Paris - Day 5

Ok. I'm just going to say it. These Parisians love their stairs. Or, maybe it's not that they love their stairs, but they love their monuments too much to desecrate them by adding any modern conveniences like, say, elevators. You want to see the top of the Arc de Triomphe? That will be 270 stairs. You want to see the bell tower at Notre Dame? That will be 348 stairs. At the cafes - where are your restrooms? They are downSTAIRS. Or, at Starbucks, they are upstairs. Or, at the Pantheon, they are downstairs, but then you have to walk through a hallway and up another set of stairs until you come to them. So, basically, the bathrooms are on the same level that you started, but you have to take some stairs down and up to reach them. And, at Cite Metro stop, there are five HUGE flights of stairs to take before you reach fresh air. So, NOW I understand why French women are so skinny. And, the only other thing I can say is that if I don't have swimsuit-ready legs when I get home, I will feel cheated. Here's another random take on Paris. Everyone here must be very prone to heart attacks, because there are defibulators EVERYWHERE! Could it be all the butter they use in their cooking? I learned at the class last night that French butter even has more butter in it than the American version. Yet, the women are skinny. Did I already mention that? And, in all their goddessness, how on earth can they walk in heels on all of these cobblestone streets? But despite what might literally be two thousand sets of stairs, we are having a great time. Today was the last day we could use our Museum Pass. As a side note, if you are planning a trip to Paris, this is HIGHLY recommended. We have whizzed past lines and paid a fraction of what each individual ticket would have cost. I feel like a VIP floating past sweat=soaked tourists complaining that not enough stuff is in English (hello...you're in FRANCE!), and saying "Bonjour to the smiling ticket attendant.) And, since I'm in the mood for tangents, let me just say that almost without exception, the Parisians have been VERY kind, quite polite, and quick to help with directions or take a picture of us if we ask. If they have a reputation for being snooty (although we haven't seen it yet), perhaps it is because they live in a city parallel to none with a rich and jaw-dropping history and their regular street sandwich is better than anything you've ever tasted. Maybe they have something to feel a bit boastful about. Still, we have met with nothing but very nice people. Back to what I was saying. We started the day at Sainte Chapelle, which is located just a few blocks from Notre Dame. I knew it was going to be beautiful. I knew that it had four walls of floor-to-ceiling stained glass, mostly in blue hues. But I did not know that it would take my breath away so completely. That it would become the most beautiful room, the most beautiful church I had ever seen. And, it should be. It was built by King Louis IX to house the Crown of Thorns. It if was possible for a human endeavor to be worthy of that, it would be Sainte Chapelle. Even the small church underneath was stunning. (But, of course, you had to go up a flight of spiral STAIRS to get to the upper church. Nearby, we used our pass to get in to La Conciergerie. I expected this to be a quick passthrough. See Marie Antoinette's cell and be out. But, it was quite more than we thought it would be. It had many roles over hundreds of years, but one of the most recent was the prison that held monarchists before they would be beheaded. Apparently, conditions were so bad and sanitization being so poor that it's a wonder that people didn't die bfore their execution dates. Having said that, if I ever had to be imprisioned, it sure is a beautiful place to do to. We did see the cell where the queen spent the last 76 days of her life. After that, we grabbed a panini and sat in front of Notre Dame. We got a kick out of the open-air double decker tour busses where the tourists snap quick pictures of the outside of the church before the light turns green. They pidgeons hung around and go the last few bites of my Nutella beignets. Our pass allowed for a stop undernearth the church to the architectural crypt. It was room after room of ruins - the foundation of the old Paris from as far back as 300BC. And, since we couldn't get enough of ruins, we headed to the Cluny Museum, which was high on my list of priorities. Housed in an ancient Roman bathhouse, it is now the keeper of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. And, what was a surprise is that it also holds a vast and impressive collectino of medieval art. Statue upno statue, column upon column, monstrance after monstrance. Our favorite room was the frigidarium, so perfectly protected. And, for the second time today, my breath was taken away. This time by the tapestries. They are in a small, round room, and they are displayed to surround you. I like to make tapestry pillows on the side, but not only were these massive, they were stitched with the tiniest stitches that I have ever seen. They were avsolutely magnificent. All that medieval history made our heads spin, so we walked a few blocks more to the Luxembourg Gardens. Commissioned by Marie d'Medici (and on whose grounds she built a palace), and designed by the same man who created the gardens at Versailles, these grounds were the most beautiful that I had ever seen. This was truly a Parisian park, as we saw mostly locals. We found these terrific metal chairs that lean halfway back so that you're partially reclining. We found two more chairs for our feet, and promptly fell asleep. As my husband will tell you, I do not nap, but I napped at the Luxembourg Gardens. A deep, well-needed sleep. And, I woke up to a vew of the Eiffel Tower. Not a bad day! A walk took us along the Rue Ferou, where Hemingway lived at #6, and a longer walk took us to the Pantheon. (With a stop for gelato along the way.) The Pantheon is yet another gorgeous church, and it reminded me of St. Peter's. It was built in honor of St. Genevieve, who convered King Clovis to Catholicism in the 6th century, and therefore, all of France. However, the revolutionaries took it over for secular use. (And, by the way, publically burned her remains. All that is left is a small relic housed in the church of St. Etienne next door. (We went to St. Etienne, which has a beautiful double marble staircase, and which was the church that started the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Anyway, the crypt of the Pantheon had a solemn feel to it. We walked immediately to the tombs of a coule of our literary heroes - Alexander Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo) and Victor Hugo (Les Miserables), both of which we have read and loved. They are buried just feet from each other. Pierre and Marie Curie are also buried here. This was the best night in our schedule to see the light of Paris, but considering that it doesn't get dark until almost 11pm, we had a long time to wait. So, we found a good cafe at the monument to Saint Michele, and parked ourselves there for hours, with the help of some ham crepes, cheese tray, red wine, and hot tea. By this time, it was freezeing. I hadn't brought a jacket because it wasn't supposed to be cold in the forecast. I nearly asked the man sitting near me for his, seeing as he was only fashionably wearing it on his shoulders. By 11:25, we decided to wait around for the sparkly, hourly display that makes the Eiffel Tower look as if it's ocvered in animated diamonds. I got a cell phone video, but it really doesn't do it justice. Also while we were out, we put a padlock on the Pont des Arts, and old tradition. After affixing it to the bridge, you throw the key in the river. Cleverly (I thought), I slipped the key through the bottom slots of the bridge. We didnt' hear it's little plink in the water, but we heart the sound of metal hitting stone, and realized that I had thrown it on to one of the base supports. I didn't plan on retriving it, and if anyone is particularly interested, you can get the key and try your luck at opening thousands of thousands of padlocks until you find the one that the key opens And with that, I can barely keep my eyes open. Thanks for reading!