Paris, Day 2

This morning we took the metro stop to the Chatalet stop, where we walked over to the Île de la Cité, an island in the middle of the Seine. On this island is Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, and Notre Dame, all of which we saw.

We started at Sainte-Chapelle. Since this is in the same complex as the main courthouse and judicial system buildings, we had to go through a pretty strict checkpoint. When we got in, we walked to the church and around the building. There were old pieces of the building sitting around the outside (cordoned off from people touching them), which was an interesting decorative decision. Anyway, once inside of the church you are taken straight up to the second floor, which is where the chapel is. This is the room with the amazing stained glass windows. It really was beautiful, all blue and gold with each window corresponding to a different book of the bible. The last picture is of the ground floor, which has a gift shop and some small alcoves.

We wanted to go to the Conciergerie, which is where prisoners were held during the Rein of Terror. To get here we had to go outside the judicial complex and around to the next building. All the buildings had beautiful ornate gates, which were effective in keeping people out!

In the Conciergerie we were given a tablet that corresponded to certain checkpoints within the museum. These would then give you information and pictures with blurbs about how the place looked during the Reign of Terror. This big main room was just awesome, and I loved all the archways. You can see the kids looking at the tablets. We stayed here for a long time because the tablets made it more like a game.

This room had the names of those who were held in the Conciergerie. The color of the name and the thickness of the tile corresponded to who the person was (i.e., clergy, aristocracy) and how far up in the aristocracy they were. I found it fascinating, especially since I have just read a few historical fiction books that took place during the Reign of Terror and Napoleon. There was even a computer where you could look up names. Of course the kids wanted to look up Aspiranti, and were disappointed when it wasn’t in there ( I didn’t have the heart to tell them that there would be absolutely no Aspirantis in France in the early 1800s). Next we saw the prisoner cells, and then the cell where Marie Antoinette was held before her execution. The conditions of the prison were horrible, and prisoners were kept outside in small courtyards until nighttime, when they returned to the cells. Ronin really liked all the big keys for the door locks.

After spending almost two hours in the Conciergerie we walked to the other end of the Île de la Cité to the Notre Dame cathedral, or what is left of it. It was blocked off for reconstruction, but we were able to walk around the side of it and could see the new wood that has been put up to start the renovations. There was an exhibit with photos and text describing the fire and the current renovations going on. We took some time to read through the display and had some discussions about fire, reconstruction, and old versus new.

Behind the cathedral is a memorial to those who were deported from France during WWII. This was a large grassy area with stairs going down to the river and then an eternal flame in front of a long corridor of small lights. It was interesting and we were practically the only ones there.

We walked across the Pont de l’Archeveche and then down along the Seine. We stopped at a few tourist shops and bought Zoey a bright pink beret, which she proudly wore the rest of our time in France. We walked by Shakespeare and Company, a bookstore (and now café) which is famous for being where Hemmingway, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound gathered. All along the river are these big green boxes that at first look like trash bins, but when opened up they are actually booksellers. Most were not open today, but we found several that were selling books, artwork, and comics. Walking further we passed the Pont Neuf, which while lovely and the oldest bridge crossing the Seine in Paris, doesn’t look much different than a lot of other bridges.

We walked all the way to the Musée d'Orsay, which I was super excited to visit. The building here is just as spectacular as the artwork, as it used to be an old train station and definitely looks like it. We were here for several hours, but I could have spent a few days here looking at the Impressionist artwork. Merik and her girls joined us for the first half of our visit but then left a little after lunch.

Now I know I am going overboard with the art photos, but I just can’t help it! I blame my dad for my love of art, particularly sculpture and Impressionist paintings. This first group is of mostly sculptures (and believe me, I took about a million more pictures). The elephant was outside of the museum, and the kids thought is was so cool that there was a giant elephant! These sculptures were some of my favorites, and most of them were displayed in the large gallery in the middle of the museum. On the inside of the museum map there are pictures of artwork corresponding to different collections with the floor number and artist of the piece. The kids spent the whole time on a scavenger hunt for these pieces. The chair Ronin is standing by is one of those pieces, and everyone thought it looked like a toilet seat! Ronin was the only one who found this piece, and he was super proud of himself. He then found a Rodin statue that was the same as the one we saw at the Rodin museum the day before and recreated his post from yesterday.

After lunch in the museum cafeteria we finally got to see the impressionist works! It started with a bunch of Van Goghs, including two self portraits, a bedroom painting, and a starry night painting (but as Zoey would say, not that starry night painting). Then there was quite a collection of Toulouse-Lautrec. There were also wonderful paintings by Seurat, Cézanne, Renoir, and Monet.

Walking through a short exhibit of the cabaret theatre Le Chat Noir taught us about shadow theatre. The kids wanted to make some shadow puppets when we got home. We then continued our tour of Impressionist art through more Monet, Degas, and Manet. One of my favorite pictures of the Musée d'Orsay is this picture of a woman standing in silhouette in front of the big clock, which was totally accidental. And finally, Zoey is showing us the completed quest for all the featured artwork, which took us forever to complete but she and Ronin didn’t want to leave until we had found every last piece.

Everyone was tired, but we still had a little time left in the day so we walked across the Pont des Arts, which is the pedestrian ‘love lock bridge’. The kids always like looking at all the locks, but I don’t like that they want to touch all of them! We then walked through the Tuileries Garden to the Musée de l'Orangerie.

The Musée de l'Orangerie is known for the two rooms covered in the Water Lilies murals by Monet. Each of the two oval rooms has four murals, so in each room you are surrounded by the paintings. It is pretty cool, but I thought the pictures were rather dark. I remember seeing some other Water Lilies murals in Cleveland in 2015 and they definitely seemed lighter and brighter in composition.

Downstairs in the museum is artwork by other artists. The kids were given a children’s guide to the museum, which had activities to do in each room. In the Water Lilies room, they were supposed to look at a point on the painting from far away and then go up close and talk about it. In another room they had to find a picture where they would use each of their five senses (e.g., girls playing the piano = hearing; still life of fruit = taste). In this room, they looked at the fancy carpets, rugs, and wallpaper portrayed in the paintings and then were supposed to draw their own version of a rug inspired by those in the paintings. The kids took this very seriously and we could have probably spent another hour or two in this small museum completing all the activities. However, it was almost 6 pm so the museum was about to close, so we had to head out. It made me happy though to hear the kids wanted to stay in the art museum for longer!

Paris, Day 3

Paris, Day 1