Paris adventure Day 3

Paris Day 3 March 31

My first night in a Paris hotel was interesting.  Beside the fact that I woke up at 2am ready to go on my next adventure only to realize it was only 2am, I realized that staying in a 2 star hotel is like the 21 year old version of a hostel.  The walls were paper thin and girls were running up and down the hall drunkenly screaming all night.  It was interesting to say the least.  However, I was up by 7am and took a shower in the smallest shower I've ever experienced, but the water was hot and that's all I could ask for.  I considered eating breakfast at my hotel, but it was 10 Euros to eat at a buffet and I spotted a boulangerie (bakery) across the street.  I ate my first real French croissant that morning and it deserves it's own tribute sentence.  It's flaky goodness melted in my mouth; this is what a croissant is suppose to taste like!  A typical French breakfast is a croissant, orange juice, and espresso; so that's what I ordered.  The orange juice is tangy more bitter sweet than orange juice here but delicious.  The lady that runs the boulangerie looked at me questioning my cafe american but I stuck to my espresso and water even though it was so "American."  After breakfast I was ready to start my day.  

What is better to start an adventure than a trip across the river to Notre Dame?  I walked across the bridge with the hordes of tourists to see this magnificent church.  There is nothing disappointing about Notre Dame; it lives up to all the splendor and glory that is associated with the name.  It's the biggest church I've ever set foot in.  The stained glass rose windows stream light in, basking the church in a soft glow that makes people's voices drop to a whisper.  There are small alters to different religious saints that you can light candles for that surround the main alter.  The ceiling looms above you, over 100 feet tall and looking upward you can only see darkness and the stained glass.  Inside the cathedral are pillars that surround the alter and in between each pillar hangs an dimly lit chandelier that lights the cathedral.  The outside of the church is just as magnificent or perhaps more.  The two towers spiral up into the sky where the Hunchback of Notre Dame lived and the gargoyles that jut out guarding their castle are more incredible than pictures can ever show.  The Gallery of Kings that have now been restored (their heads were cut off during the revolution when they were mistaken for French Kings instead of the Judean Kings) watch over the masses that gather to stare in awe at this historical church. 

View from the bridge

Notre Dame Towers

Back of Notre Dame

Inside Notre Dame

I asked the lady to get as much of the church as possible...this is what she got

 

After Notre Dame I walked to Sainte-Chapelle, which I was told is just as amazing as Notre Dame.  Being somewhat critical considering I had just walked around Notre Dame barely breathing I was in such amazement, I went to Sainte Chapelle with the mindset that I was about to see another beautiful old church.  This was the first time of many that I was thankful I had a museum pass because I walked past a line of about 100 people and right into the church.  When you walk in, it's small in comparison to other churches but beautiful still.  Dimly lit with arched columns surrounding the alter and a dark but low ceiling that resembles a starry sky and bits of stained glass windows scattered around the room.  The walls and columns are adorned with fleur-de-lis as well.  I walked in, thought, "this really beautiful I wonder why it's so tall but the chapel is so small?"  However, I found a wooden set of creaky stairs that lead up to the upper chapel and as I walked in I realized that I had never seen true beauty like I was witnessing at that moment.  The upper chapel is surrounded by 50 foot high windows of pure stained glass. Each set of windows tells a story and some are still the original stained glass from the 13th century!  The beautiful rose window sends rays of sunlight from one end of the chapel to the other while the window's glass radiates colors.  It was like stepping back in time to a place where the Kings worshiped and stood hundreds of years ago.  I've been told that depending on where the sun is, every time you visit Sainte Chapelle the stained glass looks different.  I can still close my eyes and see the sun coming through the windows.  It was the most beautiful building, church, or palace that I saw on my trip. 

Rose Window

Walls and Walls of Stained Glass

 

After Sainte Chapelle I went to La Conciergerie and the Palace of Justice.  La Conciergerie is where hundred of prisoners during the French revolution were kept before being beheaded.  The Reign of Terror is the bloodiest part of the French revolution and this museum pays tribute to many of the people beheaded during this time.  This is also where Marie Antoinette was held before she was beheaded and I toured the cell she was held in as well.  The Hall of the Guards is eerily lit with arches and is oddly empty.  It's very haunting to walk around in a medieval prison.

Hall of the Guards

 From La Conciergerie I went to another sort of prison.  I went to the Deportation Memorial, in French called La Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation.  It's a simple but powerful memorial to the Holocaust.  You walk down concrete steps into a concrete hole almost level with the river.  It's enclosed by walls whose sole purpose is to make you feel trapped and humbled at the same time.  Goose bumps appeared on my arms as I walked down the steps.  It's designed for only a few people to experience at a time.  You walk down a dark hallway and enter a small underground circular room and look through black metal bars to a narrow tunnel that is filled with 200,000 tiny lighted crystals that symbolize each person that was deported from France that died in the camps.  At the end of the hallway, a flame of eternal hope burns and it's inscription says: "Dedicated to the living memory of the 200,000 French deportees sleeping in the night and the fog, exterminated in the Nazi concentration camps." It's the most beautiful and haunting memorial I've ever witnessed; it's hard to breathe in there but it's so moving you can't look away.  It serves it's purpose well, to show generations of people the evil that happened and that we must remember. 

     

After the churches and prisons I walked up into the 4 arrondissement of Paris which has the Hotel De Ville and the Pompidou Centre and ate a delicious goat cheese and tomato crepe.  After refueling I tackled the Centre Pomidou which has the modern art museum.  I don't understand modern art but can appreciate most of it.  This is the first art museum of many that I went to and to saw amazing work by Picasso, Matisse, Kadinsky, Dali, Frida Kahlo, and Andy Worhol.  I was surprised that you can take pictures with no flash there.  Trying to understand what the surrealist artists were thinking was somewhat of a challenge to me, but I think that's what they were striving for in their art.  

Art outside Centre Pompidou

Not a historical building, very out of place

After the museum my jet lag was threatening so I went back to the hotel and took my one and only nap of the trip.  I woke up feeling refreshed and went to the Luxembourg Gardens where I caught a glimpse of it's beauty.  The Jardin Du Luxembourg is where Parisians come to relax, the Central Park of Paris.  The pond in the middle is full of sail boats, and the fountains and gardens are breath taking.  I found a fountain called the Fountaine de Medicis which was empty unfortunately but still beautiful.  

I went to dinner at a restaurant called Les Editeurs where book lover such as myself eat in a room filled with bookshelves and books.  I ordered the special of the day and to my dismay it was filled with mushrooms.  Apparently no one ever taught me the french word for mushroom. Those of you that know me know my least favorite food on earth is a mushroom, but not wanting to be an annoying American I ate every single one.  In my journal I wrote, "Yep, mushrooms in Paris are just as gross as mushrooms in Portland."  The ambiance outweighed the food and I left feeling full and content.Back near my hotel I ate my new favorite desert which is a simple street crepe.  They make the crepes from scratch on skillets when you order them and my favorite it a Nutella crepe.  Sitting on the sidewalk in front of my hotel with a crepe in hand I contemplated the sights and art I had seen my first full day in Paris.  Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, Picasso and Matisse, I was a happy girl.  I went to my room and planned my next day of adventures...Versailles.  

To be continued.