We had a fabulous pilgrimage with Fr Mitch Pacwa and then a wonderful week in addition. How better to say au revoir to France than to spend our waning moments in the City of Light!
We drove from Versailles into Paris with only a couple of wrong turns, but when you are on a crowded "Interstate" style highway, wrong turns can be doozies! We got to see parts of Paris most tourists never see! But we did eventually find Gare Lyon and the Avis return. Unfortunately, the gas station just up the street would not accept my credit card, so we got soaked by Avis for returning the car not filled up!
We walked across the street to the bus stop, boarded the city bus (#63) and proceeded to our hotel.
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| We used the buses a lot in Paris. While you can get snarled in traffic, you get to see what is passing by! Rick Steve's even suggests four bus routes that will give you a cheap tour of Paris. One of the routes he recommends is the #63. This is the bus we took from Gare Lyon to our hotel and also later to the areas we explored (it runs pretty much parallel to the Seine River until you are near Arc de Triumph. |
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| Our hotel was recommended by friends who had stayed here in June. The rooms were snug (not as snug as a few we'd had, but close) but adequate. The bathroom was nice sized and the shower had lots of hot water and good water pressure! Hotel Familia is in the Latin Quarter only a three block walk to the Seine River! |
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| Our hotel had and elevator but Theresa preferred this quaint spiral staircase! |
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| The small dining room off the entrance was where we took breakfast. On the day of our departure, we were too early for breakfast but the manager (Marc) brought us coffee. We had part of a baguette left from the day before, so we made do |
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| Across the street from our hotel sits this nice little pastry shop. We often bought baguettes here for sandwiches and snacks |
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| On the day of our arrival we had a celebratory chocolate chip cookie (Theresa) . . . |
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| . . . and chocolate eclair (Bob). The most amazing thing about this trip was that both of us weighed the same as when we left nearly three weeks ago!!! |
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| We walked the three short blocks to Ile St. Louis, one of the two islands in the middle of the Seine River in central Paris. This island is mainly residential with a few restaurants, cafes, and boutiques. We had a pleasant walk in a light misty rain |
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| At the end of Ile St. Louis is a bridge connecting it with Ile de la Cite. It's most famous structure of course is the Basilica of Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris). We'd been here with our pilgrimage group but took this opportunity to spend a little more time, at our own pace, to explore |
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| In the plaza just outside the doors of Notre Dame is this marker for Kilo-Meter Zero. All highways in France are referenced to this marker. (We saw a similar marker in Madrid a few years ago. I wonder how many countries have such a marker?) |
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| Very close by on Ile de la Cite is Sainte Chapelle, a church built by King Louis XIV to house the Crown of Thorns (now housed at Notre Dame, since Sainte Chapelle is now a museum only and is no longer a sacred church) |
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| Space restrictions prevented "flying" buttresses, so these massive buttresses were used to support the walls so that the interior could be nearly completely all stained glass! |
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| As you can see here, the walls are nearly completely covered in stained glass windows that tell the story of God's salvation plan from Adam and Eve to the Resurrection (In fact it also includes and account of St Helena - Constantine's Mother - and her quest in the Holy Land to identify and preserve relics of Christ) |
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| Looking toward the entry from the combined altar and reliquary. The "rose" window and murals combine to enhance the beauty of the nave |
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| The central point in the nave is this beautiful combined altar and reliquary. The upper level is for the preservation of the Crown of Thorns. The spiral staircases on either side ascend to the reliquary. Only the Rector and the King had keys! |
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| The King had his private "box" as well as a window through which he could see the Crown of Thorns & Altar |
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| The lower chapel is less opulent than the upper but is nonetheless a beautiful chapel |
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| The upper chapel also contains depictions of martyrs |
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| Just to the right of Sainte Chapelle is the Palais de Justice. Since we'd already cleared security screening to get into the complex, we wandered about this building too. |
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| We saw several people dressed in judicial style robes with a white tab in front. We surmised that when an attorney appears in court, s/he must dress accordingly |
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| The interior of the Palace of Justice is massive and contains quite a lot of fine art |
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| Outside again, we crossed the Seine just upstream from Pont Neuf (New Bridge) which is actually one of the oldest bridges in Paris - oh those whacky French! |
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| This is Tour St Jacques - The tower of St Jacques - is all that remains of the former 16th century Church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie ("Saint James of the butchery") - leveled shortly after the French Revolution. A statue of Blaise Pascal is located at the base of the tower, commemorating his experiments on atmospheric pressure. |
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| As we walked toward the Louvre, we diverted to explore St Germaine L'Auxerrois. While we visited the church, we could hear the happy squeals of the children in the school playground just beyond the bell tower |
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| The interior is quite impressive |
