Paris -- Day 4

Some kind of party seemed to be happening on the street below our window until about 4:30 a.m.  Sometime after 5 we fell asleep.  When we finally woke up and heard the rain we had a hard time getting up.  We started the day by getting pastries and coffee and then walking over to Luxembourg Garden.  We figured it might be a travesty to be staying this close and not see it.  It would have been a travesty.

Luxembourg Garden houses the French Senate and below the garden is the headquarters for the French Secret Service.

The gardens are lovely, with statues everywhere.

We headed to Sacre-Coeur and rode the funicular up the hill.

There are absolutely no photos allowed inside Sacre-Coeur. Mass began while we were inside.  The acoustics are phenomenal.  The impressive pipe organ was played and a nun sang an aria.  Meanwhile, hundreds of tourists made their way around the outside of the worshipping crowd, snapping pictures and being hushed.  When we made our way outside we found it raining.  We navigated our way through the crowded streets to the Church of Ste. Pierre-de-Montmartre.  It is one of the oldest churches in Paris.  It was founded by King Louis VI and his wife, Adelaide.  Adelaide is entombed in the wall.  The cleaning crew was working at the church and used Adelaide's tomb to prop up the mop.

There are four pillars in the church that probably stood in the Temple to Mars during the Roman times.

A statue of Saint Denis displays him with his head in his hands after being beheaded.

Across from the church is Place du Tertre where the artists of Montmartre sell their art and do portraitures for you as you wait.

We spent quite a bit of time in Montmartre.  We sampled the gelato,visited the bakeries, cheese shops and fruit stands. We got lost for awhile...

...but ended up coming out of the neighborhood right by Moulin Rouge.  Bryan considered going in when he learned they had a giant aquarium.

We took the Metro back to the Place de Concorde in hopes of finding the Orangerie Museum open this time.  Of course, it was pouring rain again when we got off at the stop.

The Orangerie Museum was specially built to show off the water lily paintings of Monet and to display other Impressionist paintings.  They do not allow pictures but we did get a picture of Rodin's Lovers just outside the museum.

We crossed the Seine,

past the Alexander III bridge so that we could see the Hotel des Invalides, where Napoleon's body rests.

By then our feet were shot and our backs ached.  We took the Metro back to our neighborhood and purchased some take-out from a neighborhood bakery.  We know that we need to rest well tonight to be ready for tomorrow's adventure.  We are renting a car at the airport and heading for Mont Saint Michel.  We are both a bit nervous about driving in France.

 

Paris -Day 3

I woke up late this morning to find Bryan up and ready to run down to the corner from some chocolate croissants.  When I was ready we headed for Versailles.  It is impressive.

I smugly thought that because we had museum passes we would by-pass the long lines. First we waited to get through security...

Then we waited to pick up our free audio guide...

Walking through the chateau feels like one massive line of people. We saw the Royal Chapel,

hundreds of paintings,

Grand staircases,

and the Hall of Mirrors.

Then we sat outside, ate and looked at the gardens.

We got back on the train to Paris and decided to try again to go to Pere Lachaise Cemetery. This time we made it. We saw the underground crypt and crematorium.

The monuments for Parisians who had lost their lives in Nazi concentration camps were particularly impressive.

We found the grave sites of Oscar Wilde,

Jim Morrison,

Abelard and Heloise,

and Colette.

Along the way we discovered this cat preparing for his final testing place.

We had a lovely French dinner in a little restaurant named Invictus, near our hotel.  Everything about the meal was perfect.

 

Paris -- Day 2

I seem to have become a bit of an insomniac here in Paris, so I will tell you about our second day in this lovely city.  Since we had gone to bed the night before without a "proper" dinner we decided to begin the day with a "proper" breakfast.  We sat in the hotel lobby and had hard boiled eggs, toast and jam, cheese, cold cuts, figs and freshly brewed coffee.  Bryan read the International New York Times while I savored every bite.

Our guidebook suggested that if we should want to tour Notre Dame we should arrive before 10 am and get in line for the Tower Tour.  By 9:30 am we were in the line that already stretched halfway back the length of this impressive cathedral.  We got in line, smug that as soon as the doors opened we would quickly find ourselves beginning to scale the 400 steps up to the top of the cathedral.  It wasn't until 11 am that we finally found our feet on step one. 

Two-thirds of the way up we crossed the front of the church, past the "infamous" bored gargoyle.

Some helpful tourist took it upon himself to try and organize use of the final steps to the top.  So while everyone in our group was stopped in limbo, I busied myself by taking pictures of every lovely picture I could find.

When an official finally arrived we were sent up the final flight of stairs to the top. This was only our second day in Paris but it was the third tower we climbed!  Bryan and I have now experienced many spectacular views of Paris...all in a city that has no love for skyscrapers.

When we descended all 400 narrow steps we were both wobbly and weak kneed...but looking forward to exploring the interior to the cathedral.  Alas, the line to get inside the cathedral was longer than the one we had just survived.  With great disappointment we left without going inside and headed over to see Sainte-Chapelle. When we saw the line there we gave up and decided to find a cafe to fortify our weak spirits. We lucked upon a perfect place.  After sharing a plate of steak and "frittes" we felt ready to face the world again.  We queued up outside Sainte-Chapelle and made it through security in record time.  Then we by-passed about 100 people because we had purchased museum passes when we landed at Charles de Gualle airport.  When we entered the sanctuary we discovered that the stained glass is under repair and scaffolding hides about 1/4 of it, including the rose window of the final judgment on the back wall....and still Sainte-Chapelle is the most magnificent chapel I have ever experienced.  "Fiat lux"...Let there be light...and there was and it was very good.  With 6,500 square feet of stained glass the chapel was alive with beauty.

