Deja Vu

On Friday we decided to park our car again under Notre-Dame, since it was right in the center of town and near the bus stop.  But before getting on the bus for our second day of the bus tour, we did some more exploring around the Ile de la Cite, the oldest part of town.

Just a block from Notre-Dame is the Conciergerie.  We had no idea what it was when we went in, but it was covered on our museum pass, so we decided to go in.  

It turns out that the Conciergerie is not where you go to make dinner reservations as you might suspect, but the prison where the revolutionaries kept the wealthy (and anyone else they thought needed a close shave) before sending them to be beheaded.

It was a dark, creepy place.

This is the Concierge.  The only reservations he made were appointments for the guillotine.

We saw some of the cells that the prisoners stayed in, the passageway where the executioner would walk on his way to his day job, the Grooming Room where the prisoners were readied for execution, and the "Corner of the 12", where the dozen condemned stood to wait for the tumbrels, the large carts, that would take them to the guillotine.

This was the small courtyard where women got a bit of fresh air, while they still could use it.

There was a re-creation of Marie Antoinette in her cell, widowed, separated from her child, and with two gendarmes always in the room with her to guard her.

During the Reign of Terror a total of 2,780 people passed through these walls on the way to the guillotine.  Most of them had committed no crime but to have been born with money.   Their trials before the self-appointed tribunal, often without defenders or witnesses, usually averaged about 30 minutes before death sentence was declared.  There were lots of stories of bravery and love as these prisoners tried to help make each other's last moments civil and bearable.  The thought of it all really turned my stomach.  I was reading A Tale of Two Cities while I was in France, and Dickens was very deceptive about all this.  He talked about life in the prisons, and what it was like in the Conciergerie - how it was a strange turn where the refined and wholesome where the prisoners, and the coarse and bloodthirsty were the judges and guards.  It is scary what a mob mentality can do.    

Just steps away from the infamous Conciergerie is the beautiful  Sainte-Chapelle church.  It is behind the gates of the Hall of Justice.

because it was the courthouse, we had to go through a lot of security to go into the church.

We didn't see much of the outside of the church, but that because the really breathtaking beauty of this church was the inside!

It was a tall, narrow chapel, much smaller than Notre-Dame, but the walls were ALL colored glass.

The Chapel was started in 1242 and built in only three years! (Notre-Dame took hundreds of years.)  It was the Church of the royal residence, and was built to house the crown of thorns and other relics.

It was really breathtakingly beautiful!

I decided that I could come to church every sunday for years and years and have a different window to study and look at each time.

The 15 huge windows depicted the entire bible in over 1,000 scenes - from the creation and the old testament stories on one side, to the life and passion of Christ in the center, over the alter, to the lives of the saints on the other wall.

It was like being in a giant kaleidoscope!

Purely magic!

What a different feeling there was here than there had been in that prison just a few moments before!

And where there were no windows everything was painted in bright colors and gilded.

We just sat there a long time and stared into the soaring heights trying to take it all in.

I have decided that his was my favorite church I saw in France, even more than Notre-Dame (except for the gargoyles and bells, of course!)

Our tour bus pass was for two days, so we got back on it again for another round of Paris from above.   It was like de ja vu all over again as we passed the same spots we had the day before.  

Riding along the river.

Hey, I don't think I got that lamp post yesterday.

This time instead of just driving through, we decided to stop at the Place de Concorde.

Another gilded saguaro lamp post.  It is a bit over the top, don't you think?

The sun was out today, and people were everywhere enjoying the day.

But what I really wanted to see was inside the Musee l'Orangerie.  It had once been the greenhouse for the orange trees in the Tuileries but had been converted for an absolutely wonderful purpose - something I didn't want to leave Paris without seeing.

You walk into a long, skylight-filled building.  In the center is an empty room.  It is all white and is meant to cleanse the palate, so to speak, of the eyes, to prepare you for the next room.  This:

Monet's famous Nympheas, or Water Lilies.   Two oval rooms were designed specifically to showcase the eight huge paintings.  

I was really taken back by them!  They were AMAZING!

Each painting is the same subject, the water lily pond in his garden, but each had a very different feel and look, as he captured the pond at different times of day and in different seasons.  The magic of it was not just that he painted the water lilies, but the reflection of the world around him, the trees, the sky, the clouds, and the sunset, that was reflected on the surface of the water.  He he really was able to capture it!

Dad stands in front of the white fluffy clouds and blue sky reflected in the water.

