FairieMoon

Notre Dame...

Wednesday morning dawned, and we knew we were running out of time in Paris, so we woke early and hit the road for our first destination -- Notre Dame Cathedral. We'd seen the outside on Easter Sunday, but not wanting to disturb those wanting to celebrate Easter, we waited to go inside.

Before we visited Notre Dame, however, we took a brief detour and took a spin through the wee garden on our street -- rue de Bievre.

 

The Seine was just down the street from our apartment, past this little park, and across the river, was Notre Dame.

We saw this view almost every time we left our apartment to go anywhere in Paris.

It was a beautiful day, so we decided to walk down beside the river.

There were flowers in bloom all over Paris...

...and interesting things at which (or through which, as the case may be) to gaze.

I took some photos from beneath the bridge -- Pont au Double.

 

 

Mr. MacGyver crawled up inside of the bridge to take photos of its structure...I stayed on the ground and took photos of Judy.

Here is the family in front of Notre Dame.

 

 

 

Let's go inside, shall we?

 

 

 

 

Joan of Arc.

 

 

 

 

This woman's face, lit by the windows as she whispered her prayers, was just beautiful.

Some of the hand-painted panels.

All in all, I thought the photos inside the cathedral (no flash or tri-pod allowed) turned out pretty well. Some were a little grainier than I would have preferred...but not bad.

After we finished looking around inside, we strolled through the adjacent gardens.

Above you can see Mr. MacGyver taking photographs.

 

Punch and Judy enjoyed the playground...maybe a little too much.

 

 

 

 

 

One last glimpse.

From Notre Dame, we went back to pick up GJ and Papa before proceeding on to our next destination.

In one day we managed to see Notre Dame, St. Sulpice, Luxembourg Gardens, the Rodin Sculpture Garden, L'Orangerie and the Louvre, but you will have to wait until tomorrow for the next installment.

 

 

 

Random shots of Paris...

Tuesday in Paris was a day of misteps.

After laboring under the impression that many things would be closed on Easter Sunday and the following Monday, we saved some of our bigger destinations for later in the week.

We woke Tuesday determined to tour the Louvre, but after a delicious home-cooked breakfast in the apartment and a short bus ride to our destination, we discovered that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays.

Thus, we took to the Parisien streets looking for a back-up plan. We tried the D'Orsay Museum, determined to take in art of some variety, but the line to get inside was about a mile long, and required us to stand outside, in the rain, so we moved on.

In the end, we spent the afternoon in Le Bon Marche, one of the best known department stores in Paris. The result of which, for me, was the acquisition of several fat quarters of lovely Liberty lawn fabric.

All of this is to say, I did not take many photos on Tuesday, but the shots I did take are random and varied.

In the evening, we dined in a restaurant for which the English menu left much wanting in its translation. I suggest you click on the menu above and look at some of the dishes.

One of the deserts is translated, "Vanilla jar of cream this caramel."

I was extremely adventurous and tried the Beef Cheeks...

...it wasn't my favorite.

However, my son's "Shrimps 'Crystal Bay,' fried in the Satay with curry of vegetables" was to die for. That will teach me to operate outside of my comfort zone.

If you are wondering what beef cheeks are (don't feel silly, you will not have been the first to ask)...it is a very tender meat from inside the mouth of the cow, hence "cheeks." They were very flavorful, but too fatty for me, and unfortunately the fat, combined with the part of the cow from which they were derived, served to remind me just a little too much of mucousy spit. (Not to mention that some people had to keep reminding me that they were indeed beef CHEEKS.)

I admit it, I am an uncultured American when it comes to such things. I tend to like to stick to things I know...like chicken. I always scan the menu for Poulet.

However, I think I deserve some credit for my plucky spirit and sense of adventure when it came to ordering that particular evening.

Don't feel too sorry for me however; the "Chocolate Mousse black, cake on the toffy" was devine. Well worth the trip.

The above Cafe was NOT the restaurant in which we ate.

 

In this last photo, Punch is hitching a ride on Papa's shoulders back to the apartment. For some reason though it was a day light on photo, it was heavy on the feet.

Next Installment: Notre Dame Cathedral (the inside).

 

L'Arc de Triomphe et de la Tour Eiffel...

Okay, so I may be looking really clever to you right now with my fancy French titles. But in all honesty, I used a translation program online. I have no idea if the program translated my title correctly or not.

As I said in the last post, after we finished walking around Pere Lachaise and having a brief respite at a local eatery, we hopped on a Metro that sped us across Paris to the other side of the city to see the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower.

By that time, the stormy clouds had rolled in and rain had begun to fall. We walked from the Arc to the tower...in the rain...on a "forced march," as my father-in-law liked to call them. In reality, I kind of prefer the forced march as it allows you to see so much more of the city. Places where people work and live...stop lights and cobblestones, if you will.

