Trip Report: Day Ten - Paris

After the Day of Crowds, we were crossing our fingers that the rest of the trip wouldn't be unpleasantly packed with people. Fortunately, it all worked out. We decided to go to Ile de la Cite and see some of the smaller sites, and it was a good call.

We liked the Cite metro station.

We went first to Ste Chappelle, which is small and not that impressive from the outside.

This is the little chapel downstairs.

The main part of the church, though, really is amazing. Light-filled, beautiful stained glass.

We saw some of these panels close-up the next day and the level of detail is truly amazing.

The Palais de Justice is right outside. They had the area immediately in front of it blocked off because some people had chained themselves to the fence protesting something relating to Africa.

Right down the street is the Conciergerie, a former prison. It was so nice and quiet in there, with lots of helpful and informative exhibits about the French Revolution.

Marie Antoinette was held there for a time.

This is the little courtyard where they let her out to walk sometimes.

We were supposed to meet my friend Sheila for lunch but had a few minutes to kill, so we went into the archaeological ruins under Notre Dame. The line to get into the church stretched all the way down the block but hardly anybody was in this part. It was interesting! Worth seeing.

All this stuff dates from the Roman times. We learned there are also ruins of a Roman amphitheatre right in central Paris.

After this we walked back down to our hotel neighborhood and had lunch with Sheila at Le Petit Medicis, across from the Luxembourg Gardens. Her mother lives in Paris and she happened to also be visiting for the holidays, so we got to hang out with yet another American friend! This was a nice feature of the trip.

Then we tried to walk to the Odeon metro station but got lost. How are the streets in Paris so confusing?? The slightest little wrong turn and you're headed in completely the wrong direction for ten minutes without realizing it. Fortunately everything is very picturesque no matter which way you go.

We took the train to Montmartre to see Sacre-Coeur right as the sun was beginning to set.

There were approximately six hundred thousand people there. It was insane. We didn't go in the church.

The beautiful Montparnasse Tower, where my company's European headquarters is based. Fits right in with the rest of Paris.

We did manage to snag a bench and sat for a while people-watching. There was a French couple next to us feeding their children sandwiches made of brioche and chocolate squares. Why have I never thought of that idea? Chocolate sandwich!

Once the sun set it started getting pretty cold, so we got up and walked down to see the Moulin Rouge. This was a pretty interesting walk; the area really is still very seedy with sex shops and strip clubs all over the place.

Because we'd had a big lunch with Sheila, we got sandwiches and pastries at a little shop on the corner by our hotel and ate them and then tried to watch TV but there was nothing on except old episodes of ER re-dubbed into French. We may have bad sandwiches in the US, but I have to admit we do have the best TV.