8/14/18: Discovering Paris Together For The First Time

Since returning just before Christmas last year from over three months spent discovering much of South America, Steven and I have spent a lot of time planning this, our 6th adventure, to much of the former Soviet Union, including countries in Central Asia along the ancient Silk Road, before traveling on to Spain, Portugal and finishing up in the Netherlands 4.5 months from now. Steven and I hope you'll follow as many of our travels as you can over the next few months and also take a moment or so to comment on the posts and even drop us an email to let us know how you are doing. We may be out of sight but family and friends are still very much in our minds when we take these long jaunts!

It's hard to think of a more beautiful city to start this year's adventure in than Paris, which also happens to be the most economical flight to Yerevan, in Armenia, our next destination. We have both been to Paris before; I was here when I was 16 or 17 and was lucky enough to stay with a wonderful Frenchwoman for several days after being an au pair on France's northern coast near Calais for a summer. Steven has no idea when he was last here, however! Being here together in the City of Love was something we'd looked forward to for a long time.

After flying overnight from our home in Denver, we hit the ground running not wanting to miss any of our limited time in Paris. Steven with a view of the Notre Dame Church in the background across the famous Seine River.

The Deportation Memorial honors the 200,000 French victims of the Nazi concentration camps. As we descended the steps, we felt like prisoners as the city disappeared and all we saw was the sky and a tiny glimpse of the river below.

Inside, the hallway was lined with 200,000 lighted crystals, one for each French citizen who died. At the far end was the eternal flame of hope. 

The map listed the number of French citizens listed by department, equivalent to states or provinces, who were deported to concentartion camps.

We all need to heed the words above the exit that said 'Forgive but never forget.'

Construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral broke ground in 1163 but it wasn't completed until 1345.

In front of the cathedral was a bronze plaque on the ground marked Point Zero which was the center of France, the point from which all distances in the country are measured!

While Steven waited in the lonnnng but luckily quickly moving line, I took this photo on the magnificent facade of St. Denis, the man with the head in his hands. The city's first bishop and patron saint helped turn pagan Paris into Christian Paris.

I and everyone around me was captivated by the blue and purple rose-shaped window, one of just three with its original medieval glass.

In the center was a very small Mary holding baby Jesus that I was able to take thanks to a powerful zoom lens and a momentarily steady hand!

The back sides of the choir stalls had remarkable scenes of the risen Christ.

You get a sense from this photo looking toward the middle that the immense church can really seat 10,000 people. There were no pews, just cane chairs which we didn't remember seeing in churches before.

I lost count of all the chapels that lined each nave. This one caught my attention as I don't remember reading about St. Paul Chen, Martyr of China before.

Just feet from the cathedral was the Paris Archaeological Crypt where we were able to view Roman ruins from Emperor Augustus' reign when the island where the cathedral is became the birthplace of Paris.

The crypt contained a collection of gold coins discovered on site from Caesar's time. I found them more interesting than the street plans of the medieval village!

After crossing over to the Left Bank to walk through the Latin Quarter, we stopped at the intimate St. Severin Church which I found far more appealing than the mammoth Notre Dame. 

The stained-glass windows were colorful but not nearly as ornate or grandiose as those we had just seen. I couldn't quite tell whether they had particular designs or not!

Again, cane chairs proved to be the norm as at Notre Dame. Sitting on one of them in the rear was Steven who was resting his weary bones after a full day at home the day we left, an all night flight in uncomfortable seats courtesy of Norwegian Air and then seeing some of Paris's sights.

One of the joys of Paris, we soon learned, was just wandering up and down the streets of the city's neighborhoods with no goal in mind.

Place St. Michel, once the gathering point for the city's poets, philosophers and neo-hippies and later the city's malcontents and misfits, was also where locals, during WW II, rose up against the Nazi oppressors. Click on the photo below to make it bigger and look at the plaque under the dragon if your French is good enough! Even nowadays, student demonstrations begin here.

Surely, one of the most spectacular sights in Paris has got to be, in my mind, the Gothic church called Sainte-Chapelle. We saw its prickly steeple across the river long before we got there! 

The church was built between 1242 and 1248 for Louis IX, the only French king who became a saint, to house the supposed Crown of Thorns. 

The buttresses holding up the stone roof demanded our attention when we were closer.

The low-ceiling basement was meant for staff and other 'common folks' who worshipped under a sky filled with painted fleur-de-lis, a symbol of the king.

It was once we climbed the spiral staircase that we witnessed the wonder of the church where royal Christians once worshipped in the High Chapel. The altar, at the far end, was raised up high to better display the Crown of Thorns. 

Seeing the light shine through the stained glass was like seeing God's grace shining down on earth as one person wrote. Tom and  and Nancyanna, friends from Denver, were lucky enough to attend a concert here which they said was spectacular. We would have loved that, too, but we were just too exhausted after being up for so long.

Next door was the Palais du Justice, part of a complex of buildings that has housed the local government since ancient Roman times. 

The impressive gates to the Palais were the gateway to the French Supreme Court.

A few blocks away was one of the few survivors of the original early 20th century subway entrances. It marked Paris at its peak in 1900.

The city's oldest public clock, whose mechanism is from 1334, was magnificent. It was on the side of the Conciergerie, a famous former prison that we'd hoped to see but ran out of time unfortunately that day.

The prison's Babbler Tower fascinated us, though, and made us want to return another day if possible.

Whimsical advertising signs proclaimed something new coming soon to the building across the Seine from Pont Neuf!

Even though we only had time for a few sights in magical Paris before we collapsed back at our hotel on the Left Bank, it was enough to make us want to see more of one of the world's great cities in the days ahead.

Next post: Our discovery of Paris continues with a glimpse of the Mona Lisa at the celebrated Louvre Museum, much more time at two other great art museums, the Eiffel Tower and Napoleon's Tomb at the Army Museum.

Posted on August 16th, 2018, from Paris!