Day 21

Today we did our best to wake up on the earlier side (to us) and get a fresh start with some morning coffee, a croissant, and pain au chocolat. We head off through the light drizzle to le Concergerie, which had multiple uses throughout the ages but is most famous for being a prison during the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette was held there for her final days before facing the guillotine, so we were eager to see the large and very cool stone work within the building, and to see the tiny cells that prisoners were squeezed into. One room showed the list of about 2500 names of those who had faced the guillotine during the revolution, which included French King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette.

Within the same grounds of a larger building (aptly named the Palace of Justice, sadly no super heroes live there... that we know of) we went over to the famous Saint Chapelle. Inside the grounds of the Palace of Justice is Saint Chapelle which boasts the most beautiful stain glass windows in all of France (and arguably, the world. Check out the new photo album, and you'll quickly see what we mean). The ground floor of the church appears modest, and oddly enough, a little dark. The paintings and decorations on the ground floor are very different from the other churches we've seen, with a lot of color on the walls, deep blues, golds, and reds, with a lot of fleur de lis designs. We looked at the gift shop and then moved up to the second floor, climbing a very tall/steep and narrow spiral staircase to have it open up, to one of the best sights we'd seen this whole trip. The pictures, even though it might be hard to believe, really don't do Saint Chapelle justice. After the dark ground floor and narrow staircase our eyes were shocked to turn the corner and see the fifteen very tall and colorful stain glass windows. We spent a lot of time taking it all in, while taking many pictures in hopes of trying to give a good perspective of what it felt like to be in the cathedral.

After reluctantly leaving the cathedral (and picking up a magnet for home of a Notre Dame gargoyle), we head back to the apartment for a quick breather before heading out to an awesome row of restaurants we saw the night before, and head down for a great night of wine, live piano music, and great food. Happy and full, we returned back to the apartment to relax and get as much sleep tonight before we try to head out of France to the small town of Chartres, which has the fourth largest church in the world.

Enjoy the pictures!

-Kyle

Steph's notes:

Before we hit the Conciergerie, we passed by and walked through the famous Marche aux Fleurs, the flower market which occurs daily on the Ile de la Cite. One of the vendors' stands was named Stephanie! Oh how I would love to have a little flower shop in Paris.

Also, we hit up the Monop' again today, stocked up on snacks and whatnot. Kinder bueno is a type of chocolate bar that we've seen advertised and in vending machines quite a bit. We tried it today, delicious.

Also delicious, we needed a pastry fix, but our usual bakery was closed, so we sought out another one and found Maison Julien, which just emits the most overpoweringly wonderful smell of baking bread. The apple tart and millefeuille were good too!

On the way out of the Sainte Chapelle, we saw the actor who plays Andrew Van de Kamp on Desperate Housewives. (of course Kyle had no idea, and so therefore can't back me up very well, but I will admit that I watch the show.) He was just walking around, vacationing. I would have felt like too much of a creeper to take a picture though, so I didn't. Guess I won't be interning at TMZ. haha.