Schwooboo, I don't think we're in Anaheim anymore!

Monday, September 8, 2008

We started off the day with breakfast at the hotel: coffee, orange juice, croissants, baguette, and preserves - YUM!! While eating we people watched out of the window to see if we could spot Parisians going about their day. We noticed two guys walking along together and talking - one was carrying a computer/electronics box while the other was carrying a sledgehammer - what the??? - we thought it was funny and unusual. We saw a guy reading a book while he was walking and we wondered when he would bump into something, and John noticed our first beret! Not too bad for the first few moments of the day!
We finished our meal and we got going after we asked our hostess to make our dinner reservations for us at the restaurant we chose to go to. We wound our way through the streets and came across a portion of an old wall of the city dating back to medieval days, so we knew we were in the right direction since our goal was to reach the Hotel de Sens, a medieval mansion now serving as an official office. The architecture of the building was very unique from what we had seen so far. We continued from there to the Metro station of Pont Marie and made our way to the fifth arrondissment and the Latin Quarter. We were distracted by a relic of a building sitting just down the street from where we were going so we went to check it out - it turned out to be the Gallo Roman remains of the city that are part of the Musée Cluny - Museum of the Moyen Age, a museum housing all kinds of artifacts from Paris' earlier times.
Side note: Paris homes are small, well - the average Paris home is - and hardly any of them have gardens or extra room like backyards or patios - you're lucky if you have a balcony. Because the culture is so boxed in the city has tons of garden, green areas, small town squares filled with trees and shrubbery, and sometimes fountains, these areas have been set aside to give the inhabitants of the city a place to go and enjoy. Our trip itinerary is made up of seeing a lot of these spots, and we had several on today's list.
We got off the Metro and made our way to the first fountain of the day - the Cuvier. It sits at an intersection of three streets and is a memorial to naturalist George Cuvier. Its fitting that it sits close to the Jardin des Plants, a botanical garden that I had not planned for us to go into but we decided to take a few moments to peek inside to see it. It was beautiful! We walked around a tiny bit and took a few photos then we headed out to our next destination.
We twisted and turned our way to find the church St. Etienne-du-Mont. We were pretty early - so it wasn't opened yet. The Pantheon was next to it and since I wanted to get pictures of the building we went to check it out to use up the time while waiting for the church to open. The outside architecture of the Pantheon is unbelievable - is is covered with all kinds of frieze work from the tops of the columns to the memorial reliefs - it was absolutely incredible!
John sat on the steps while I buzzed around taking pictures. When I turned my back to the doors to look out over the city I froze and my heart skipped a beat - I finally got my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! I called John over and became so excited I started sobbing! It was unbelievable, I didn't expect it to make me feel so shocked and moved.
John was so impressed with the outside of the Pantheon that he wanted to see what was inside even though I had not planned to go in, so he decided to amend our plans and go inside and I have to say that I'm glad he did - the building is as spectacular as its history. We saw so much there! The frescoes on the walls were amazing. They told the story of Sainte Genevieve and her entire life. There were amazing statues at every point. A Foucault Pendulum hangs in the center. And the crypts below hold the remains of some of France's greatest men. They were interesting and eerie at the same time.
After completing the Pantheon St.-Etienne was open so we made our way inside. The details inside were just as fabulous as the outside. The blending of Gothic and Renaissance styles seems to work somehow. The stained glass windows were very pretty and the iconography was very beautiful.
We headed over towards the Jardin and Palace of Luxembourg after we finished at St.-Etienne, and as soon as we stepped inside we were blown away by its beauty and its massive size. Its stated that it is the most popular park in the city and we could understand why - its very lovely. We found the Fountain de Medici easily and it is just as beautiful as the pictures I'd seen.
While walking around the fountain we spotted our second beret! We took some photos then started to make our way across the front of the palace and out the opposite side of the garden to have lunch at Bread & Roses - a high-end bakey/cafe. It was a little more expensive than I expected but John said it was okay since it was our first official full day in Paris. It was funny that he said that because I found myself so lost in the moment that sometimes I'd lose track that we were there and experience the whole surreal feeling of, "Oh yeah, I'm in Paris!" For lunch John had a vegetable quiche and I had what was called a Ploughman's Lunch which consisted of a huge hunk of bread, and a large portion of a round of a white cheddar cheese, and some salad. It all tasted so very good!
After lunch we returned to the gardens and walked through to take pictures of the statues of different queens in the history of France along with some other prominent figures. We walked along the avenue through two other garden areas to end up at the Fountain l'Observatoire. It was so beautiful, even more than the pictures I had seen of it. After enjoying the fountain we made our way to our next destination, a stationery shop called Marie Papier that features hand-made papers and every kind of desk/writing/journaling/paper item you can imagine. While we were there a man was contemplating buying a 400 Euro writing pen, needless to say I bought my 8 Euro's worth of paper and went along my way! We saw an adorable game store next to the stationery shop and had fun looking around inside. We then headed to St.-Sulpice, a classical church built over 134 years ago!
The Place St.-Sulpice in front of the church has a large fountain in front that we stopped for a moment to enjoy, but it was only for a moment! The church was partly covered up for renovation so I wasn't able to get a picture of it - so we'll have to try to find a post card of it. Inside the church were three Delacroix paintings inside and they were stunning! Large arched windows filled the interior of the church with light - enough to get some awesome photos. John and I were both moved by the beauty of the church.
While inside we took closer note of the posters that we'd seen on almost every Catholic chruch we'd seen so far (even the ones we didn't stop in to visit) - we found out that the Pope is to be in town at the end of the week - so we're trying to figure out how much its going to impact our days. We certainly won't be able to visit any Catholic churches on Friday and Saturday.
After leaving St.-Sulpice we returned to the Jardin du Luxembourg since we had extra time before our dinner reservations at 7 o'clock. We found the miniature Statue of Libery that I had wanted to see, and beside it we noticed an American Oak tree had been planted in 2002 in memorial to the 9/11 terrorist attacks back home. It was a sobering moment.
We walked a little longer through the grounds to the children's play area that John had caught a glimpse of earlier. It was an amazing spot with all kinds of wonderful climbing, swinging, sliding activities and fixtures for kids to go wild on. We stopped to watch them for a while.
Once we gathered up more energy we made our way to our dinner location, Bouillon Racine. Its a quaint little belle epoque bistro that used to be a beer hall a long time ago, that has very good food. John had steak carpacchio, potato soup, and an entree of a lamb shank. I had an appetizer of crab followed by a spinach salad with shrimp and my meal was chicken with risotto in a mushroom sauce. It looked, smelled, and tasted soooo very good! While we were there we started talking to two women about our trip and Paris in general. We found out that one was from New Zealand (originally from Canada - she had to point out) and the other from Switzerland. We enjoyed talking with them and hearing their stories of their visit.
After dinner it was time to retrace our steps and return to our hotel. Our feet definitely got a work out. I'm not so sure that its jet lag we'll have to recuperate from when we get home. While on our way back we stopped again at the Pantheon to get a night time shot, when I turned around the Eiffel Tower lit up like crazy - it was incredible!!
Its safe to say that this first full day was intense. I find myself saying beautiful over and over again - but there really isn't any other word that quite compares with what we've seen - well...maybe outstanding, magnificent, awesome, moving, and of course one I've already used a hundred times already, unbelievable!
Can't wait to see what the next day brings!
Our next cyber cafe visit will be in two days - we'll have another update then.
Love to all!!!
-Karen