Sweet Joys: Trip Of A Lifetime...Part Two

Day two of our trip to Paris began with a trip to a wonderful market street called Rue Cler. Ryan's friend at work told him about it and said it was a "must visit". It happened to be right around the corner from our hotel, so this morning and all of the remaining mornings were spent in this charming part of Paris. There was a butcher store, a French bookstore, a chocolate store, a produce store, and the most wonderful little bakery. We bought HUGE raspberries from the produce market, and a baguette and a chocolaty croissant called pain au chocolat for breakfast every morning. They were all so heavenly.

Check out the hundreds of layers of flaky goodness and chocolaty yumminess put together!! Oh my, it was good!

So, after we were full on French pastries, we headed out. Our first stop was down the Champs Elysees again, only this time towards the Louvre. We came to the Place de la Concorde, which is a large open area in the middle of a very busy crossroad. It sits at the end of the Champs Elysees and it was the place that the guillotine stood during the French Revolution. Now it has an Obelisk and a pretty fountain instead (much better, I'm thinking). In this picture, you can see the Arc de Triomphe behind the obelisk.

All throughout the city, we saw artists painting different landmarks. This guy was working on a painting of the fountain.

Just past the Place de la Concorde was the Tuileries Garden. It was beautiful.

There were chairs all around a very large fountain where many people were relaxing and enjoying their surroundings and the beautiful weather. I wanted to experience all aspects of Paris life, so I had to try out the chairs as well. It was very nice, though I still looked like a tourist trying to pretend to be a Parisian.

The grounds in the garden were very nice and I again chuckled at the square trees.

We then took a little detour out of the Tuileries Gardens and walked to the Place Vendome. It is a neat square that has a very large statue (the French love to put up statues, or fountains, or whatever else to honor someone doing something at sometime).

I absolutely loved the architecture along this street. Please don't think me strange to include some here.

We then came upon the Opera House. We didn't go in, but it was beautiful just the same.

The bust of Mozart...he may not be French, but he earned a rightful spot on the building.

OK, detour was over, so we headed back to the Tuileries Gardens. We loved the building that is now the Louvre. It used to be the king's palace. The flowering trees were spectacular.

In front of the Louvre was another arc. I think this one was call Carousel Arc. If you look close, you can see all the way to the Arc de Triomphe through the arch.

Since we weren't going to the Louvre that day, we walked past it and out to the river again. It was (I know I'm sounding like a broken record) beautiful. Behind me is the oldest part of the city. It is an island in the river called Isle de Cite. On it sits the Palace of Justice and Notre Dame. The iron bridge behind me is a walking bridge called Pont des Arts. The other bridge is the oldest one is Paris, but it's called Pont Neuf, meaning "New Bridge". (Do I sound too much like a tour guide?

Picture of Ryan on Pont Neuf with Eiffel Tower in background.

On the Isle de Cite sits the Palace of Justice. It is one of the oldest building in Europe.

This is the front of the Palace of Justice with Saint Chapelle attached on the left. The king wanted his own chapel to worship alone in, so he had this one built on the building. It was a beautiful church.

The outside of Saint Chapelle. It reminded me of Notre Dame a little.

This is the main floor chapel. I couldn't believe the detail and the arches. I was very impressed. But that was only the beginning...

We climbed yet another spiral staircase...

I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I took almost 50 pictures in this room. It was so amazing! I included only a few, but I hope the awesomeness of these windows comes out in the pictures. The entire chapel was surrounded with HUGE stained glass windows. Some are being restored, so we couldn't see them all, but it was beautiful!

I hope you can get a sense at how big the windows were when you look at the people standing there.

This picture shows the arches on the ceiling and also how the windows that have been restored are so much brighter and more beautiful than the ones that haven't.

The huge circle window depicts the Book of Revelations. All of the side windows depict certain books of the Bible.

Can you tell I LOVED Saint Chapelle? So beautiful!!! Next, we headed into the Palace of Justice. This "Great Hall" was used in the 1300s.

And here is yet another spiral staircase. This one leads to a kitchen that is no longer there. It is very old and was very cool.

At the back of the building are cells and that is where the French imprisoned Marie Antoinette before her beheading. This was the courtyard that she spent time in during her imprisonment.

After the Palace of Justice, we grabbed some lunch...yummy ham and cheese sandwiches and chocolate desserts. Mmmmmm!

After feasting on that yummy goodness, we headed for the world famous Notre Dame! The sculptures were amazing and the building was impressive. It was bigger than I had imagined it to be. It was SO crowded and you could barely move around, but still neat to experience it.

I know I shouldn't be critical of the famous Notre Dame Cathedral, but compared to Saint Chapelle, it just wasn't as glorious. It was Sunday and we came just in time for Mass. We watched a little of it, which was neat. It also explained the throngs of people. Just as a side note, French people are not patient. I was pushed and prodded all the way through the church. I started to feel claustrophobic, which is tough in such a huge place.

Again, compared to Saint Chapelle, the windows were not as neat, but this one was beautiful.

Here's the back with it's famous flying buttresses. Very neat!

Next, we walked to the Ile Saint Louis which is another island in the river. Again, I loved the streets and the beautiful architecture. I guess I'm a sucker for pretty buildings.

This is the Hotel DeVille. What a beautiful building!

We headed over to Le Pantheon, which is a building that houses some of France's most famous past citizens.

The inside was really neat with all of it's domes, a tough feat for that time period. There were also huge paintings on the ceilings and walls.

In the basement, we saw the resting place of people like Voltaire, Dumas, Hugo, and Madame Curie.

At this point, we were pretty pooped. The jet lag and non stop walking had gotten to us, so we headed in the direction of the hotel. Our path took us to the Luxembourg Palace. I loved this place (I know, I say that a lot!). It is a beautiful building that now houses the Senate, but I fell in love with the grounds. "Lovely" was definitely used quite often during this stop.

Again, there were plenty of chairs to just sit back and take it all in.

In the pond in front of the building were little sail boats that kids rented and let sail.

As I said before, the whole place was just lovely. Everywhere you looked were beautiful flowers or trees. This was their version of the Temple Square gardens.