Day 6 Historic Paris Walk

Before we started our sightseeing for the day, we made our way to the Rue Cler for some Brunch. We found a little crepe stand/cafe there. We ordered some delicious crepes! We shared a ham, egg, and cheese crepe and a banana and nutella crepe. Since then we have been hooked and shared two more crepes throughout the day. We also purchased some fruit to snack on today. We have been amazed at the price of fruit - we paid around 8 euros (11 dollars) for these 2 tiny little fruit boxes!



Today we took a walk of the oldest spots in Paris. We began at point Zero; this is the center of France and Paris - all distances are measured from this point. From there we saw the outside of Notre Dame. This cathedral is dedicatied to "Our Lady", it stands for the grace and compassion of Mary, the "mother of God". This cathedral took 200 years to build . . . .imagine the faith of the people . . to build such an edifice hoping that your great-great-great-great-great-great etc. grandchildren might see dedicated.




From there we headed to the Deportation Memorial to the 200,000 French victims of Nazi concentration camps. The memorial is designed to draw you into their experience. At the center of the underground memorial I was impressed with enormous fresh cut flower displays - they were not artificial. Given that there is nothing special about today, I am assuming that this memorial is continually supplied with such beautiful flowers. I liked that.

Our walk also included Ile St. Louis, Left Bank street vendors, Medieval Paris, Shakespeare and Company bookstore, St. Severin (it took a century longer to build this church than Notre Dame),The Latin Quarter(which is now filled with Greek restaurants and has very little latin remaining except the beat of nightclubs), Boulevard St. Michel and fountain (the site of the beginnings of revolutions and protests),Saint Chapelle (which was built in 5 years - amazing when you compare it to others that have taken hundreds - especially conisdering all the detailed painting inside) Saint Chapelle honors the crown of the thorns and was built to house the original crown of thorns. They are now housed at Notre Dame and displayed on Good Friday and the first Friday of every month. Our last stops included the Palais de Justice (built in 1776 home of the French Supreme Court), an original 20th century subway entrance in the Art Nouveau style, Statue of Henry IV, Pont Neuf ("new bridge" is Paris' oldest standing bridge, finishing by walking the banks of the Seine. It was an entire afternoon of sights - very beautiful and lots of character and charm. Place Dauphine was an amazing little cozy spot in the heart of Paris.







We had a great dinner at another little spot on the Rue Cler and then ventured to the Eiffel Tower. We were amazed at how huge it really was! It was quite a sight! We then waited in line FOREVER to get to the top and then even longer to get down. The views of Paris were great, but the lines didn't make it worth it. We really just preferred looking at the tower from afar.





We have struggled with the language. Going to the Post Office and asking for stamps, ordering from a menu, shopping in the street markets. All these things you need to speak the language for. We were told by many that it would not be necessary to speak French here. That seems to be true if you stay on the Place de Concord or the Champs Elysee - but if you venture beyond these heavily touristed areas - some French is good. We purchased a phrase book at the Shakespeare Book Company and plan to use if for our dinner meal tonight. Lauren suggested it would be a good investment as they also speak French in Belgium.

I have appreciated Lauren's superb navigational skills everyday - she knows where she is in an instant and figures out our routes with speed and precision. She has displayed this ability both in London and in France.