Paris - Part Deux

2nd Day in Paris

Hotel de Ville - Paris City Hall

As usual, Dimitri made us all get up early to take a morning tour of the city.

which meant we got to enjoy early morning Parisian sites like sparkling clean garbage trucks.

Starting the tour by crossing a bridge from the right bank to the Ile de la Cité, the island in the middle of the Seine river where Paris was first founded. It was our first glimpse of Notre Dame.

I love this shot looking down river. Such a typical Paris scene!

We toured several sites near the Palais de Justice, which was under very high security due to the trial of an infamous terrorist. You probably remember the Charlie Hebdo shootings and attacks around Paris in 2015. One of those terrorists 😬

Notice the "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" slogan at the doors. I hear the Marseillaise starting up 🎶

Because of the trial, we saw heavily armed police all around the Ile de la Cité. This is where being part of a tour group is helpful. We got into the tour sites anyway.

I loved this modern take on Marianne, also known as Liberty Guiding the People. We sure could use Marianne in the US today.

Right by the Conciergerie (famous old guard house but not too exciting - mostly empty) we saw this mosaic filling a random gap in the sidewalk. Later we saw another one outside Notre Dame.

Street art is so cool

Our first sight of la Sainte Chappelle, a royal chapel consecrated in 1248, famous for the Gothic architecture. Notice the beautiful spire on top.

Inside la Sainte Chapelle you can see the beautiful soaring arches and stained glass windows. It was meant to look like the church was soaring up to heaven, and it certainly does.

We were having trouble wrapping our heads around walking on the same floors that people stepped on over 800 years ago.

The stained glass windows depict hundreds of tiny scenes from the Old and New Testaments. Since most people couldn't read when the chapel was built, these little window stories were meant to teach them about the Bible. This one reminded me of the quest for the Holy Grail.

All of our local tour guides have been wonderful sources of information who have taught us so much. This Parisian guide, though, had a particularly assertive method of addressing individual tour members with laser eye contact and some lack of awareness of personal space 😂 (check out Mary's body language)

It was heartbreaking but also somewhat reassuring to see Notre Dame still standing, with tons of scaffolding and a missing "flèche" (similar to the spire you saw above on the Sainte Chapelle).

Around the back of Notre-Dame was a Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation, the French Jews sent to concentration camps during World War II, to the shame of Parisians.

This memorial to an unknown deportee suggested the terror of a train approaching to take you away from the life you've known, and on to an unknown fate. All because of hate.

I made Mary stand on a bench to try to see the amazing stone carvings around the doors to Notre Dame.

Mary is reading some of the information about the work done so far to stabilize Notre Dame, recover materials, and plan for reconstruction.

We discovered an archeological "crypt" museum below Notre Dame. When Parisians started digging in front of the cathedral for a parking garage, they discovered Roman ruins. These stones were part of an original stone wharf from a Roman settlement called Lutetia.

Across the bridge to the Rive Gauche (Left Bank) we checked out the Latin quarter. I brought Mary to one of my favorite statues, Michael the archangel defeating the devil on the corner of the famous Boulevard St. Michel. 

Mary loved the narrow streets full of shops and restaurants where we had lunch.

Mary is now a pro at using the Métro to get around Paris. She got really good at figuring out the most efficient route with the fewest connections 😀

We headed for Sacré Cœur, which we had seen clearly across the city from the Eiffel Tower.

We took our time to climb the many, many steps, then hung around at the top for a while enjoying the view. Anyone concerned about that cloud?

A couple on our tour brought a small lock with them in memory of family members who passed away unexpectedly last year, planning to lock it in a special place along the way (which they found in the Alps). Apparently this is encouraged at Sacré Coeur, because there were thousands of locks on fences around the church. The street vendors were even selling heart-shaped locks. Looks like it's a good place to get engaged 🙂

Sacré Coeur is a newer church (for Europe), built in the late 1800s on Montmartre, the "hill of martyrs." The history of Montmartre goes back to early Christians like Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris. The church is not as ornate as others we've seen around Europe but the interior is still quite beautiful.  We were lucky to be still inside looking around as a mass began, then torrents of rain started coming down. The mass was somewhat disturbed by the commotion outside as people took cover under the portico.

After the rain moved on, we walked around Montmartre. This looks like the same artist who drew Kelly's portrait years ago when we were on the Girl Scout trip.

Before attempting the steep stairs back to the Métro station, we stopped for gelato.

I finally found rum raisin! This flavor didn't seem to be popular in Italy.

At this point our legs were very tired so we Métro-ed our way back to the hotel to rest up.

Our second day in Paris and last day of the tour ended with a farewell dinner. We took lots of pictures, reminisced about special moments and the community we've built, and said goodbye to our friends.

All the girls

and the guys.

Although the official tour is over, Mary and I weren't quite done.

Tomorrow: Versailles 

- Christine