We went to Notre Dame in the afternoon....quite a long line to get into the cathedral, and our Paris Museum Paris really didn't give us any access privileges at all. It was lovely from the outside and free to get in, so we just wandered around. I noticed that each section of the interior of the cathedral was devoted to a particular saint; they even had one for Joan of Arc, which I thought was great. Plenty of votive candles and paintings abounded, including scenes of the resurrected Jesus in the choir. Of course, there was rose-shaped stained glass as well, and we were impressed by the size of it all. However, ultimately we concluded that we were more impressed by the cathedrals in Prague, especially St. Vitus Cathedral. Perhaps our feelings were influenced by the fact that, by the time we got outside, we learned that we couldn't do the tour of the upper floors with the gargoyles, as we had hoped to with the Paris Museum Paris. It turns out that you have to use the (not well-marked) kiosk to sign up for this tour on the day of, or use an app on your phone. There were all ready 517 people in line ahead of us according to the app, and two people told us there would be no more entries that day, so we gave up.
It was about 4 pm at that point, so we decided to use our passes elsewhere. I noticed that the pass guide book said that Saint-Chapelle was open, so we went there; it was close by. We first stopped at a souvenir store along the way that actually had some cheap, good stuff. At Saint-Chapelle itself, the line wasn't long for security (and security was a bit tight...they made us take phones and wallets out of our pockets, and they didn't even do this at the Louvre..). And the pass was an advantage for us; we got to bypass the long line to get in of about 100 people and walk straight to the front. Go Paris Museum Passes! For once, they did save us time. On the main floor of Saint-Chapelle, I wasn't overly impressed--some stained glass and a statue of Louis IX, but that was about it. I noted in one of my guidebooks that it was built in the 13th century, from 1242 to 1248, and that it was almost torn down at one point. Once we ascended the stairs, though, WOW. Totally different impression. The stained glass there was AMAZING. The room was surrounded by it, and it was quite a sight to behold.
We still had time afterwards to go to the Conciergie. On the way, we made an accidental detour to the Cour d'Appel, which looked like it had a palace gate from the outside. I found this out only by asking a young woman smoking a cigarette on the steps (en Francais, of course). She explained to me what it was, and then asked if I spoke English...which I guess is a good sign that my French is serviceable.
The Conciergie was a medieval prison during the French Revolution; it is where Marie Antionette spent her last days. The place was quite dark and foreboding, not surprisingly. It seemed mostly like a museum about the French Revolution and the way that prisoners were treated at the Conciergie. The last major room was about Marie Antoinette: it contained a chapel of reflection on her and some items from her life, including a dress she wore at the Conciergie and even a lock of her hair (encased in paper). They were shooing us out by the end, though, because it was 6 pm and time for the place to close.
We went to a place called Cafe Sarah Bernhardt for dinner. And we FINALLY had a really good dinner--I had tartare with fries and a good side salad; Kerry had andouille sausage. For dessert, I had three scoops of coffee ice cream and Kerry had chocolate cake. Very, very tasty and not too insanely expensive for Paris, either (60 euros in all).
Afterwards, we walked to a gay bookstore called Les Mots a la Bouche: lots of stuff here--mostly French books, graphic novels, porn, and even some English texts. I asked the sales clerk if they had 2019 calendars (in French!), but they did not. (I will admit, though, that I couldn't fully understand the torrent of French he replied to me with. But I got the jist of his message.)
We then took Le Metro home. We don't have to buy tickets each time now since we bought books of 10 (each) the other day. The problem is that you have to use one ticket each way, so they'll be gone in 5 days. But, it's cheaper than buying a ticket for each ride (1,40 euro vs. 1,90 euro). Overall, I do like Le Metro a lot: it's easy to follow, cheap, clean, and neat. The only problem is that on our last couple rides there have been beggars (with signs, oddly enough); they good things is that they haven't bothered me or Kerry so far. Hopefully they assume we don't speak French.
A productive day overall. Tomorrow, we'll tackle Le Musee d'Orsay.
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| Notre Dame |
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| A window from Saint-Chapelle |
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