Paris - Day 2

Morning of day two starts at a little cafe down the street from our hotel. We had to pass 2 other places before we found a place that had more than a pastry and coffee to eat. Apparently they are not big on the Brails-styled breakfast here. Tasty hot chocolate, fresh orange juice, ham, eggs, toast, and crepe with jam and we are ready for a day of Museum d' Orsay and of few other things.

As you can see from the pictures, the museum has a nice collection of statues and paintings. There were two Van Gogh self portraits, a lovely Monet, and of course Young Dancer of Fourteen (1881) by Edgar Degas. The museum itself was great, it was once a train station. You could see the center area with most of the sculptures as you moved from level to level and there were giant clocks from several views.

After the museum, we headed to Notre Dame. We were able to see the outside but the inside was closed until 4:30 for priestly ordinations. A tiny cramp in our style but we made the most of it by moving on to the flower market (Marché aux Fleurs), Sainte Chapelle, and Shakespeare and Co. bookstore. The flower market is one of the last remaining and it smelled lovely. Shakespeare and Co. was a bit difficult to find and even more disorganized than Smith Family by the UO campus. I had just finished A Moveable Feast by Hemingway and wanted to pick up a copy of Fiesta or The Sun Also Rises as it is known in the US. Sainte Chapelle proved impressive. We have seen a lot of churches while traveling but this definitely had the most stained glass windows. The pictures do not do it justice.

After Sainte Chapelle we still had a bit of time before they opened Notre Dame so we decided to swing by the Crypte Archéologique. It is about 400 ft underground and shows the remains of walls of a settlement of the Parisii, a Celtic tribe that inhabited the island about 2000 years ago. This is how Paris got its name. It is quite an interesting display and there was no line to get in.

After the crypt, we headed to the line for Notre Dame. It moved fast even though it was stretched pretty far out. The church is pretty popular and feels nothing like a church. There is visible confession, a concession stand of trinkets, and even a machine to make a medallion to prove you were there. It was all a bit silly. The church itself is quite large but not as impressive, in my opinion, as the Kölner Dom. We wanted to climb to the top of Notre Dame but the line was really long. We decided to wait until Monday and maybe some of the weekend tourists would be gone.