A last walk, one more banana/Nutella crepe, a tiny elevator, and cleaning out the fridge

Day 25 France 2012

Mark and Vicki left at 8:00 this morning to go back to Amsterdam and then on to Berlin to meet their daughter and son-in-law and precious Penelope, their one-year-old granddaughter.  We were so sad to see them go, but had such a great time with them while they were here.

Leon and I stayed around the apartment catching up on computer work and the blog until noon, then went out for our last walk around the city.  Although we had seen Notre Dame from afar several times, we decided that since we had been visiting churches this trip that we really needed to go there.  It is an easy RER train ride, so we used the last of our Metro tickets and headed out.  We got some nice photos of the outside and even of the statue of Charlemagne that is in the courtyard, but as we started to go in the church, we noticed that all those people we saw in the courtyard were in a long line to get in the church.  We decided we did not want to stand in line to see the inside again…another of those times we were glad we had already seen it several times already. 

The carvings outside the church were done to teach Bible stories to the uneducated masses.  I think that some of these carvings are just a little bit scary.

Of course, Notre Dame has great gargoyles.

There is a nice park with shaded benches behind the church, so we stopped by a crepe stand, got our last banana/Nutella crepe, and walked behind Notre Dame to a nice bench to enjoy the view and our crepes.  Most tourists don’t know about that little park, so there are very few people there but there are great views of the flying buttresses that you can’t see from the front.

 

The Rick Steves’ book mentioned the Deportation Memorial just across a street from the back of the church and right beside the river, so we headed over there.  It was built in 1962 when de Gaulle was president as a memorial to all of those Frenchmen who were deported to concentration or work camps by the Nazis.  Only 3% of them returned.  You walk down steps into sort of a pit, then through a narrow door to the memorial.  The lights represent all the ones who did not come back.

We walked across the bridge from the island that Notre Dame is on over to the Left Bank and noticed that the metal railing on the bridge was covered with locks.  All of the locks had names on them, most had two names and a date on them.  There were thousands of them on both sides of the bridge.  When we got back to the apartment, Leon looked it up, and it seems that the locks are symbols of love.  People started putting the locks on just a few years ago and the railing on one side is solid and the other side is almost full.  Leon read that the city has declared them an eyesore and a sacrilege for a sacred place, so they plan to take all the locks off. 

Right beside the Seine River are little green souvenir and book seller’s stands.  Since it had been raining, most of them were closed, but we found one that was open, and I bought a few prints.  On nice days, they are all open, and it is fun to walk along and see all the used books, paintings, posters, and souvenirs for sale.

The view of Notre Dame from the side and across the river is spectacular.

We walked by Shakespeare and Company bookstore made famous by Hemingway, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound.  It is still a cluttered space with tons of books, and still allows young writers to bunk there in return for a little work.  You might also remember it from the movie, “Midnight in Paris.”

It started to rain harder, so we decided to duck into the Metro and head back to the apartment.  We just love walking down our street with the great view of the Eiffel Tower at the end.  

We wanted to start packing and cleaning up after being in one place for a week.  We took out the trash and recyclables and washed dishes.  I cleaned up the kitchen and cleaned out the fridge.  Our dinner was everything left in the fridge.  We bought pain chocolat for breakfast tomorrow morning and have some yogurt and milk left, but everything else is gone.  It is really sad to be doing things here for the last time this trip.  I said something to Leon about this being our last supper, and he said it was just our last supper in Paris!

Our apartment building has a tiny elevator.  It works just fine except that it only holds two people, but not two people and two suitcases.  Sometimes Leon and Mark just walked upstairs while Vicki and I rode the elevator.  I couple of times we got three of us on at once, but you really have to be good friends to do that!

We have felt very secure in our apartment.  The door has a drape over it, and we were here a couple of days before we pulled the drape back and saw the elaborate locking system we have.  There are also two locked doors downstairs before you get in the hallway with the elevator.

