Ah, Parie!

To anyone who has not been to Paris and has a chance to go: take it! I fell in love instantly. It’s an absolutely gorgeous city – everywhere you look there is something beautiful to see. Parisians don’t have the best reputation for courtesy, but that’s not the case for everyone. We met some very pleasant and helpful folk, and Liam got lots of smiles.

I had wondered before we set out on the trip if I might be too exhausted by the time we reached Paris to really enjoy the city. Fortunately that was not at all the case. After six days of driving, it was nice to get walking again. We didn’t have quite the same stamina as we had in London, but we still managed to make the most of our two days in Paris. We started out on Friday morning at the Jardin de Luxembourg, behind what was once Marie de Medici’s residence, and is now the Senate. Brendan told me that in the summer people sit around the pond in this garden, basking in the sun or driving little motorized boats in the water. No one was doing that on a rainy January morning, but it was nice to imagine! From there we headed to the Pantheon, which can be seen from the garden. One of the great things about Paris is just how many beautiful sights can be observed from one vantage point. Apparently it was designed with that aesthetic in mind. There is undoubtedly a certain charm about things being haphazard, but there is also beauty in order and design - Paris does order very well.

The Pantheon was originally built as a Catholic church, but it’s purpose officially changed to secular monument with the burial there of Victor Hugo. Many famous Frenchmen and women are buried in its crypt. In the center of the building, a huge pendulum swings with the rotation of the earth, and is used to tell time. It appears as though the axis of the pendulum is rotating, but in reality its trajectory is fixed – it is the earth that rotates. This pendulum was the project of French physicist Léon Foucault and has been in the Pantheon since 1851.

After lunch we continued our walk in the direction of the Ile de la Cité, which is the oldest part of the city. The rain had stopped at that point, and the weather was mild. On the island we visited Notre Dame de Paris (which was, as always, jammed with tourists) and a very moving memorial to French victims of the Holocaust. We then stopped by a church called St. Eustache, which Brendan’s mom later told us is home to a very famous organ once played by Mozart! After a short rest, we entered the fabulous world of the Louvre Museum. What a place! Brendan once heard an astounding statistic about the Louvre: if one were to spend thirty seconds at each item on display, it would take about two weeks to get through the whole thing! Obviously we couldn’t have spent two straight weeks there, so we chose to visit the sculpture, decorative arts, and painting exhibits. Although we didn’t even come close to seeing everything, just being in the museum was an experience. It’s a very beautiful space.

Notre Dame de Paris

Liam at the Louvre!

We stayed at the Louvre until my ravenous hunger forced us to find a place to sit and scarf down our sandwiches. Having abated the food anger (I get irritable when I’m really hungry – Brendan calls it food anger!), we walked through the Jardin des Tuileries to Place de la Concorde. We had planned to walk all the way down the Champs Elysées that night, but our feet resisted. We were quite tired after our day of walking, so opted to take the metro home from Place de la Concorde. Before we left, however, Brendan had some fun shooting photos of Paris at night.

Champs Elysées