 |
| Jardins Luxembourg |
The next day was Saturday, and we had a pretty amazing Sabbath if I do say so myself. We started out at the Luxembourg Gardens, dating from the 1600s. I was pretty excited about this because a) it was something I hadn't done before and b) it was the garden where Cosette and Marius met in Les Miserables. The gardens were lovely and peaceful. People were sailing boats on the pond, the ducks had a little house built for them, there were tennis courts and playgrounds and lots of trees.
 |
| Notre Dame |
We then traveled to Notre Dame for church number one of the day. We had hoped to climb to the top, but the line was just ridiculous. So we went to church number two, or rather a little chapel with a lot of stained glass. The Saint Chapelle, or Holy Chapel, had floor to ceiling stained glass and was slightly overwhelming.
 |
| Saint Chapelle |
A quick Sabbath nap at the hotel was needed before we headed back out to church number three, Le Sacre Coeur, or Sacred Heart Church. But first you had to climb the many steps of Montemartre to get there. Whew. We were not lazy tourists on this trip, I'll say that. We had a great dinner at a restaurant in the artists district, the profiteroles for dessert were amazing with the richest chocolate and puffiest pastry. We admired the paintings and then gaped at the inside of the church before running into a jazz concert in the park on our way down. I'm not sure why but we took the cable car down instead of up...
 |
| Steps to Montemartre |
 |
| Le Sacre Coeur |
 |
| Les Artistes |
 |
| Champs Elysees, preparing for le tour de France |
The next day, sadly our last day in Paris, we had one last stop to make. We needed to go to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and walk down the Champs Elysees. We luckily made it to the Arc in time; we found out they were closing it at 1:30PM because the Tour de France was coming ! This was the emptiest I'd ever seen this busy street. Tons of locals and tourists crowded the sidewalk, but the street itself was blocked off to make way for the cyclists. After going to the top of the Arc and seeing the amazing view of the city from there, we did wander through the crowds a bit but sadly had to leave to catch our plane about half an hour before the racers would arrive. That's ok, I think (barely) catching our plane made it acceptable to miss the end of the race. And now here we are in little York once more. It was SO good to show Jon around Geneva and Paris and enjoy it together. We had such an amazing time! But it is so good to come back to the comforts of your own home. Now if only we didn't have those dissertations still waiting for us...
 |
| Arc de Triomphe |
 |
| View of Montemartre from the top of the Arc |
The next day was Saturday, and we had a pretty amazing Sabbath if I do say so myself. We started out at the Luxembourg Gardens, dating from the 1600s. I was pretty excited about this because a) it was something I hadn't done before and b) it was the garden where Cosette and Marius met in Les Miserables. The gardens were lovely and peaceful. People were sailing boats on the pond, the ducks had a little house built for them, there were tennis courts and playgrounds and lots of trees. 
A quick Sabbath nap at the hotel was needed before we headed back out to church number three, Le Sacre Coeur, or Sacred Heart Church. But first you had to climb the many steps of Montemartre to get there. Whew. We were not lazy tourists on this trip, I'll say that. We had a great dinner at a restaurant in the artists district, the profiteroles for dessert were amazing with the richest chocolate and puffiest pastry. We admired the paintings and then gaped at the inside of the church before running into a jazz concert in the park on our way down. I'm not sure why but we took the cable car down instead of up...
No comments:
Post a Comment