France in 17 Pictures, Part 1
As with all transatlantic flights, we staggered into the airport having spent the whole night trying unsuccessfully to sleep in an airplane seat. Took the RER train to the metro to Republique station, asked a newsagent to direct us to the necessary street, dragged our bags up to the apartment and located the key, with some fumbling, under the landlord's mat. He told us the key would be under the mat, but not under his OWN mat, which confused us.
You are not supposed to take a nap! But you can't help it. It's morning in Paris, but it's the middle of the night for you. So we did, then we explored the area on foot. The Marais is an area of Paris that is both gay and Orthodox Jewish, so go figure. We used the guide book to give ourselves a destination, a famous square called des Voges, with four fountains.
It's true about the cafes. They are everywhere, and the furniture is arranged on the sidewalk with both chairs facing out, for watching the scene. It might be that cafes are the signature feature of Paris. A single cafe creme can cost you as much as four euros in the tourist district, but you are welcome to sit at the table for hours. Here I am with Toby having our first cafe experience. I managed to order our food in French and felt very competent. We had an enormous cheese and fruit plate, with more blue cheese than someone could eat in a week, and when we wanted to take the remains home, I asked about that in French as well. Except, apparently, what I said was, "Can we ... make this... ready to wear?"
The next day we visited Saint Chappelle, a beautiful church renowned for its stained glass, which takes up nearly the entire four walls of the upstairs chapel. It wasn't a church, really, but rather, Louis IX's private chapel, which is why the good stuff is on the second floor; there was a bridge between it and Louis's private rooms in the castle. The downstairs was very plain, as it was used for the servants' worship. During the revolution, the downstairs was trashed and then used for storage. The chapel was used as a records room for many decades, which is why the windows survived; they needed the light. Only in the 19th century, with its romance with the medieval, did anyone think of restoring Saint Chapelle. There were no records of how the first floor had looked, so they painted it up in 19th century style; this is a picture of the first floor. It is no longer consecrated, but considered a national treasure.
It is very close to Notre Dame. We got a good look at the huge line for Notre Dame after visiting Saint Chapelle and decided to visit the outside of Notre Dame as part of our enjoyment-only vacation plan. Hey, I saw Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, so I've done that. Behind the church is a typical French park - very orderly and well-trimmed with a center feature, in this case, a gothic virgin and child. Over to the side, a young couple in business dress was lying asleep in each other's arms on a park bench.
We were too tired to go home and go out again, so we went to a restaurant recommended by our host, where I had a delicious steak tartare and parsley potatoes. We drank wine and ate cheese every day of our trip. There is no bad food in France that I can see. Even the highway rest stops have wonderful baguettes, but they serve horrible instant coffee out of a machine, which seems to satisfy the French.
More Frenchly goodness to come!