to watch the dorm come up [Music] he knows a superb vantage point and special access is required [Music] we're at the top of an 11th century gothic masterpiece 250 years ago not true dom cathedral was so badly damaged it was sold for scrap but the author Victor Hugo rent The Hunchback of not true Dom in order to draw attention to its plight when the great church was saved and ultimately restored today she takes her place at the head of a legion of great Parisian buildings in a city her citizens are justly proud of a city striving for perfection and even in its earlier moments achieving us with fairytale majesty [Music] there may be no such thing as a perfect city but I don't know Paris is pretty magical especially this time of night and what I love about the place but I really would have really discovered is the way that people really do put so much discipline and effort and work into the quality of life even the rebels put them back into it it's rather nice to think that somewhere out there now someone is actually having a sleepless night about trying to improve a source or make a delicious soup or bake the perfect cake [Music] you

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Keywords: TRACKS, tracks travel channel, tracks travel, Paris city guide, griff rhys jones, top 10 best attractions in paris, griff rhys jones greatest cities of the world, the greatest cities in the world full episodes, pet cemetery paris, eiffel tower at night, paris travel guide, griff rhys jones documentaries, griff rhys jones documentary, Paris funny guide, top 5 travel attractions in Paris, best places in Paris to visit, things to do in paris, 10 things to do in paris, paris

Id: nLkl0r0C1ro

Length: 44min 57sec (2697 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 24 2019