Artists, Churches and More

We took it easy and had a late breakfast before starting out for sightseeing.  Our first destination was Sacre Coeur.  It is a beautiful, thought not very old, basilica on the top of Montmartre.  We rode the Metro to the neighborhood and then climbed a million and one stairs to exit from the station.  Note to self, there is a large and convenient elevator that we walked right past.  We rode the funicular to the church itself to avoid another million steps.  I was feeling great but that many stairs is enough to wind even the non-pregnant tourist.  After swinging through the church, we went to the nearby Place du Tertre.     

This touristy little square is full of artists and cafes.  Tessa was fascinated with the painters and happily sat on the curb to watch one work with oil paints.  She had been so looking forward to seeing the artists in Paris.  You never know what's going to strike the fancy of a six year old.  We ended up buying a silhouette of Tessa because the guy started snipping even while I was saying no, no merci.  I said no enough times that he ended up giving it to us for half price.  I can work with that.  We settled in at an outdoor café for lunch where Tessa could continue watching the artists at work.  I had the French onion soup that I have been craving and Ryan had a pizza.  Tessa was not thrilled with her classic Croque Monsieur, but happily shared pizza with her Daddy.  We strolled through the Moulin Rouge, which is much seedier than I remember, and then caught the Metro back to the historic center.         

We went to Sainte Chapelle which I think is one of the prettiest churches in all of Europe.  It has 360 degrees of stained glass windows all filled with Bible stories.  Cloudy days like this are perfect because the indirect light illuminates all of the windows.  This altar, and whole church really, was built by St. Louis (IX) to house the Crown of Thorns.  Tessa asked me when we would get to see the king and I explained that we are about 800 years too late.     

We walked on down the Ile de la Cite to the famous Notre Dame.  They have put a terrible temporary grandstand right in front of the church to commemorate it's 850th anniversary.  Maybe it's nice to have a place to sit and admire the church and yes, I did climb the bleachers for a photo op, but this modern addition is annoyingly distracting.  Too bad they didn't ask for my opinion.     

The church has a beautiful pieta on the high altar, a gorgeous rose window of stained glass and an abundance of side chapels.  We did a circuit of the whole church and Tessa was thoroughly bored. 

 

Lucky for us, there was a playground alongside the church.  Ryan and I rested while Tessa played with little French girls.  The gardens around the church are beautiful too, everything was blooming creating a riot of fall colors.  From the outside, you can see the flying buttresses that define this church in Gothic style.  Unfortunately, I wasn't up for climbing the bell tower to get up close and personal with the famous gargoyles.     

We crossed over to the Left Bank on this bridge with all the love locks.  As the story goes, you buy a lock from conveniently located nearby vendors, write your names on it, attach it to the bridge and throw the key in the river.  This symbolizes that your love will last forever.  Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical, but I think this makes the bridge look terrible!  We did get a kick out of looking at some of the locks.  There is everything from a TSA baggage lock to a heavy duty engraved lock attached to this bridge.  The ones that made us laugh the most are the high school combination locks.  Change your mind about someone?  No problem, just dial in the combination and remove your lock of love.  The bridge may be ugly but Tessa sure is cute.   

We ate dinner with a view of Notre Dame.  I used my caffeine allowance to have an after dinner espresso, I really love espresso and would normally drink at least two or three a day while in Europe.  But, for Baby Brother's sake, I limited myself to just one precious cup a day.  After dinner, we took a river cruise on Bateaux Parisien.  We launched from just in front of the Eiffel Tower and it started to sparkle just as we left the dock.  We listened to the narrated tour as we floated past some of Paris' most famous spots.  Tessa played with a little British girl who was "on holiday."  Pleasantly worn out, we walked back to our hotel and crashed.