All of the Pretty Places

Today was a walking day. And we walked around a lot and saw a lot of pretty places, and also froze various parts of our bodies, because it’s freezing outside right now! My host mother said that this week is usually the coldest week of the winter. And we have been outside for most of it. Thank you Hollins. Good planning there.

                The group met up at Saint-Chapelle this morning. It used to be the royal chapel, so it’s got tons of pretty stained glass windows and ornate enamel work and basically looks like a giant jewelry box. Then we went next door to the Conciergerie, which used to be the main prison of Paris and is where they held all the people who were guillotined during the Reign of Terror. They have part of it set up as a museum for the prison, but the large main hall had an art exposition in it today. It was called Bêtes Off, which is pronounced “bets off”, but “bêtes” means animals or beasts. All the art featured animals and some of it was very strange, like a giant column of netting with live flies inside. We were all quite disturbed by that one. But some were really pretty, like a deer with long golden antlers.

                Then we walked over to the other side of the island and saw Notre Dame. Prettiest church I’ve ever seen, but then it is Notre Dame, so that goes without saying. There was a mass going on the whole time we were inside. They have the altar and pew area sectioned off from the visitors. Visitors, i.e. tourists like us, walk around the outside of this area in a large oval. There are little chapels all along the outside of this oval and all sorts of interesting stuff inside it. After Notre Dame we walked around the Latin Quarter for a bit, but it’s mostly full of souvenir shops and restaurants now, so we broke for lunch.

                We met up again near the Fountain of Saint Michel, where we got on the metro and went to Montmartre. Montmartre is Paris’ version of a mountain. It’s only 400 feet high, which isn’t bad for being in the middle of the city I suppose, but I’ve grown used to Roanoke Valley and Japan, where there are large mountains everywhere. We took the Funiculaire, or cable car, up to the top where the Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre is. It’s another pretty little church, which we wandered through briefly. The only real thing of note for me at the time was that it was warm. Then we wandered around Montmartre and back down the streets until we found the metro again. We saw some interesting landmarks: Le Musée de Montmartre, which was the resident of many famous painters and artists, including Renoir, the café where Amélie was filmed, and the Moulin Rouge!

                After that we were freed for the day and we made our separate ways home. I’m still cold and utterly exhausted from walking around all day. But tomorrow we get to do it again, bright and early! At least we start out at the Louvre tomorrow morning so we’ll be inside for a good portion of the day. It’s kind of really sad that that’s the reason I’m looking forward to the Louvre, but it’s really, really cold!