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| St Joan of Arc, of course! |
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| These "kneelers" caught Theresa's eye! |
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| When we exited the church, I could see people entering the Louvre. I thought "Maybe this is the employee entrance!" Then we saw four people jog into the entrance! So we figured maybe it was an open passage |
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| Sure enough, the passage opened into the large interior courtyard for the Louvre! |
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| We impressed into service a young girl in Paris with her Mom to snap this photo. As you can see from our dress, it was quite cool - but the mist had given way to sunshine! |
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| Through another passage,we were in the entry courtyard withe the famous (or infamous) pyramid entrance! |
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| The line to enter was not bad. (While here two weeks past with the pilgrimage group, we entered through a subterranean entrance) |
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| The dummy hanging from the window of the North Wing caught our eye! Oh those whacky French! |
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| This arch is not the Arc de Triomphe Etoile but is the smaller Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel at the entrance to the Louvre. If you could blow up this photo, you'd see the Arc de Triomphe Etoile at the bottom - about a mile distant |
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| The view back toward the Louvre entrance from the smaller arc |
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| This wonderful plaza and fountain is just before Place de la Concorde and the beginning of Champs Elysee - here looking back toward the Louvre |
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| In this plaza, there are some fabulous statues - this one "Remorse of Cain" was wonderful. The teen at the base hams it up for a photo by his buddies |
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| Lots of action in these statues! Here The Centuar Nessus carries Hercules' wife, Deianeira, away. He tried to rape her but Hercules shot a poisoned arrow, killiing Nessus. Later, when Deianeira had doubts about Hercules' fidelity, Deianeira spread the centaur's blood on Hercules shirt which eventually poisoned and killed him. |
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| A tribute to the great rivers of the Earth - here the Tiber (See the babes being suckled by the she wolf - they would be Romulus & Remus!) |
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| Here the Nile - the tiny Sphinx at the right gives it away |
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| At the entrance are two magnificent statues - this one carries a caduceus - the winged staff of Hermes (Mercury), so I'm guessing that's Hermes riding the pegasus! |
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| We decided we couldn't leave France without having a crepe! Theresa had an apple while I had Grand Marnier |
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| The Fountain of the Seas with Eiffel Tower in background |
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| Just across Place de la Concorde is Pont de la Concorde and this view! |
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| We boarded the bus again and headed toward the Latin Quarter. This is the area where the students and philosophers gathered as commemorated by this plaza dedicated to two great thinkers of the 20th century |
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| Place Sartre - Beauvoir |
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| Not sure what it means but just doesn't sound all that appetizing! |
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| A true antique - an old Peugeot! |
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| Just down the street from Le Deux Magots is this place - our guide book ("Black Book of Paris") informed us this was the first cafe in the world! 1686! |
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| Salon de The' - the first cafe in the world! |
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| Just a little south is the Church of St Sulpice. It apparently is in "The DaVinci Code" - we wanted to explore it only because it is a beautiful church! |
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| St Sulpice nave |
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| St Sulpice altar relief |
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| And behind the altar is apparently a reliquary |
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| Great art - here Jacob wrestles with an angel (or God?) |
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| Just a short walk brought us to the Jardin du (Garden of) Luxembourg - one of the largest and most popular city parks in central Paris - named after this palace which now houses the French Senate. |
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| Le Triomphe de Silène (The Victoryof Silenus) a tangle of human forms, Silène is depicted as stripped, drunk and staggering - and apparently having quite a good time |
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| A tribute to Polish composer Frederick Chopin |
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| We came across this game of Boules (French version of Bocce Balls). The kid in the glasses glared at me when I "Ooooh'd" a really good shot by his opponent (the woman in red jacket - maybe his Mom). I was glad when she got the point! |
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| The park is filled with places to sit in the sun and read, talk, or just rest |
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| This little fountain and pool was popular spot and a little boy was feeding ducks! |
So we unloaded too and checked in! Had those folks not been on the van, we would have been in the wrong place!
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| At the gate, we were told that the flight would be delayed 30 minutes. We were in the front of the line so we weren't about to let that go! So we sat on the floor. We struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to us who's name also happened to be Theresa! When asked what she did, she replied casually "I'm a fashion model." Later, in New York, we agreed that if this is not her in this poster ad, it is her twin! |
So we return to the US with fond memories, a whole bunch of new friends, and new insights and appreciations for our Catholic faith.
Who knows where our next adventure will lead us!
Until then, au revoir!
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