Paris and Il de la Cite
Trip Start
Sep 09, 2005
1
126
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Paris,
Île-de-France,
France
Friday, May 9, 2008
Dianne insists that I try my hand at writing something to be posted on the internet. She actually is behind on her journal, so this is her way to catch up. She is journaling while I am typing. We are now in Paris, in a Holiday Inn with a Metro (subway) station just a few steps out the front door. We have bought a Museum Pass good for 4 days as well as a packet of Metro Tickets. Today we are of on our final day of a two day hop on/off double decker bus. However, we take the metro down to Norte Dame. Dianne is so good with the metro, I just follow her lead and so far so good. Perhaps our evil travel genie has abandoned us. The cathedral is glorious and also mobbed. There are so many photo ops both in and outside the cathedral. Words cannot describe the scene. Of course before we arrived there we had to travel two block gauntlet of nothing but tourist shops. Wonder of wonders, we do not stop - we wll treat ourselves to that pleasure later. After the cathedral, we go to the archeology dig that shows roman ruins almost underneath the cathedral. More photo!! It is amazing that these ruins buried for years was discovered when excavating for newer buildings. We get a sandwich, crepes and drinks and sit on the wall outside the cathedral and picnic. We then find the brass marker for the center of Paris and you guessed it- more photos. This time with our feet on the middle of Paris. From here we go to St Chapelle. It is build on 2 levels, the lower level was for the citizens of Paris. The upper level was for the King and his entourage. The stained glass windows are fantastic. The whole interior is glass except for the small wooden pieces used to hold the glass and of course the metal canes between the small pieces of colorful glass. The canes are so small that it looks like the glass is floating in the wooden frame. Our days have been exceptionally sunny and today, the glass just sparkles and the interior dances with predominately blues and reds. Even the floor is inlaid with designs in marble tile. More photo ops. Then off to the Conciergerie. Although part of this have been destroyed there is still a lot to see. At one time the palace of the King of France, it became the residence of the governor of the King's Palace. It also spent time as a prison during the revolution. We go down some steps and enter a great hall. At one time this room was at street level but with the passage of time and new construction the surrounding land was filled in and it now resides below street level. There are huge fireplaces down each wall for heating. Several 6 foot or taller people could stand in each one. At the far end of the hall are stairs going up to the cells for prisoners. We see a cell for the citizens, a cell for people with some money that has small beds, a cell for the nobility with a bed and writing desk and also a replica of the cell inhabited by Marie Antoinette before she lost her head. You guessed it, more photo ops!! We go back to Notre Dame, and our street full of vendors. It is a shame that we have to go that direction to get the hop on/off bus. Of course we find treasures that we have to have. Postcards and scarves as well as some other items. We find our bus stop and wait. More photo ops!! Once on the bus we decide to stop at the Arc de Triomphe. We leave the bus, find trhe tunnel under the road that takes us to the Arc. It is amazing how big it is in person. There are wreaths laid by an eternal flame and we witness the changing of the guard. Very moving and yep you guessed it - more pictures. We find the elevator up to the top and when get off and walk to the rampart - all of Paris is at our feet. How marvelous. I walk around the top taking pictures at almost every step,, Views of the Effiel Tower, the Champs-Elysees' , Place de Concorde, the Gran and Petit Palais and others to numerous to mention. As I look down, I see that there is a round-a-bout for traffic flow. However, traffic from 12 different avenues merge into this traffic circle with no lane markings. This driving is definitely not for the faint of heart, Especially when you add pedestrians, motorcycles, motor scooters, bicycles and buses into the mix. We walk back to find our bus and take it to the Effiel Tower. The pedestrains and visitors are the tower are huge as are the lines for waiting. We decide to do the tower another day and ride the bat-o-bus (boat/water taxi) back to Notre Dame to catch the metro back to the hotel. Our evil travel genie rears it's ugly head. We try to go down the stairs to the boat ticket office but are turned back buy security and national police. We trudge (so very weary now) down to the next stairway down to the river, get almost to the ticket office and find it has also been closed by the same group of officers. We get something to drink and talk about what to do next. We see the boat personnel and they tell us that they cqnnot sell any ticket as their office is closed, and the reason it is closed is because an abandoned suitcase had been found and the bomb squad is coming to inspect and blow it up. We take picture (what else) and wait for the big bang. Someone now has their clothing decorating the beautiful Seine. We try to find a local metro station in order to get back to the hotel and end up with another Zurich adventure. The good news is that we are not schlepping our luggage. The directions we are given direct us back across the Seine to the Louvre side. We find a policeman to ask and he cannot be bothered with lost tourists. He quickly points up the Seine and turns back to surveillance. We trudge onward and see a young couple with a baby in a stroller asking another national policeman directions and we impose on his good nature to ask also. He graciously gives us directions and also tells us to follow the young couple as we are all going to the same place. Our evil travel genie is back in the bottle, we find our train, get to our hotel stop, decide to go to McDonalds for a quick bite and back to our room to cleqn up and prepare for another day.
