Paris Day 1

This blog has all the details of our trip to France in 2015. But if you'd like to read less and see more pictures - there is also a video on youtube. 

We got lucky on our first day. After our overnight flight we arrived at our hotel at 10:30 AM and they actually had our room available. Flo and Bill weren't as lucky, so they stored their luggage in our room. After freshening up, we started our first day in Paris by taking the metro to Saint Michael. We visited the Musee de Cluny, which is the medieval museum. The building itself is historic, originally it was the abbey of Cluny. The building was confiscated to the state during the French Revolution.  Many church buildings were vandalized during the revolution, since the church and the nobleman were the 'enemies' of the common people. Here are displayed the original stained glass windows and sculptures of the Apostles from St. Chapelle, as well as the some of the statues of the 44 Jewish Kings from Notre Dame. These were beheaded during the French revolution because the people thought that they depicted French Kings. The most famous exhibits though are the 5 tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn.

Beheaded Kings of Israel

We had lunch in the Jardins de Luxemburg before walking to the Ile Cite. Here we stood in the security line to visit St. Chapelle for about 30 minutes. But it was well worth it - this was the Chapel of the French Kings, built by Louie IX who is famous for finding the Crown of Thorns. The chapel has beautiful stained glass windows which are unparalleled.

St, Chapelle

We went on to visit Notre Dame, but after seeing the huge line to get in, we decided to just visit the outdoor portion. We continued on into the oldest part of Paris, walking by the Hotel de Ville to find some some maisons (houses) of half-timber built in the 14th century. We continued on to the Hotel de Sully restored to its 17th century appearance. Going through the inner courtyards we came to the Place de Vosges. This square inaugurated in 1612 is bordered by virtually identical stone and brick houses.  We were just about 1/2 mile from our hotel, so we walked to our hotel, La Jardins des Marsais. We ended the night sharing two bottles of wine in the courtyard between ourselves, Flo, Bill, and Ruth.

Notre Dame