The cloudiness caused my photos to be a little flat (sort of like the Notre Dame photos), so I decided to post some of these in sepia tones to break up the monotony for you, my viewer.

 

A glimpse of the Eiffel Tower through the trees.

 

 

 

I don't know if you know this about me, but I LOVE the Eiffel Tower. I know some Parisians think the Tower is gauche, but it is a riot of Art Nouveau loveliness to me. I love the lines and curls. I have collected and made many of them in my now almost 44 years.

But to admire it from the ground is ever my fate. You will not catch me trying to admire it from its stairs. No siree.

Here is another example of French Art Nouveau beauty. These metro entrances were designed by Hector Guimard.

That is it for today, but tune in tomorrow for more photos.

Pere Lachaise...

On the east side of Paris is located one of its most famous and largest cemeteries -- Pere Lachaise. We visited it on the Monday following Easter.

Père Lachaise is still an operating cemetery and accepting new burials. However, the rules to be buried in a Paris cemetery are rather strict: people may be buried in one of these cemeteries if they die in the French capital city or if they lived there. Being buried in Père Lachaise is even more difficult nowadays as there is a waiting list: very few plots are available.^[4] The gravesites at Père Lachaise range from a simple, unadorned headstone to towering monuments and even elaborate mini chapels dedicated to the memory of a well-known person or family. A lot of the tombs are about the size and shape of a phone booth, with just enough space for a mourner to step inside, kneel to say a prayer, and leave some flowers.

The cemetery manages to squeeze an increasing number of bodies into a finite and already crowded space. One way it does this is by combining the remains of multiple family members in the same grave. At Père Lachaise, it is not uncommon to reopen a grave after a body has decomposed and inter another coffin. Some family mausoleums or multi-family tombs contain dozens of bodies, often in several separate but contiguous graves. Shelves are usually fitted out to accommodate them.

In relatively recent times, Père Lachaise has adopted a standard practice of issuing 30-year leases on gravesites, so that if a lease is not renewed by the family, the remains can be removed, space made for a new grave, and the overall deterioration of the cemetery minimized. Abandoned remains are boxed, tagged and moved to Aux Morts ossuary, in Père Lachaise cemetery.^[5]

Plots can be bought in perpetuity, for 50, 30 or 10 years, the last being the least expensive option. Even in the case of mausoleums and chapels, coffins are most of the time below ground. (Wikipedia, Pere Lachaise)

Many famous people are buried in Pere Lachaise. Some of the graves I've seen, the two times I've visited the cemetery, include: Chopin, Moliere, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Honore de Balzac, Isadora Duncan, Marcel Marceau, Marcel Proust, Edith Piaf and last but not least Jim Morrison of the Doors.

But by far, my favorite thing to do in Pere Lachaise, rather than visit all of the famous gravesites, is to wander.

I love cemeteries and Pere Lachaise has a sense of age and weirdness that appeals to me with its little crypts and crowded rows.

Wikipedia states that the official website of the city of Paris claims that over 1 million people have been buried there...over 2 to 3 million if you include the bones and ashes buried in the Aux Morts Ossuary which is located on the grounds.

 

I will not include any famous gravesites among my photos of Pere Lachaise mainly because the most famous have been littered with gifts and tributes, and some of them (ie. Jim Morrison's) have been barricaded off to prevent vandalism. This does not appeal to me because it doesn't really give you a feel for the place itself.

 

 

 

 

I am not sure what caused this bullet hole to be here, but I found it fascinating.

I also loved the color and light inside many of the crypts. It was interesting that the doors to so many of them were open. In one of the closed crypts we found a chair. Judy heard a little boy behind us saying, "Daddy, Daddy, there is a chair in there!" After which he ran over to the crypt and tried to get inside. His father responded, "It's for the families son. We can't go in there." Certainly, walking around Pere Lachaise, which is paved in cobblestones, is an athletic pursuit and one might welcome a sturdy perch on which to rest one's feet.

Sometimes you could see flashes of color beyond the intricate cutwork on the closed doors...

 

...or alters set with statuary and small vignettes.

 

Some crypts left nothing at all to the imagination...being made of glass.

This crypt, though different than any others that we'd seen, intrigued me because of its inclusion of light where so many of the others seemed to shut it out. I found the symbolism of this to be beautiful.

 

After we finished walking around in Pere Lachaise, we had a quick lunch and then hopped on the metro to travel to the other side of the city, our destination to see the Arc de Triumphe and the Eiffel Tower. However, I will save that part of the journey for tomorrow and leave you with this image.

I will warn you, however, lest you think you have had a narrow escape, we visited four cemeteries (if you include the Catacombs of Paris) during our trip to Europe, so there is more to come.