Day 25 - Fri. June 19th

Today we set off in hopes of doing a little bit more shopping and general exploring of some more of the city. We also had a bad sweet tooth and some supplies for the apartment that we needed so we head out to our local Monop' to get some more goods. After putting the groceries away we head back out to find some stores we had passed but never really went into, including a three story H&M which definitely had a few... interesting items. As the afternoon continued our sweet tooth got worse, and Steph had the great idea that before the Louvre at night, we should take the longest metro ride yet over to La Grande Defense, in the more corporate/company skyscraper part of town. We picked up tarts for the night and to satisfy our current hunger, than head out to the business district of Paris. La Defense was amazing to see, especially from it's base, where it is tall enough and wide enough to fit Notre Dame underneath it. We happened to be there while a "Run against hunger," event was going on, which was also fun to see since their course was really just running around the base of the arch and it's small plaza in front of it. From it's base looking back towards the city the Arc de Triomphe was easy to see, and beyond that, all on the same road, we could see the Concorde and the Louvre. We also enjoyed walking around the huge mall right next to the arch, mostly just to see what it was like inside, and trying to get into "Le dome," which ended up being a restaurant.

We head back to the city and got out of the metro at the exit for the louvre, allowing us to enter the building not from the city and pyramid above ground, but from the awesome corridor and pyramid below ground. It was a little before six at this point so we wouldn't be able to get in for free quite yet, and instead went into the gift shop, feeling slightly obligated that we had been there three times now, and had yet to financially contribute to the Louvre's grandeur. We left with a magnet of the Winged Victory, a Mona Lisa ipod case, and a louvre bag. For the third and final part of the louvre we aimed for the Sully wing, and started at the basement level for the history of the louvre and to explore the bottom of the moat which used to surround the mansion back before when moats were necessary. We head upwards, exploring the vast amounts of uncovered ancient idols, and stone works from Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, and other early civilizations from the fertile crescent. Most of the statues were awesome to see, and a lot of the little pieces that had been found were also neat since even from the BC times they were able to get really detailed on items the size of a finger nail. We then passed through the ancient roman objects, which were mostly pots and dishes with stories circumventing the outside. The ancient Egyptian artifacts were definitely my favorite, especially the statue of the dog, and the four monkeys which we high-fived on this trip, just as we had the last time we came across them accidentally. On the top floor we were able to see many great artworks from the 19th century, including a few by Pissaro and Renoir which are always fun to see.

We walked home from the Louvre with sore feet and both fairly tired to return to the apartment for some grilled cheese made with slices of Gouda. We were happy with the way that we went through the Louvre, and are glad to say that we honestly saw every room that was open, and thus every work that was displayed at the Louvre, which is definitely something that not too many get to do.

- Kyle

Day 24

On our twenty-fourth day, we started off in the afternoon toward Place de la Madeleine, the gourmet center of the city. On the way, we passed through the Place de la Concorde, with the obelisk and a great view of the Eiffel Tower. At Madeleine, we saw the church that gives the square its name, and also found the two most famous gourmet specialty shops of Paris, just a few doors down from each other: Fauchon and Hediard. Of course we explored both (or rather, I dragged Kyle around) finding all sorts of interesting things, jams, teas, condiments of every kind, honeys, chocolates, et cetera, et cetera. Hediard also has a grocery and bakery, and Fauchon has lots of ready to go dishes at a little café area including salads, sandwiches, pastries, and more substantial fancy things at another counter. Both have a ridiculous selection of wine. I don’t think we’ll be bringing any wine back, partly because of the added weight but mostly because of the one liter limit – how can I pick just one or two bottles? Anyway, we did some modest shopping (both stores are, as one would expect, very expensive, though the quality is there to back it up) and I was mostly happy just to have a bag from each to carry around with me the rest of the day. Status, you know. I’d take the red and black stripes of Hediard over any silly Louis Vuitton pattern ANY DAY!