We have a cab coming to pick us up at 8:00 tomorrow morning, and we will be off for Charles de Gaulle Airport.  We will fly to Cincinnati and spend the night, then come on home on Thursday.  It’s been an incredible trip in our favorite place, France.

Royal tombs, one of the oldest churches in Paris, and Le Tour Eiffel

Day 24 France 2012

Before we left Arkansas, I had made a list of churches I wanted to visit in Paris.  We had two churches left on the list, so decided to get them marked off today.   Mark and Vicki were off early to the Louvre, so Leon and I headed out to the first church, St. Denis.  It is in a northern suburb of Paris, so we took an RER train and the Metro to get there.  St. Denis is considered the first of the Gothic style of churches and was a one of the most powerful Benedictine Abbeys during the Middle Ages.  Most of the kings and queens of France were buried here from the 6^th century on.  The church is built on the site of a Gallo-Roman cemetery and excavations in recent years have found fifteen thousand ancient graves on the site.

From a Great Courses DVD on Cathedrals, we learned that there used to be two towers on the front, but the second tower was removed because it became unstable.  Also, this is the first church with a "rose" window.  The rose window was supposed to remind people of heaven.

The church is named after Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris, who was decapitated by the Romans around 250 A.D.  According to legend, Saint Denis picked up his head and walked from where he was martyred to the location of the St. Denis church, thereby indicating where he wanted to be buried.  On the front of Notre Dame Cathedral, there is a statue of him holding his head. 

When we walked in the front door of the church (which is at the back of the sanctuary), the whole area was covered with huge platforms and speakers and spotlights on tall stands.  We asked what was going on, and found out that there are concerts there during June.  We later saw some posters outside about the St. Denis concerts.  I don’t have a clue who or what would be performing there, but more than half of the church didn’t look like a church!

Behind and around the altar of the church and down in the crypt house the tombs of the Kings and Queens of France.  This section is blocked off from the rest of the sanctuary by black wrought iron fencing, and you have to go around to a side door and pay a fee to go in the Necropolis.  Once inside, though, it is just amazing to see all the effigies and tombs.

During the revolution, under orders from revolutionary officials, the tombs were broken open, and the remains were hauled out to two large pits where they were dissolved with lime.  The lead roof of the church was removed and melted down for bullets, leaving the inside open to the elements.  A forward thinking archeologist saved many of the monuments inside by claiming them as works of art for a museum.

When the Bourbons were restored to the throne, they exhumed the remains of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (who had been buried at another church) and buried them in the crypt at St. Denis.  They took what they could find from the pits and put those ashes into an ossuary in the crypt covered with marble plates listing the names of those buried there.  The marble tombs and effigies were returned to the church.

Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI are buried in the crypt under large slabs of black marble.  There are beautiful statues of them up in the church.

There are effigies of most of the famous kings of France.  Most of the effigies have the person dressed in royal robes with crowns, but a few have the kings naked except for a cloth draped over their “privates.”  One thing I learned was that up until about the 15^th century, the kings and queens often had their bodies buried at St. Denis, but their hearts buried at a favorite church or abbey, and their entrails buried in a third location.  That sounded pretty gross to me!

Catherine de Medici and Henry II have elaborate tombs. 

Some of the earliest tombs only had an engraved slab laid over them.

As always, I loved the gargoyles.

We got back on the Metro and came to the last church on my list, St. Germain des Pres, which is one of the churches listed in The Da Vinci Code.  It was a Benedictine Abbey for 12 centuries.  We were disappointed with this church, but should not have been since some sources list it as the oldest church in Paris and others just as ONE of the oldest churches in Paris.  The inside of the church is very dark.  There are not lots of windows, and the interior was all painted in very dark colors.  The ceiling was navy blue with gold stars painted on it, and all of the columns were painted in dark colors. 

The tops, or capitals, of the columns are all carved with Bible stories or decorations, then are painted. 

There are painted scenes above every arch.  

We left the church and found a little crepe stand just beyond the gate and had another banana/Nutella crepe.  Oh, they are so good!  Back on the Metro and home to our little apartment.  

