Thursday (28 March) and our final day in Paris. How can a month go by so quickly? After spending the morning packing we emerged to a sunny but misty Spring day. After a quick look at the pretty Anne Frank garden just around the corner we went to Georges at the Pompidou Centre for lunch. The restaurant has a separate entrance by lift, so we didn’t have to go up the six escalators on the side of the building which I’d found a bit of a challenge when we came to the Cartier-Bresson exhibition. We were a long way up.
Great views. Despite the misty day more pollution?) we got to see the traditional sights one mere time – Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, St Eustace.
Inside the restaurant was really modern with big silver / aluminum alcoves. Quite surrealist like these other quirky objects – a giant flowerpot and more giant white industrial pipes.
We went for the view but were pleasantly surprised by the food. I had red mullet from the Riviera, Joe spicy lobster spaghetti. And we had a very cool waiter who was very nice.
Then we strolled, for the last time (this visit) along the Seine, down to the Pont Neuf. It’s such a beautiful bridge – the lovely nooks to sit in. But some eerie iron-work.
Looking back to one of my favourite buildings here – the Conciergerie. I love the symmetry of the central towers, their perfect sloped roofs. It’s position by the river. Quite lovely.
Barges were plowing back and forth on the river. The tourist ones seemed to have more people. The ‘season’ starts on 1 April – when rates on the hotels go up! There were also lots of working barges – their covers hiding what products they’re delivering but all with a small car and often a boat perched precariously on top.
Our actual destination was the Saint Chapelle which we had not got around to seeing yet. We had intended going to a concert here but hadn’t got around to it. Our long walking days meant we spent most nights at home. There was a long queue – only our second (after the Musee d’Orsay). While I waited I took this picture of the flag on a building opposite which had the usual ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’ carving that’s on all government offices.
The Chapel in the middle of the working courts which are immediately behind the Conciergerie and security was tight which accounted for the queue. When we finally got to it we found a very beautiful chapel. It was built as a reliquary for holding pieces of the crown of thorns and the cross purchased by King Louis who later became Saint Louis. The relics cost more than the building. They purchased them to cement France’s position as more spiritual clout and prestige. A statue of the King has pride of place in the small space you enter from the street which is below the actual chapel. He was described as tall and fair with blue eyes. Good-looking. And a good King to boot. He was killed on the Crusades in what is now Tunisia. Apparently he had a regal look of calmness and serenity – which is sort of captured in this statue.
Upstairs the actual chapel is known especially for the beautiful stained glass. The ratio of glass to wall is higher here than anywhere else making it seem as though the chapel is made of glass. Giving an ethereal effect with the sun shining through as it was when we we were there. All biblical scenes. You could spend hours there identifying the stories.
The glass below is where the King sat. The altar was built around the relics and these angels with their crown of thorns indicate where pieces of that were kept. Bits of the cross were in a large golden sepulchre. Of course they are not there now. Thanks to the zealotry of the revolutionaries who dispensed with the. It’s fortunate they didn’t trash the beautiful building.
By now it was late afternoon and we walked back up,yo a cafe beside Notre Dame for hot chocolate and coffee and lemon tart. Still plenty of people in the fore-court.
We then strolled through Ile de Cite and Ile St Louis which despite crossing every day we hadn’t given much attention. Our Flaneur Edmund White lived on St Louis which is tiny. En route we came upon some film-makers holding up traffic. A bit fraught as it was now home-time and some of the pedestrians, and no doubt cars, were cross about being blocked from getting there.
We saw some interesting houses, a Ullyses bookshop, and these memorials to deportees from buildings and from schools which are common throughout the city.
Crossing over to the right bank from the Ile St Louis we came upon these carefully preserved and marked stones from the Bastille. Would have been hard work tearing these down with bare hands. They were next to another lovely park where people were stopping off on their way home and where kids were playing. These are dotted throughout all parts of the city as well.
We were now on route to find the ancient walls of the original city. Which we found enmeshed in what is now the perimeter of a school playground.
On the way home we stopped in at a cafe we’d seen often, Les Philosophes, where we had wine with foi gras and rillettes for dinner. We were served by a woman who told me my French was very good. Hers was much better even though she was from Detroit, Michigan. She’s been here for a long time. She explained a manifesto on the menu and articles pinned to the wall. The owner of the cafe is campaigning for fresh food and transparency for customers so they can tell the difference. There’s obviously concern about the practice of buying in frozen food and just micro-waving it. So we were assured we were eating genuine French food for our last meal on French soil (which it proved to be as we were too late to have breakfast at the airport the following morning).
Pauline says
Welcome home