After, we decided to check out the church of the Madeleine (it’s so tough for me to type Madeleine instead of Madeline – I was thinking of my sis all day there), and it was beautiful. We were lucky enough to see a choir concert going on when we went in, adding to the overall ambience. The lighting was gorgeous, and there were some interesting sculptures in addition to the usual selection of saints, see pictures.

Anyway, after this we realized that it was around 4:30 and although we’d bought food, we hadn’t eaten anything. Since we had dinner plans, however, we didn’t want anything too much. Luckily, we pass the Paul patisserie, one of a chain that we’ve passed (and admired) before. I had an apple tart, Kyle an apple grille, and they were both fabulous. My tart had really thick slices of apple, just soft from baking, and a nice light glaze.

For dinner around 7:00 (early by Parisian standards, but we decided to keep on the safe side since we didn’t have a reservation) we ventured into the Saint Germain area, passing the famous Café Deux Magots, to find a restaurant that my parents had recommended. La Petite Chaise holds the distinction of being the oldest restaurant in Paris, established in 1680, when Louis XIV was king. We both ordered from the three course prix fixe menu, and everything was great. The onion soup was a pretty even ratio of cheese and bread to soup, just the way I like it, bubbling gratin on the top. Kyle started with an appetizer of poached eggs in a camembert cream, it was genius. For main course, I had salmon (let’s face it, my usual) and Kyle had roast duck. Dessert was awesome; I tried the coconut flan with dark chocolate sauce, and Kyle went with the brownie with almond ice cream (a dish that, when we looked at the menu online before going, he declared, “MINE!”) haha

It was all a great night, and the fullest I’ve been yet on this trip, making the walk back to the apartment a little difficult, but we made it!

As always,

Steph

Day 23

Today we set out for a part of Paris that was definitely unlike anything we had seen before… the catacombs. We head from our nearby metro directly to the catacombs and were ecstatic to find that the line today (as we had tried for it a while ago) was almost non-existent. We waited for about ten minutes before taking the winding narrow stairs sixty feet below ground, running below the sewers and metro system. The first room in the catacombs gave a detailed description about the history of them (they began as a small quarry) and the many famous Parisians that had gone to visit them so long ago. We continued through the underground tunnels for a while, making sure our heads didn’t bump the ceiling until we arrived at a larger room that gave more detailed information about the catacombs, and warned us (as we hadn’t seen a bone yet, just creepy locked barred doors and rocks with their quarry identification numbers carved on them) to ‘Stop, this is the empire of death.’ Really the sign above the entrance said "ARRÊTE - C'EST ICI L'EMPIRE DE LA MORT" but we continued onward to be greeted by piles and piles of bones, which were made into nice tunnel walls by the stacking of many femurs and skulls. The catacombs were a blast; there were a few “designs” of hearts and crosses made out of skulls, with a few neat different ways that they were all piled up. Towards the end, in a larger room with a huge domed ceiling, an employee of the catacombs shined a light onto the ceiling which had 1875 carved into it, which left us wondering what else we had passed and simply couldn’t see.

We came back to the land of the living in a part of Paris we had yet to visit, and stopped at a Monoprix (the real version of our local Monop’) to pick up a coke, croissant, and a sugar donut for breakfast/lunch. We went down to le grand epicerie (Bon Marche’s gourmet/supermarket) for some more mini macaroons, the rest of our ratatouille ingredients, and for Steph to get a tote bag. We walked back down towards the apartment to stop by Gilbert Joseph, the multiple story, two building bookstore. We continued back to the apartment, and relaxed with a new kind of baguette (l’ancienne), which we had with our second fantastic dinner of ratatouille.

-Kyle

Day 22 - Chartres Cathedral

On Tuesday, we started out at the Gare Montparnasse to hop a train to the small French town of Chartres, which contains a cathedral that’s one of the oldest in France and one of the largest in the world! It’s only about an hour by train (and this is local train, not high speed), and as soon as we walk out of the small station, we can see the cathedral. Parts of the cathedral date from the 1100’s, and the most recent parts were added in the 16^th century. The highest spire reaches 370 feet, and the ground area is 117,000 square feet. It’s massive. It’s hard to miss.

