MONDAY IN PARIS

Monday, May 4, 2009
Martha asked how my foot was doing, my right arch has been giving me problems, and as I said it was doing pretty good this she suggested that we do some walking this morning. First we walked from our hostel, to see the Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Nice thing was, being early; we had no line to wait in this morning. Enjoyed walking through and taking pictures of the great stained glass windows while listening to an early morning mass that was going on. Again, I found small chapels dedicated to my two favorite saints from this trip. … St. Theresa and St. Anthony. At St. Theresa’s altar I purchased 2 candles and said a small prayer for safe trips home in the coming days.

From there we walked to Sainte-Chapelle, a gem of High Gothic architecture, located in the Palais de la Cite, which was the residence and seat of royal power from the 10th to the 14th centuries. Sainte-Chapelle was built to house the Crown of Thorns, acquired in 1239….. no longer here, but do not know the full story on this relic. The lower level of the church is very small and plain, but the second floor is filled with beautiful stain glass windows that tell stories from the bible. This second floor sanctuary was reserved for only the king, his close friends, family and the relics that were kept in this area

Continuing to walk we found the Louvre which we only had plans for outside photo’s as back in 2005 I spent a whole afternoon touring this museum and Martha has been to it many times. I was looking for the 2 triangle points that meet (from Dan Browns book).
Could not find them until Martha took me underground inside the Louvre shopping area. Here they were…. The bottom point of the underground inverted portion of the glass triangle that is a main attraction outside…. Stopping just atop a small wooden triangle inside… if you have read the Da Vinci Code you will understand what I am talking about.

We then walked along Rue de Revoli looking for the Hotel Le Meurice, the German SS took over this hotel during WWII. It is very famous and when we did find it there was security everywhere am sure that some very important people were staying in the hotel. After finding the Meurice we switched over to the Jardin des Tuileries to stroll in the beautiful park area that runs between the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. At the end of this park we found the art museum de I’Orangerie that holds the huge water lily paintings of Claude Monet along with many other paintings by famous artist of his time.

Finishing the l’Orangerie we made our way to the nearest Metro station and with several transfers ended up in the Montmartre area where we took the vernacular tram up to see the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. Some people call it the White Church on top of the Hill. It has many steps leading up to the church once you get up the hill…..these steps remind me of the Spanish Steps in Rome as they are full of people looking out at the fantastic views of Paris while listening to musicians entertain hoping for coins from the public. After viewing the inside of the church we wandered around to the see the small artist community that is located in this small town. Lots of fun to view so many talented people all trying to sell their art as they continue to paint new pictures right on the spot. Everybody trying to make a living so they can continue to live in this high priced art community……… tired but happy with our day’s travels we headed home by Metro.