Much of the 1,100 scenes depicted come from the biblical narrative.  I was delighted to learn that even the Book of Tobit is portrayed.  I spent too much time looking for Tobias, a fish and a dog.

Back outside Sainte-Chapelle we decided to see if things at Notre Dame had settled down.  The line was half as long and we so we joined it. 

 As soon as we got inside we found our way to the worship chairs and spent time in silence soaking in the beauty and the wonder.

After lighting a candle and saying a prayer for my father, we wandered along the sides of the cathedral, past the new modern confessionals that are now glass and called dialogue rooms, the stained glass windows....

...the statues of saints (like Joan of Arc), and all the wonderful art depicting the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  I was pleased to find one of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples.

Once outside we walked across a bridge over the Seine.  We looked down and remembered that just the night before we had been mooned in that same location by three drunk young adults that decided to add their scenery to our romantic cruise of the river.  Then we headed for the Shakespeare & Company Bookstore.  We entered but didn't stay long.  The store is tiny and there seemed to be almost as many people inside the store as there are books.

Tired of crowds we found a nice park and sat down to decide how we would spend the rest of our day. We opted for Pere Lachaise Cemetery since the predicted rain had not shown up.  Bryan was eager to see the burial place of Jim Morrison.  I wanted to pay my respects to Heloise and Abelard.  We hopped on the Metro only to discover there was some kind of mechanical problems on that particular line...not sure what since we don't speak French.  It took us 45 minutes to make three stops.  We got off and rerouted ourselves to the Louvre.

Once again, Museum passes allowed us to by-pass the long line of tourists.  We saw quite a bit...too much actually...of great works of art.  We saw the Mona Lisa, of course.

After all, we had to see how the real thing compares to the rendition above our bed.

We walked past the Venus de Milo...

...and tried to read the Code of Hammurabi.

However, by that point I had passed my limit of appreciation.  The Louvre is overwhelming, a bit daunting and the temperature was set at "sauna".  We sat down to see if I could recover.  

It quickly became clear that I had reached my limit.  We left and found a cafe to see if coffee would help.

Then we made the trek back to our neighborhood and an Italian dinner.  

Paris --Day 1

We arrived in Paris last night 3 1/2 hours late.  Before we left LAX our plane had mechanical difficulties and so the pilot pulled back from the gate and kept us on the Tarmac as the powers that be decided if our plane could be repaired or we would need to be moved to a different plane.  During that time we were told to remain in our seats.  A direct flight that was supposed to take 11 hours took 14 1/2 hours.   It was not a great beginning to our trip.  Somewhere over Greenland, Bryan was debating whether he ever wanted to fly again.

We were supposed to land in Paris with plenty of time to get to our hotel in the daylight.  But with the delay we got to our hotel about 11 p.m.  Being the neurotic traveller that I am I had written on a 3 x 5 card the exact trains we were to take and the directions from our final Metro station to the hotel.  My directions came in handy!  

We are staying in a little boutique hotel near Luxembourg Gardens.  It has everything we need: a king size bed, a safe, a window overlooking the street and a huge picture of just Mona Lisa's smile that is as large as the bed is wide!

We fell exhausted into bed, so glad to be lying down.  This morning we jumped out of bed, ate some energy bars in the room and headed for the Eiffel Tower.  After reading too many travel sites, I had decided that we were not going to wait in line to get tickets.  Through AAA we purchased Skip-the-Line tickets and it was worth every penny!  30,000 people visit the Eiffel Tower everyday.  We passed right by those 30,000 people and entered the first elevator.  

The weather was gorgeous and the views were stunning.

When we finally made our descent we walked across the Seine River and sat on a park bench to people watch and enjoy the view.  Then we walked up to the Arc de Triomphe.  

Once we figured out how to get across the street we spent time walking around under this impressive structure.  Bryan located the Boyer name on the wall.

Then we walked up the 284 steps to the top.  The spiral staircase left us dizzy and a bit weak.

Since we had been up the Eiffel Tower and familiarized ourselves with the city we were able to get just a bit different perspective from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Back down 284 steps we checked out the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We headed down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.  We didn't stop in Tiffany's or Cartier.  By this time it was nearing 4 p.m. and we had not eaten lunch.  So we sat down in a little cafe on the sidewalk and had the most expensive salad and pizza of my life!  While we were sitting the weather changed from a gorgeous Spring day to a rainy April day.  We got out our umbrella and headed towards the Place de la Concorde assuming that the rain would be light or would end soon.  Bad prediction.

We hustled over to the Musee de L'Orangerie thinking we would spend a couple lovely hours with some impressionist paintings while the weather settled down.  It had just closed.  We got out our guidebook only to discover that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.  Sopping wet we made it to a Metro station and headed for our hotel. 

After drying out and taking naps we woke up to find that the weather had changed and it was a beautiful night.  We rushed out the door, headed for Pont Neuf and a boat ride down the Seine at night.  By the time we got to Pont Neuf it was 10 p.m.  We floated past the Eiffel Tower....

...and Notre Dame...

...and a dozen beautiful bridges.

By the time we took the Metro back to our neighborhood, we were too tired to eat dinner...more energy bars and off to bed.