So we walk over there, passing through parts of the picturesque town. Given that most of what we see while traveling is big cities (like Paris), it’s a nice change of pace to see a small place relatively unchanged through the years. Everything was very clean and well kept, another nice change from all the graffiti we’ve gotten more and more accustomed to in Paris. We get to the cathedral, just in awe of it’s size, and of course all the detailed sculptures that adorn it, all the flying buttresses (because who doesn’t love those) and the two giant spires. The inside is giant, of course, and quite dark – there are hundreds of huge, beautiful stained glass windows, which are currently undergoing a very careful cleaning process. It’s obvious instantly which ones have been cleaned, and which ones still carry decades of grime. First, we walk around the whole cathedral, no small task. There’s a choir screen that goes around a big part of the center, intricately carved. There are several smaller chapels off to the sides, dedicated to one saint or another. The part of the chapel semi-enclosed by the choir screen is off limits, some renovation is going on.

We had read that there is a tour given in English twice per day, and after a bit of initial exploring, we are right on time for the first one, at noon. Our guide, Malcolm Miller, is a British man who has, as of this year, been giving tours of Chartres Cathedral for fifty years! He has written five books on the cathedral (we bought one at the gift shop), and gives lectures around the world. During the hour and a half tour, we are given details about the building and history of Chartres, as well as information and details on some of the individual windows inside and sculptures outside the cathedral. We learned how the stories of saints were told through stained glass to a largely illiterate 12^th century population, and how, during both World Wars, all of the windows were individually moved from the cathedral and hidden a hundred miles away in order to spare them. There are 176 stained glass windows, most of them comprised of about 24 individual panes, each pane with various pieces to make a scene. We found out that the whole cathedral is in the process of being cleaned, and in five years, it will look like new. We’d noticed a difference in two of the chapels toward the back which looked brand new, gleaming tiles and white arches. One of these holds the holy relic of Chartres, an article of fabric said to have belonged to the Virgin Mary, given to the cathedral by Charlemagne in 876. Anyway, it was amazing to see the difference that the cleaning had made in parts of the cathedral, just cleaning, not replacing. It seems to us that all of these places are just made of huge dark gray stones and intended that way, but apparently they were all painted and vibrant at some point, on the inside and on the sculptures at least. Mr. Miller pointed out some places on the walls where you could see the old paint poking through. The story was that in the years following the French Revolution, the Church no longer had the wealth necessary to properly maintain the buildings. Rather than the expensive task of repainting, they painted over with plaster, hence the gray hue to everything.

We had a great time on the tour, took lots of pictures, then decided to break for lunch. We’d brought with us some crackers, cheese, sausage, water, and dino gummies. We found a little grassy park behind the cathedral with a grand view overlooking the town and laid out our spread. After eating, we took the long route back around to explore a bit of the city, walking through a tree lined bike path, passing some awesome old-style houses and the tiny river. Back at the cathedral, we looked more closely at some of the famous windows, and the clean chapels versus the ones yet to be done (the difference is shocking – look at the pictures!). Then, we went to climb the New Tower (the one from the 16^th century – this is “new” in the relative sense). There are about three hundred steps up, just one long stone spiral, though there are a few small landings and a place to walk outside halfway up and at the top. The top had a great view, you could see everything in Chartres, and probably beyond, you could see the gargoyles, greater detail in the architecture, everything. We took quite a few pictures before starting the descent back down. After stopping in the gift shop, we headed back out and took our time getting to the train station. The trip back to Paris was easy. I bought some French magazines at the newsstand, which I still haven’t read, though I’m excited to. Another great day trip down, one more to go.

-Steph

P.s. The picture below is the result of the story that follows: As we were at the top of the New Tower, we decided that we needed a picture of the two of us at the tower but didn't want another photo of us just holding a hand out and taking one of just our faces. In the photos you'll see in a lot of the corners of the walls designs of flowers, and dog/lizard like animals. Steph was already in the higher part that the stairs up through the tower reached, and I was on a slightly lower level that went around the perimeter of the top. I handed my bags to Steph, ran back down and set the camera up to point in Steph's direction. We couldn't see or use the screen on the camera to tell us if we were pointing the camera in the right direction or not, but we knew we had it pretty close to what we needed. I set the timer on the camera for 10 seconds, balanced it up the top of the flower in the corner of the wall, hit the button and ran into the stair case, up a few spiral stairs and next to Steph with enough time to smile and hear the picture be taken. This photo is the result of a lot of great guess work and lucky balancing.

