Went to bed last night planning on going back to the Louvre today when it was open but changed my mind and decided to see the Cathedral of Notre Dame instead. This would be my first experience changing Metro trains and hopefully ending up at the correct station -- surprisingly, it went fine -- once you figure out where the directional signs are in the Metro, finding your way around appears not to be qute so challenging. Notre Dame is located on one of the three islands in the middle of the River Seine, which, once you make it to the island, dramatically increases your likelihood of actually finding it (unlike the Louvre yesterday).
One of the main things to "enjoy" at Notre Dame is climbing four hundred plus steps to the top of the bell towers and walking around the roof tops. Upon arriving, my knees started pleading with me not to do it, at least not today -- so, instead I walked a few blocks to a couple of attractions I hadn't really thought that much about visiting -- the Conciergerie and Sainte Chapelle -- turned out to be an excellent decision, and not just for my knees.
The Conciergerie is where the nearly twenty eight hundred people who were on the wrong side of the French Revolution were imprisoned before meeting Madame Guillotine, including Marie Antoinette. Originally built in the 1300's as the Palace of the King of France, it went through a number of alternate uses before it's infamous role in the Reign of Terror when it was used as the headquarters of the Revolutionary leaders and the last sleeping place of the Queen. Pretty impressive place although much of it now is used as the Hall of Justice for the city of Paris and has been turned into courtrooms and offices. Ended-up spending three hours there.
Next was Sainte Chapelle, built in the 1200's to house religious relics obtained by the King of France -- one of the relics is supposedly the thorn of crowns from Christ's time on the cross -- they only put it on display three days a year so didn't get to see it. What I did get to see though was beyond description -- there are two chapels -- the one on the first floor was for the King's "hired help" -- beautiful stained glass windows and painted walls and floors -- quite nice. The upper chapel was reserved for the King and his special friends and is beyond description -- imagine a sixty foot long, thirty foot high building -- and then picture from your shoulder up almost the entire walls being made of stained glass depicting intricate details of scenes from the Bible -- now picture what it would look like with the afternoon sun shinning straight on the windows -- talk about a blaze of glory! It was -- overwhelming is the best word I can come up with -- if they had benches to sit on (which they don't), I could see people sitting there for hours and hours trying to take it all in -- I've never seen anything like it. And, again, intricate frescos painted on the walls and floors. (Took some photos but am having problems uploading them -- will hopefully get that fixed soon. Plus, there is no way my camera will do these windows justice.)
After swinging thru both depressing and uplifting moods, I realized I was hungry and wandered over to the Left Bank past the booksellers, turned down a random alleyway and found myelff at a small creperie where the owner whipped up a batch of batter, put it on an old-fashioned looking round grill and made me a cheese and chicken crepe. Not sure about all creperies, this one had a small seating area where you could sit for an extra two Euros or take the crepe to go in a paper wrapper. Got mine to go, walked back to the bridge over the River Seine, stood there halfway across the bridge with the warm afternoon sun on my back watching the barges pass beneath me on their way to who knows where.
Returned to the apartment for a nice Skype date. Then a while later, went out shopping for supplies for dinner -- am trying to go walking in a different direction every day in the late afternoon/early evening to explore the different parts of the neighborhood -- today I found a new produce/fruit market in an area I hadn't been to before -- and a new boulangerie and the pastries were pretty good -- I'll be back!
