When we arrived back in Paris it was training pretty good and we quickly made our way to our AirBnB in the Le Marais neighborhood. Once the neighborhood of nobles, it fell into disrepair after the revolution but is now considered one of the hipper areas of the city with its galleries and trendy restaurants. The rain eased up and we went out for dinner and drinks at a really good craft beer bar. We were back in the room fairly early as we planned to get up in the morning and try to beat the crowds to a few of the sites.
The very neat and dizzying spiral staircase in our building.
Fancy beer.
Evening stroll with some great reflections.
I titled this "Midnight in Paris" when I posted it to instagram but I don't think we ever made it up until midnight on our trip.
Paris Selfie
Window Shopping
Our room was above this cafe - we had a drink here on our last evening in France.
"but yes you are beautiful"
Up early and off the coffee shop and boulangerie.
Conciergerie prison, where Marie Antoinette awaited execution in 1793 - on our way to The Île de la Cité - the island where Paris was founded in Roman times.
Sainte-Chapelle was built by Louis IX and finished in 1248 to house his collection of relics including the "Crown of Thorns". It has the most 13th century stained glass in the world despite being heavily damaged during the revolution. It was on my must see list and getting there in the morning we avoided any lines at all.
The windows depict various bible stories but are hard to take in at first - you just need to stand in the place and be overwhelmed for a while.
The relics that weren't sold or ruined are now held in Notre Dame de Paris.
As with a lot of sites in Paris(whether a cafe, street view, or historic place) I would have loved to spend the time to photograph them right - tripod and all - but as I've said before I also wanted to enjoy myself and take the city in.
Gotta get the perfect perspective!
We spent more time here than in Notre Dame - and if you only had time to see one I would recommend this.
The Lower Chapel. I've read that the medieval colors were actually brighter and the restorers chose a more subdued look.
The spent 100 million Euros from 2008-2015 to restore the stained glass but that didn't stop them from putting this super ugly structure in front of it.
Originally its location was the courtyard of the royal palace but it is now surrounded by the administrative complex Palais de Justice. Great light in this shot though.
Next we walked over to Notre Dame. We went through the fast moving line to go inside but didn't wait in line to go up in the towers.
Note the martyr Saint Denis who was beheaded - and thus depicted so.
After braving the crowds in the chapels we walked along the bank of the Seine and bought some books from the famous booksellers.
A well known book shop that we also stopped in.
We bought our lunch here and ate it on a nearby square.
We rested our tired feet here for a little while.
In the afternoon we wandered around and checked out a few really cool bike shops. Two of them were coffee shops as well. This one wasn't but had the best selection of vintage bikes and jerseys.
This was a park made from an elevated train line much like the High Line in New York City.
I believe we stumbled on this scene - people hanging out and having drinks and picnics along Canal Saint Martin.
Permanent Ping Pong.
We then headed to dinner and an earlyish bedtime.
The next morning we went to this market - probably the best one we saw in France.
A stroll through Luxembourg Gardens on the way to the catacombs.
The Catacombs of Paris
Warning - you are entering the empire of the dead.
Starting in 1785 church cemeteries were emptied and 6 million Parisians ended up here. Part of it was for sanitary reasons - part for the expansion of Paris.
The names of the cemeteries and year the bones were moved.
A big fancy mall we stopped in.
The Arc de Triumph - Napoleon commissioned it to commemorate the Battle of Austerlitz. Like a Roman Triumphal Arch but gigantic in scale. Definitely worth walking up to. Again, we didn't wait in line to go up in it - but would be cool to do especially for some night photography.
Looking up!
Arc Selfie
Looking from the Arc to La Defense - a huge modern office building.
tourists...
Looking the other way down the Champs Elysee's.
We then walked through the parks and grounds to The Louvre.
The Louvre was the massive royal palace before Versailles was built. It was turned into a museum after the revolution.
Another Napoleon built triumphal arch - this one is a scale copy of the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum.
I believe it is a law that you are required to take this photo when visiting Paris.
I'm sure almost every conceivable photograph has been made of almost all the sites in Paris - but I am fairly happy with this one. The sky and my wide angle lens made for a bit of a unique photo. I also love that you can see the people in the lobby below.
Erin and I both enjoy museums but we did not go into the Louvre. I've been to many great museums and it just wasn't how we wanted to spend our last day in France. It is probably something I will do if I ever get to return to Paris - especially if there was a rainy day.
Next we walked to a dinner spot and then back to the room to take a load off for a few minutes. We were pretty worn out from all the walking we had done on the trip but decided to catch the subway to see the Eiffel Tower light up at night(we had seen it from our room the first time in Paris but wanted to see it closer.
Eiffel and its Reflection
There was a fun atmosphere of drinks, photos, and music.
When we got back towards our room we stopped for one last drink in Paris. If money was no object we probably wouldn't have left! We were both enamored with France and know how much more there is to see.
I have a few rolls of black and white film to develop from the trip and will be posting blogs with those photos and some more reflections soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment