Paris Day 5 – Tour Day 2

Well, today started pretty early. Nic and I were talking last night that we are with group of morning people. They pretty much all have kids and have gone through that phase of your life when you HAVE to get up at 5am. We, have not. So, we were supposed to meet the group at 8:45. We wanted to be downstairs at 8:15 for breakfast. We were downstairs at 8:40 with 5 minutes to spare to eat breakfast. I know, I know, no one reading this is surprised. I needed Colleen to come bang on our door at 7:30 like Dad did when I was a kid; or like he did last month.

So anyway, we made it downstairs in time to wolf down a croissant with a little bit of cheese and some orange juice before we headed to the Metro. Now, let me tell you, getting 29 people onto 1 metro train, at 9:00 in the morning is not an easy task. We all come through one at a time then bunch up to chit chat. I mean really, we are here so Colleen can do the hard work, we just go where she points like well trained sheep. That being said, Colleen did a great job getting us all on one metro, telling us what stop to get off on and then making sure we all got off at the right time.

Last night we had to pick a “buddy” someone you don’t know who you can check on. This way if we all get off the metro, two strangers are looking for one another, not a husband and a wife (who could disappear together). My buddy is Jeannie, a sweet woman from Texas. She was an art teacher and communications major and her and her husband have 2 boys, both married. Nicole’s buddy is Rita, a very nice woman from Wisconsin whose son just happens to live and work in Windsor, small world. So, we hop off the metro and I stand on my tippie toes to see Jeannie off the metro, standing on the side. Rita is right there with her husband too. Our buddies are so well behaved. Getting off the metro Colleen starts to put on a headset and small speaker around her waist. What is this? It’s a portable loud speaker. How freakin cool. Our guide doesn’t have to yell, we don’t have to stand 6 inches from her. We can all have a little personal space, something I love, and she can talk to us about stuff; I am happy so all can continue.

What I didn’t expect, but what I loved, was the 15 minute history lesson before we went into Saint Chapelle (Who knows if that’s how you spell it. But it’s pronounced shuh-pel). I thought the tour guide was more of a go here, go there person. Not someone who know so much cool stuff. Colleen told us about Saint Chapelle so when we went into it we knew what we were looking at. This is helpful because 90% of the signs are only in French.

Saint Chapelle was amazing. The largest, most beautiful stained glass in Europe. King Louis the 9th had it built to house two relics he purchased; Jesus’ crown of thorns and a piece of the cross on which he was crucified. It is absolutely amazing, the church that is, we don’t get to see the crown or the cross. The two relics are reported to have cost 3x the amount for the entire chapel. The chapel was built in an astonishing 6 years, it’s neighbor, Notre Dame took 200. Large stained glass windows that seemed to glow in the sunlight. They were red, blue, green, yellow and purple but depicted everything from battles to the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. We only had 30 minutes so Nicole scurried about taking a ton of pictures of this marvelous church.

Our next stop was Notre Dame (ND). This was also preceded by a very interesting 20 minute history lesson about the French Revolution. Now, I don’t know a lot about the FR but what I gather is that poor people were rightfully pissed off at the rich kings who built palaces instead of spending money on the city or the people. In return for their palaces, the French working class revolted and beheaded a lot of people. They paraded them around Paris, brought them to a square, stuck their head in a guillotine and WHAMO, off with your head. We have also learned that in the 15-1800s the preferred execution method, and by preferred I mean by those doing the executions, was beheading. Not always with a guillotine but it seemed to be fairly common. We even saw a painting of a person who had been beheaded. Kinda gross.

Back on track: The ND. Well, it was amazing. Darker than the St. Chapelle but larger. Huge stained glass, beautiful architecture, amazing alters and crypts. It took around 200 years to build and I think it was well worth it. Colleen pointed out interesting sculptures on the outside and again gave us a lot of information about how/why it was built. She is quite handy to have around.

After ND we tried to go into a Memorial for the Jews that were sent to concentration camps during WW2. It was closed and the group was about ready to have a revolt of our own so Colleen took us to the Latin Quarter to be fed and watered. On the way she pointed out the cool book sellers on the wall of the river, the statue of St. Michael slaying Satan and the bookstore where lots of famous writers have worked and written books. Shakespeare something or other Bookstore.

Lunch. Oh, let me tell you about lunch. No, not lunch. Let me tell you about my chocolate macaroon. First, let me apologize that each and every one of you is not enjoying one right now and I am sorry, but we cannot bring them home. We thought the eclair yesterday was good. Well this chocolate macaroon blew the doors off that eclair. It was sweet, rich, dark, soft, crispy, fudge like. It was amazing. We ate one; bought one to go. Seriously everyone this macaroon may have been the single greatest dessert I have ever enjoyed. Imagine rich fudge plus crispy cookies plus a squishy cookie plus a flaky coating of chocolate plus a beam of heaven shooting straight into it. If you can imagine all of that wrapped up into one hand held chocolate dessert then you can imagine The Chocolate Macaroon. Not just a chocolate macaroon but THE Chocolate Macaroon. The one to which all others shal be measured.

Oh yeah, for lunch we had pizza. It was very very good, but if you want to know more, reread the paragraph above about The Chocolate Macaroon because that is what is important.

After lunch Colleen managed to get the 20 of us that didn’t go off on our own to the Musee De Orsay (MDO). We filled a bus, rode it for 5 stops then emptied it. We literally take over public transportation. 20 people on a bus isn’t a big deal, but 20 people on at one stop is quite a site. Colleen is calm, cool and collected. We guessed that 20 years of the travel industry has equipped her to handle anything.  She got us in the right line, answered any final questions and sent us off on our own. With a cheery “I’ll see you in the morning” we were off into the MDO and Colleen was off for some much deserved r&r. (Though we think she’s doing laundry she mentioned it on Monday)

The MDO was everything I had hoped for. I don’t really know the best way to describe it. A lot of the paintings that you see in calendars are in the MDO. Amazing Monet’s, Manet’s, Van Gogh’s, Cezanne’s (my fav), Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec (it’s pronounced te-loo-seh-trek). These are paintings you only read about. Things you see in calendars and computer backgrounds. The brush strokes are amazing, the skill is unheard of. I like most kinds of art from DaVinci to Degas to Rothko but these Impressionist Masters had something figured out. The paintings dance and sing, the emit light and grab you from across the room. You see a painting of lilly pads or a mountain then you move in and see hundreds upon hundreds of brush strokes to make it happen. From 6 inches away they aren’t people or lilies, they are dashes of color on top of color. A person is a dot plus two strokes, a flag is 3 quick strokes, a mountain is a hundred carefully laid strokes. Seeing this art reminded me of why I fell in love with it so long ago.

The MDO itself is an old train stop. The architecture is fascinating. Large walls, a huge clock and huge, I mean HUGE, ceilings.  I drug Nic through it for about 2 hours before we were both completely exhausted. Our feet were killing us and we decided to call it a day, for now, and head back for a nap. I took 2 advil and decided to blog instead of nap (so I hope you’re all happy )

Weather: Beautiful around 65/70

Group: So far so good. Everyone is super friendly and excited to be here. We were told we were “smart” to go before we have kids. We know

Until tomorrow ou revoir

Flickr pics here. Look at the set, lot’s of cool stuff.