Tuesday – first full day en Paris

We slept fairly late on our comfortable tiny twin beds in our tiny room. First, we discovered the sale de petit dejeuner dan l’hotel, a tiny room in the tiny basement with a tiny kitchen. We weren’t at all sure whether it was self-serve or not. We soon found out it was not, And we were served orange juice, croissants, cereal, and yogurt. And coffee. All quite good.

Then we were off to the Louvre. Quelle excitement! We found our way there easily on the metro and sortied to find…an empty plaza in front of the beautiful building. We had arrived early. Yea! We found our way to the ticket booth and read ‘Le Louvre et ferme mardi’. Sadly, I knew this meant we would be visiting the Louvre on mercredi! Not to worry. A short walk across the Pont Neuf would bring us to Saint-Chappelle et Notre Dame, two not-to-be-missed sights of wonderful Paris. It was difficult to find the entrance to Saint-Chappelle and I was beginning to worry about what lay ahead because Kate had a blister and it was becoming very hot by 10:30! And we were both thirsty. Nevertheless, we bought our tickets and entered the church. I knew the small room we first entered was not the ‘main event’, so we didn’t linger long before climbing the stairs to…WOW…one of the most amazing sights of the trip. St.-Chappelle is an intimate church whose walls are covered in the most amazing stained glass from floor to ceiling. The quality of light created by the stain glass was, well, heavenly! I was stunned. I think Kate was too. I had heard it was beautiful, but I wasn’t quite prepared for it. After attempting to capture it in photos, we reluctantly left for the much larger Notre Dame nearby. We had to find water, and a quick walk through the Palais du Justice led us to believe water fountains were deliberately withheld from public areas to ensure water and other beverage sales! We bought spring water on the street.

Notre Dame was impressive as well, but more for its massive frame and round stained glass way up high in the cathedral. We paid an extra five Euro to see the crown of thorns and pieces of the cross and one of the nails that held Jesus on the cross, but all we saw was a small piece of wood supposedly from the cross. The crown of thorns was hidden from public view in what amounted to a public scam to raise $ in my opinion. Anyway, there were some old papal relicts and a huge silver Madonna statue that were impressive nonetheless.

We found lunch in a little café in the streets south of the Seine (on la rive gauche). Alors, then we walked to Musee D’Orsay. The 19th century paintings there (Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Renoir, etc.) were much more to our liking than the Tate Modern in London. We had a nice relaxing walk through the museum. Then we watched boats going up and down the Seine and decided a dinner cruise might be just the thing. So we walked further up the Seine to the right bank and les Bateaux Mouches. Dinner cruises, we discovered, didn’t happen until 8:30 PM, and they cost something like $160 apiece. Well, that killed that idea. Instead, we took an 8 Euro 1 hr cruise on the Seine, which was quite worthwhile and enjoyable, despite the continued heat. After that adventure, we made our way back to the hotel for showers. We found a French café we are going to try for dinner. We may also try a second ascent of the Eiffel Tower, with the goal being to go all the way to the top to see the lights at night. Should be fun!

Hope you are enjoying these pictures. We are taking lots of them, and it’s always hard to select which ones to post. For those who have been here before, we want to bring back memories, and for those who haven’t, try to capture some of the essence of the city. Hope we’re succeeding at that. French TV is a kick, by the way. Just watched an episode of Frasier in French! Bonsoir to all! I'm going to upload this 'sans images' b/c the internet is being flaky and the battery is running low. Hope to add pics later...