Early start & in the queue at Sainte-Chapelle by 9am, still about 40 in the queue although opening time 9.30am! Sainte-Chapelle worth the wait however, it is a 13th Gothic chapel built to house holy relics, crown of thorns I think & other bits & pieces. The stained glass windows c'est magnifique, my puny little camera & extremely limited photographic ability unable to capture
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| The upper chapel in Sainte-Chapelle |
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| The Rose window in the upper chapel, the main event |
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| The ground floor chapel, the entree |
After we feasted our eyes for long enough, off to Musee D'Orsay, a great collection of impressionist paintings & other, a plethora of Van Goghs etc. The building itself is magnificent, was the old Orsay train station, and sounded like upper parts were flash hotel, the Kennedys stayed there when they came to Paris, not sure if this was at the same time as when used as station or after. We just heard this little titbit while listening in to a guided tour, yes I know, freeloaders. While we were waiting in the queue we chatted to an american woman from San Francisco, who was there alone, turned out she had had a falling out with her travelling companion, due to a mixup at Versailles the previous day, at the end of the day she had caught the train leaving the other woman on the platform & now the other one was in a huff. We of course had to crow that we were tres compatible travelling companions, but it never pays to be complacent! (more later)
After Musee D'Orsay, we finally got to restaurant Chez Germaine in the 7th arr. for lunch (we had made a valiant effort on 2 previous occasions & not made it-only open between 12 & 2) Worth the wait, had the menu E18.50, entree- fois gras - yum, main - lovely pork dish with rice, & dessert tiramisu with fresh raspberry coulis & whole berries also (will be adding the raspberries to my recipe from now on) Also nice half bottle of red from Avignon. Next on the agenda should have been a nice chaise longue in a shady bower for a petit siesta, but not to be, on to the Musee Rodin, this is in a beautiful old Parisian house & garden, all Rodin sculptures, memorablia, letters between Rodin & Monet etc, some pieces good & some pretty ugly. M got her nose out of joint that I had dragged her to this ugliness, as she only wants to look at beautiful things! Also I annoyed her as she thought I had made a big deal out of the fact that she had never heard of or seen "the thinker" ....... see what I mean, it never does to be too complacent! Suffice to say a trip to Musee Rodin is worth it to see "the thinker" in it's beautiful garden setting.
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| The Thinker's garden setting with Invalides in the background |
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| The Thinker |
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| Today's Metro station, Varenne |
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| Beautiful mosaic work on the ceiling of the Varenne Metro Station |
After much needed rest back at the garret, down to Seine Bateux Parisian Notre Dame for the 8pm river cruise, a different view of Paris from the river, & most interesting commentary - in French, English & Italian, although the other 2 seemed to need more words to say the same thing! Lots of joy de vivre going on on the banks & bridges & everyone waved, much as we had waved at passing boats yesterday evening whilst we were enjoying a wine with L & J.
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| The littlest house in Paris |
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| Statuary on Pont Alexandre, built to symbolize French-Russian friendship |
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| Pont Alexandre from rear of boat |
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| Another picturesque pont, but can't remember what one |
Back at the dock at 9pm & good thing about Paris is still quite light at this time so we headed straight to the Tour Montparnasse for view of Paris lights from the 56th floor. Still 10 euros for the lift, although the rooftop observation 59th floor was close for renos. By the time we had our chocolate eclair & cup of tea, it was time for the 10pm Tour Eiffel light show, & really quite magical, a twinkling display of fairy lights for about 5 minutes, lots of oohs & aahs.
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| Tour Eiffel at 10pm light show |
Fun when we left the building because we came out a different side & were completely disorientated, but being women we are capable of asking directions & were directed into the bowels of the Montparnasse station & it's a biggie, we headed for the metro line 4, this walk was up hill & down dale, about 500m ...at least. On the metro on the way home, the busker very inventively set up a puppet show at the end of the carriage with the puppet playing the guitar to Speedy Gonzales, different to the usual piano accordian! We gave him a euro for imagination.
What a day, we dragged our sorry a...s up the 6 flights to the garret & collapsed into bed.
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