Paris 2014, Day 4 - the ultimate tourist day

We discovered, when we went out for coffee at 8am that Parisians are not "morning people" on the weekend. Our usual café was closed, as was the one across the street and round the corner. We had to walk up to the next major street to find a place for coffee. The fish market and produce market were just setting up too.

After a bit of food shopping and banking we set out for a huge day of sight seeing as we had not made the most of our museum passes yesterday. First onto Bus Route 38 and off near the Pantheon. We got there before it opened and got in line. From the guy next to us in line we discovered that we were in line to have our photos taken for a large art project which would involve displays of portraits on the Pantheon. If you are interested the web site is aupantheon.fr . Aimee and I were game until we learned that it would involve a 3hr wait. We ducked out of the line and into the building.

The Pantheon was built as a church but the Revolution occurred shortly after it was completed and it was repurposed as a place for ceremonies honouring great men of France. Many of these great men are buried in the crypts below. It has been bounced back and forth from church, to military, to ceremonial usage over the years. We spent most of our time down in the crypts. There is something inspirational about seeing the crypts of Rousseau, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas and many more significant French persons. I am saddened that Marie Curie is the only woman interred there. We were told that 2 more women are being buried there this year. Beside many of the crypts there are large banners describing the lives and accomplishments of those buried there.

We spent an hour and a half in the Pantheon and didn't feel like we had rushed it. As we came out some of the photos were already being pasted on to the courtyard.

View of the Eiffel Tower from the Pantheon

We met up with Greg, who had been walking the neighbourhood, in a café, and had a coffee and a crepe to fuel our walk to the next stop.
We walked through the Latin Quarter to Notre Dame and, leaving Greg sitting in the sun, went into the Archeological Crypts underneath the plaza in front of Notre Dame. This area was excavated when the underground parking lot (which is below the excavation now) was being dug out.

The ruins uncovered included Roman baths, the original quay, house foundations and evidence that the two islands in the Seine River were actually a number of smaller islands which were joined as the city filled in the channels between them. The displays were exceptionally well done: pathways around and above the ruins with descriptions in French, Spanish and English, 3D computer graphics showing what the buildings would have looked like, descriptions and photos of old paintings and maps that show the evolution of the city and touch screen 3D interactive computer programs of the building of Notre Dame. Although not a large site we spent about an hour down there and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We met up with Greg and walked over to Ste Chapelle.  Aimee and I were able to walk right in and it is one of my favourite sites in Paris. The royal chapel is both delicate and awing. About a third is covered in scaffolding as the windows are being renovated.

The walls of the upper chapel are made almost entirely of stain glass windows.

The lower areas of the walls look like wall paper but it is all painted. I also took some pictures of the tiles on the floor with future rugs in mind. We were in the church about 45 minutes.

On the way out we saw flyers for a concert tomorrow night in Ste Chapelle. We didn't really think that there would be any seats left, but there were, so we bought 3 tickets for the 7 o'clock Mozart concert. I'll let you know tomorrow how it is.
By now we were getting hungry again, crossed the Seine and walked towards the Louvre and stopped at a restaurant opposite the book sellers on the river bank. We were revitalized by food, alcohol and conversation with a nice Swedish couple at the next table.

Aimee's "go to" meal, a Croque Madame. Basically a grilled cheese and ham sandwich
with melted cheese and a fried egg on top.

Back up and walking again we went through the Louvre courtyard, much busier than yesterday and through the Jardin des Tuilieries. I guess I have never been there in the spring, on a weekend, on a lovely, warm day. It was packed. There were people walking, picnicking on the grass and sitting on the benches and chairs.

I have read about the kids sailing wooden boats in the gardens, but had never witnessed it.

Or last stop was L'Orangerie. No pictures can be taken inside. Aimee and I viewed Monet's paintings but I have to admit that it is more peaceful and easier to focus on them with fewer people milling and talking. It can feel like a spiritual place when it is quiet. The lower galleries housed a couple of private collections and an exhibit of drawings from Musee D'Orsey. We were pretty burned out though and although I recognized that it was an excellent display, Picasso, Renoir, Degas etc, I was too tired to really enjoy it. About an hour in there. We found Greg sitting in the park and were proud of ourselves finding the right bus home. Exhausted but loved it.
On the way to the bus we passed police cars and about 100 gendarme in riot gear. Greg stopped to ask them what was going on and his translation; "providing security for Le Omolette", provided us with a laugh. On the news tonight we learned they were providing security for Sergai Lavrov, (sounds just like omelette)  the foreign minister for Russia.

Greg getting his top secret information.