Pretty Paris

 

Birthday #41 got off to a great start when I saw my glamorous nieces Gigi and Emmie waiting for me at the metro stop (I'd just seen them the night before, but I'm with them so seldom that every time feels special):

 

This meeting was made even better by the fact that Gigi had brought me a fresh pain au chocolat.  

 

A short while later, my brother Ben, fresh off the plane from the U.S. joined us, and we set out taking in some of the sights and starting our search for someplace to eat lunch.

 

We ended up at one of Gigi's favorite spots by the Centre Pompidou and ate in one of the cafes lining the square.

After lunch, we walked along the Seine (which this pretty building overlooks)

 

And stopped at one of my favorite places--Sainte Chapelle, which none of the others had ever been to.  Even though I knew what to expect, it still made me gasp when I walked in.  

   

Floor:

Ceiling:

 

The windows depict over 1,000 scenes from the Bible, so this beauty was not only created to glorify God but also teach and remind the illiterate attendees of the 1200s (and later) of the major figures and stories from scripture.

 

Everywhere you turn, there is something beautiful, like this clock on the side of the Justice Center on our way out.

We passed by Notre Dame (and the hordes of people waiting in line to enter)

 

and made our way to this famous bookstore on the Seine.

 

And look what I found...



The perfect birthday present pour moi!

 

 

Even the bag was perfect as it's a quote from Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest, which is another play I teach.



 

 Next stop was a café on the Ile St. Louis that serves Berthillon's ice-cream.  Photos and even video can't capture how amazing this ice-cream is (especially a scoop of chocolat noir with a scoop of wild strawberry sorbet and a glazed almond cookie wafer), although I think the video Gigi shot manages to convey at least a little of my bliss.

 

 

 

 

 

The capper was this guy just outside the café:

 

 

All in all, a pretty fantastic birthday, especially since I got to share it with family even though I am so far from home.  Sadly, Gigi and Emmie boarded the train early this morning to return to their friends in Germany, but Ben stopped by after he dropped them off and we had a nice, relaxed (we sat around for an hour and a half) late breakfast together.  Apparently, I don't know where to look when I take photos with my own phone.

 

Fueled by my omelet and greens, I bid goodbye to my brother (who is here for business and in meetings for the next few days) and set out for Musée national du Moyen Age, formerly known as the  Musée de Cluny.  "Moyen Age" means the Middle Ages, so perfect for this medieval/Renaissance history lover.

 

So many of the various churches and other sites in the city have been damaged/destroyed and rebuilt multiple times over the centuries, so this location houses and preserves a lot of medieval pieces that were either saved or discovered through the years and part of some earlier incarnation of said locations.  Inside was an impressive display of stained glass windows (some from the original Sainte Chapelle and other Paris churches):

 

 

 

 

It's amazing to me that people who didn't even have flush toilets knew how to create such gorgeous art that is as vivid today as it most likely was a few weeks after it was produced.

There were also lots of tapestries like this:

And of course the highlight is the famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, representing the five senses and a mysterious (different interpretations abound, but no one knows for sure) sixth sense, although sadly I've just realized my photo of it didn't turn out well.  There was a gaggle of French school children sitting on the floor that I was trying to work around, so I blame it on them.

Down these stairs and to the right is a doorway and a room full of statuary salvaged from Notre Dame.

 

The little explanation card explains that these statues were "damaged" during the Revolution, but I overheard an elderly British gentleman tell his wife that the mob chopped the heads off the statues, which happened to be kings.

 

Other medieval church stuff:

 

 

 

 

 

And this gorgeous little chapel commissioned by the man who first started collecting these items:

 

Back outside: 

 

I refueled and relaxed with some people watching at our café from yesterday, which has a nice view (in the distance) of Notre Dame.  Oh, and I may have also ordered some more ice cream after this salad.

 

 

I was enjoying myself so much that I kind of lost track of time, and realized I'd better hustle if I was going to make my final stop of the day before closing--Père Lachaise Cemetery.  I made the mistake of getting off the metro at the Père Lachaise stop (silly me) instead of going all the way to the Philippe Auguste stop, which is the one that actually puts you at the entrance.  So I'm walking along in a hurry trying to find the entrance and accidentally walked over a metro ventilation grille just as a strong gust of wind hit me, and my skirt flew up.  I don't know if all the tourists walking behind me have seen London, but they've definitely seen France and my underpants. 

 

With the sky filling with clouds, the wind blowing, and the crows cawing, there was definitely a haunting beauty to my surroundings.

 

Since closing time was rapidly approaching and I couldn't possibly get to all the graves I wanted to (this place is massive), I decided to take the quote on my bag as a sign and make a beeline for Oscar Wilde's tomb.  Which of course was on the opposite side of the cemetery.  I arrived huffing and puffing and with a new blister on my foot, but I had a full five minutes to spare.  I can't say I love the style of this tombstone, but I do love that in spite of the signs asking people to please not mark the stone, the tradition of leaving lipstick kisses continues, albeit above the glass.  

As I was leaving, I caught sight of this elderly woman with a scarf on her head and her hands full with a watering can, jug of water, and shopping bag, clearly heading somewhere to tend a grave, and it reminded me that it is still a working cemetery. It must be annoying to have to pass a bunch of gawping tourists to pay your loved ones tribute.

 If I can manage to get up at a decent hour (which is a wee bit questionable at this point), I hope to visit a flea market in the 4th arrondissement before I have to check out and head for the airport.  Next stop, Edinburgh!