May 3, 2000: I decide to eat today, no matter the
consequence. After all, I can’t not eat
in Paris! That would be really just dumb. The hotel offers a nice little continental
breakfast, so I cautiously try some applesauce, tea and toast. So far, so good, though, to be safe, I carry
the French Tums-type-thing I bought at
the Monoprix yesterday.
Off to Notre Dame. Oh.My.God. Or, mon dieu, I guess I should say. Even in the overcast weather, it is INCREDIBLE. Before heading into the cathedral, I snap a picture of Point Zero, from which all of Paris was built. Amazing. Of course Notre Dame is extremely crowded, but it is also glorious. We make sure to do the walking tour of Notre Dame as suggested in the d*mn guidebook, but this time, it actually comes in handy. I made sure to get a photo of the statue of Joan of Arc before we moved on.
Behind the chapel, on the tip of the island, is the Memorial
des Martyrs de la Deportation. Opened in
1962, the memorial commemorates the French who died in concentration camps
during World War II. You walk down into
a stone area, lit with candles and 200,000 crystals which represent the 200,000
victims. At the far end is a flickering
eternal flame. It’s eerie and
claustrophobic, stunning and incredibly moving.
And, as you exit, there’s the message “Forgive, but never forget.” Powerful. 
We then walk over to another beautiful cathedral,
Sainte-Chapelle. WOW. You walk up into the second floor chapel and
the room is done entirely in stained glass.
It is indescribably glorious. I
wish it were a sunny day to really get the full effect of the light, but it’s
still pretty incredible on an overcast day.
It is extremely crowded inside, so GFFMO is keen to get out of here
quickly. Sigh. We then walk over to the Conciergerie. Of course, I’m interested in seeing it, not
only because of its historical significance, but also because of the Bette
Davis movie All This and Heaven Too (“In your unhappiness you reached out your
hand for help and in my loneliness I took it.”
God, I love that movie). We head
to the room where Marie Antoinette was interred and tour the rest of the
buildings. It’s very cool and icy
inside, which only lends to the gloomy atmosphere. After we finish touring, we walk past Pont
Neuf, the oldest standing bridge in Paris (from the 16th
century). This is the first time it
dawns on me how old everything is here.
Everything in America is comparatively new, but it’s not like that in
Europe. I’m such an American, it took a
trip to Paris to figure that out.
There’s so much ancient and beautiful architecture that it’s almost hard
to stare at it long enough to take it all in.
It’s time for lunch and the d*mn guidebook suggests having lunch in
the department store La Samaritaine. I
have a croissant and some iced tea. It
was nice to sit down for a few minutes and relax. The store is gorgeous and I bought a couple
of souvenirs for my brand new nephew – an adorable onesie with French phrases
on it and an even-more-adorable little beret.
I don’t care if my brother-in-law doesn’t like them. My nephew needs to wear French adorableness!! (I got this photo of my nephew, wearing his Paris finery, a few months later - doesn't it look like he's saying "Bonjour, Aunt Tari! J'taime!")
Now it’s time for the Louvre.
Good thing we had a little sitdown beforehand. And again I’m actually grateful for the d*mn
guidebook, since it told us to buy a museum pass in advance, and also what
entrance to use to avoid the longest lines.
They were definitely great tips and I appreciated them. The appreciation didn’t last long,
though. Now I get annoyed that we had to
follow another of the walking tours in the d*mn guidebook. I feel as if I’m not allowed to look at
anything if it’s not specifically mentioned in the tour. If the book said to start in room seven,
GFFMO felt like we had to race through rooms one through six to get there,
whereas I knew there were valuable things to at least LOOK at! Sigh.
So most of the tour is us running through rooms to find the exact things
GFFMO is told to look at. For such an
intelligent person, he is rather a sheep as a tourist. Thankfully, I look around enough to notice a
couple of paintings by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun.
I talked about her, and her work, when I played Heidi in the The Heidi Chronicles, so I was happy to
see some of her actual paintings. 
Unsurprisingly, the Louvre is packed, so I didn’t get too close to the
Mona Lisa, but it was thrilling to see it nonetheless. I also loved getting so close to the Winged
Victory and the Venus de Milo. Too bad
my pictures don’t reflect the thrill.
The cellar of the original castle is also incredible. I really enjoyed the models of what the
palace originally looked like, and walking around what used to be the perimeter
moat.
My utter happiness at finally being at the Louvre is being severely
tested by GFFMO, who insists on running back and forth looking for a particular
gallery mentioned in the d*mn guidebook.
We must’ve wasted at least a half hour wandering around like idiots
until I finally noticed a sign that said those rooms were closed. I’m not exaggerating, he would STILL BE
LOOKING FOR THEM if I hadn’t seen that sign.
We finally leave and stop to get a snack at a café nearby, recommended
by, yes, the d*mn guidebook. I have half
an omelet, which is amazing, and the first of many Oranginas. We linger at the café for awhile, then we do
some souvenir shopping. I pick out a
gift for one friend at the Comedie Francaise gift shop and another at Moutard
Maille to get a mustard container. They
have so many lovely things, it was hard to decide.
After shopping, we walk past La Madeleine, which has an enormous mural
of Jesus on the side. Why oh why didn’t
I get a photo of it?! Nearby is the half
price ticket booth, but I was too exhausted from all our tourings to see a
show. Though there were tickets for the
Bejart ballet company…merde. Back to the
hotel, where I happily fall asleep as GFFMO heads out for more nightlife.
The next installment will feature the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, and Versailles...
No comments:
Post a Comment