I remember the willows in Giverny.  They were lovely!

The flaming sunset reflected on the lake.  We don't think of a lake looking like that, but it does, doesn't it, at the right time of day.

Mom loves this one, with the calm, happy water lilies.  I think that is because that is how they looked when we were there.

What was so wonderful was that you got to get up close and look at the stroke-work,

Yet you could also stand way, way back,

and get a very different view of the total picture.

It was a really reverent, magical place.  People were mostly silent as they took it all in.

The artist in me couldn't help but look close to want to know how?  How did he get the water to look ripples like that?  How did he use such big strokes, yet get the eye to see details that weren't there?

Monet was old when he painted these, and he was almost blind from cataracts.  That is why he had to paint them so large.  But that was a good thing.  I took several close ups of the incredible brushwork.  Isn't is wonderful?

Dennis didn't really "get it" at first, but after a while, I think the water lilies began to grow on him.  The beauty is undeniable, even for a big tough guy like him.

This was my very favorite!  I love the plants hanging over the water, and their reflection in it.  Just dreamy!

We began our trip to France at Monet's water lily pond in Giverny, and now, near the end of our trip we got to see it again, through the gardener's own eyes.  Perfect!

Downstairs there was a small but incredible collection of French Impressionist art.  I loved this serene and colorful Monet.

And these paintings from Renoir were just very sweet!  The girls are telling secrets, and the mom and her baby are playing with some toy farm animals.

It was a beautiful museum!

Feeling throughly refreshed and happy, we went back out to the Place de Concorde.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Paris.  It just FEELS like Paris!

In the center of the square is the huge Egyptian obelisk brought in from Luxor that was erected in the spot where Marie Antoinette, and thousands of her closest friends, were "made a foot shorter on top."  The guillotine was set up on this spot, and every day crowds gathered here to watch the executions.  It was said that so  much blood was poured on this square that the horses refused to ride into the plaza because of the horrible smell of it.  Yuck.

This square held more meaning for me now, since I had been to the Conciergerie earlier that day.

I really like this picture too with the motorcylce speeding by.

Another lamppost.  I have a sickness.

I loved the Art Nouveau style subway stops.

And driving by, I couldn't help but snap more pictures of some terrific windows.

Another round meant another photo shoot with the Eiffel Tower.   Show me what you've got, you tall, beautiful thing!

No, seeing the tower really doesn't get old.  Quite the contrary.  I was excited each time I saw it.

I miss it already!

Look at those terrific details!  And you can see the lights that sparkle so brilliantly at night.

But it wasn't all lamp posts, windows, and the Eiffel Tower that I got pictures of.  I also got a few good shots of the backside of this guy:

The bus tour took us past the Rodin museum, which we never got to, but thats OK, because we got to see his most famous work, the Thinker, which was cool, even if it was only his hiney that we saw.

The front of the Army Museum.  Again, closed by the time we got there.

I like this one too!

Finally our bus brought us back to our car parked under Notre-Dame.   I was so done with that bus by then.

 We decided to drive to a different neighborhood to find a place to eat.  We drove over near the Bastille, which is now a very ugly modern opera house, and finally parked near a pretty square called the Place des Voseges.  It was surrounded by pretty old shops and art galleries.  They were all closed when we got there, but it was fun to look in the windows.

This woodworking shop was intriguing

There was a seafood restaurant that was piled high with the most colorful seafood.  They came out here to construct huge platters of beautiful seafood that they brought inside to the diners.

This old store was amazing.  It sold and repaired antique instruments.  Dad had his nose up to the window trying to peek at what was inside.  Too bad it wasn't open!

We stopped to eat at a small sidewalk cafe called Nectarine.  It was so charming with tiny tables and wicker chairs.  The menus were written in gold on fancy gilded chalkboards.

We didn't eat out much at all while we were in France because, A) we didn't have a lot of time B) we didn't have a lot of money and C) we had a full kitchen in our room so we usually cooked a big breakfast and a late dinner when we got home, relying on baguettes, cheese and chocolate to get us through the days.  So eating out was a treat.

I had, French onion soup (yum, no wonder it was named after those guys) and a salmon and spinach quiche (another yum), washed down with a little Perrier, of course.

It was fun to talk to the waiter as he practiced his English on us, and watch the people as they passed, enjoying the beautiful evening.  

But at the same time, it was the end of another day, and we were getting a bit sad that our trip to France was coming to a close.

One more day left...