This has been such a wonderful apartment...plenty of room for 4 people and nice amenities.  Leon was wondering if there were any apartments in this building for sale and so did some Google searches.  Nope, none for sale, but if they were, they would be over a million dollars!  Wow!  I've never stayed in a million dollar apartment before!

We were cleaning out the fridge since Mark and Vicki leave tomorrow, and Leon and I leave on Wednesday, so we had eggs and bacon and baguettes for dinner.  Mark went to the patisserie and got wonderful fruit tarts for dessert.  Once again, no photos, since we gobbled them all up.

After dinner, we decided to make a night-time trip to the Eiffel tower to get some photos.  The weather was perfect, the lines were long, and there were lots of couples hand-in-hand strolling the park in front.  We got some nice photos...look for one on our Christmas letter.  Just as we were leaving, the twinkling lights came on.  The crowd always has a big applause and sighs when the lights go from solid to sparkling.

A day of rest and visiting a familiar neighborhood

Day 23 France 2012

We decided that we had been walking so much that we needed to give my knee a rest, so while Mark and Vicki set out for more adventures, Leon and I stayed around the apartment.  We did some laundry.  See if you can figure out these washer and dryer dials.  Although we know several French nouns and a few verbs, none of them are on these dials!  There is another button marked "Depart" and after you turn the machine on, you have to push the Depart button to start the cycle.

While it was not raining, we walked up to the River just to check out a part of our neighborhood that we had not seen before.  We are only two blocks from the Seine River and one block from the Eiffel Tower.  Our apartment is the third building from the corner of the block.  The corner has a little brasserie restaurant on our side of the block, but on the other side of the corner, they have a boulangerie.  We had been walking to the other end of our block and around the corner to find a boulangerie, and here was one just 3 doors from us. 

We walk past several buildings with beautiful wrought iron gates leading to pretty courtyards.  This one is just around the corner from us.  

We have seen several cars decorated for weddings, and there was one parked on the next street from us.  They tie bows to the door handles and windshield wipers, wrap lacy ribbon on the hood, and tie a big bow on the front of the hood.  I was sorry that this did not show up better in the photo…the lacy ribbon just sort of disappeared onto the light colored car in the photo, but was quite pretty.

We walked up to the River and enjoyed the view across, then headed down to the Eiffel Tower. 

 One of the elevators was not working at the Eiffel Tower, so people were lined up for blocks to go up to the top.  Once again, we were glad we had already done that in years past.  This photo just shows the front of the line.

Paris streets are cleaner than I have ever seen them.  The mayor of Paris has been working to improve the image of the city.  There are trash bags in metal holders on every block and recycle bins on several corners.  People are now required to pick up after their dogs, too.  When we first started coming to Paris, dog poop was on the sidewalks but particularly in the streets.  Signs back then said "Curb Your Dog" but now they tell  you to clean it up.

I talked Leon into walking down to Rue Cler, our old familiar neighborhood in Paris.  Every other time we have been here, we have stayed in this neighborhood.  It is a market street with lots of little restaurants.  On Sunday, it was particularly crowded with people buying fruits and vegetables, meat, cheese, and wine.  There was a man playing a hurdy-gurdy and singing along.  I got a short video of him, but have not figured out how to insert it in my blog.  I loved being back in familiar territory.  I feel very comfortable on Rue Cler since I know where the post office, the boulangerie, the other shops, and even the Metro stop are.  I have a terrible sense of direction, but on Rue Cler, I am never lost.

We bought some fresh cherries from one of the street vendors, then got a couple of sandwiches from the boulangerie (and a pain chocolat), and came back and had lunch.  It is hard to find Pepsi in France, but we found some in one of the markets, so I have really enjoyed them.  Such a nice relaxing day.  Any day in Paris is nice, though!

Mark and Vicki came back from their adventure, and Vicki made dinner for us.  She fixed pork chops in wine sauce with melted cheese on top.  We roasted some potatoes, fixed a big salad of mache and tomatoes, got out a fresh baguette, opened a bottle of wine, and stuffed ourselves...again!