-Kyle

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.

Day 20

Another Sunday in Paris, meaning most things were closed, so it’s always a bit of a slower day. We started off with some crepes sucres at the “Creperie de Paris” on our street, Kyle’s with lemon and honey, mine with nutella and bananas. I was in a bookstore mood, so we headed over to Saint Germain, in the student area where there are tons of book shops. On the way, we passed by a place called Mona Lisait (a clever play on words – it means “Mona was reading”) with a variety of new and used books on various subjects, mostly art, history, food, and travel, and some cool post cards out front. We bought a few postcards (so, Mom and Dad – please check your mail in about a week!) and kept walking.

Pretty much anytime we cross the river, we pass by Hotel de Ville, it’s just on the way. There was a plant exhibition out front, and I don’t know exactly what it was about, but I got the idea it was just promoting vegetation and greenery in general, trying to keep plants in the city, and showing all the different types of plants and flowers of Paris. We’d seen it in various stages of being set up, and for a few days it pretty much just smelled like manure when you walked past, so it was nice to see it all done.

The bookstore we’d been walking to turned out to be closed, but there were still a few little places to poke around in, including a place that had some old French records for 0.20 euro.

We made sure to be back to our part of town by 5:30, since we’d heard that on Sundays at St Eustache, the church only a couple blocks from our apartment, they have an organ concert for half an hour before the 6 o’clock mass. Supposedly the organ there is one of, if not THE best in Paris. Sure enough, it was massive and sounded amazing. It was cool to see the inside of the church too, since we walk past it so frequently. We’re thinking about going back next Sunday too.

After that, we finally decided to take up Cavalier Bleu on their Happy Hour deal of cocktails and pints of Pelforth marked down to nearly half. I had a raspberry bellini, it had a lot of fresh raspberries in it, lovely drink. With it, Kyle had the chicken club sandwich that he liked so well there before, and I had their quiche of the day. After all that, we popped into the Pompidou bookstore again, just to browse, and ended the night back at the apartment watching episodes of “Breaking Bad” online. I really can’t get enough of that show, it’s incredible.

-Steph

Day 19

Rue de Rivoli is bustling on Saturdays like this one – it’s warm and sunny and the shops are all open (unlike on Sundays when most close). I’ve been in the market for a new pair of shoes for the past couple weeks, and I found a cool pair of adidas that should do well for all the walking we’re doing.

After getting a late start (which seems to be a trend lately) and strolling around the shops, we went for a late lunch/early dinner at Creperie Beaubourg, the one near Centre Pompidou. We both got the Speciale, with ham, cheese, egg, tomatoes, and a side salad. On the sweeter side, I had a crepe cirton (sugar and lemon) and Kyle had an extravagant crepe of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and hazelnuts.

We stopped back at the apartment for a quick rest, then at about 8:30 we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We’d been up before during the day, so this time we wanted to try it at night. Also, this time we decided to take the stairs. Maybe a crazy move, yes, but hey, my calves look great now! Haha. The stairs save you three euro off the elevator price, and the line is less than half the length of the elevator line. The stairs get you up to the second level, where the Jules Verne restaurant is, about halfway up the full height of the tower. Beyond that, you hop on the elevator to get the rest of the way to the top. It was a warm, muggy day, and especially after walking all those stairs we were feeling pretty gross, but at the top it’s all cool and breezy. We took lots of pictures of the view and the lights all around. We stayed up there until just after midnight – long enough to see the flashing lights (tons of white lights flicker every hour when it’s dark). We got back down as quickly as we could, and headed for the metro, when we caught the second to last train of the night (whew!) at 12:45 to make the 15 stops back to our place, arriving some time past one. A long night, but well worth it!

-Steph