Paris Day 2 1/2

Paris Day 2 ½

With the sun shining and the skies clear, we set out to explore parts of nearby Paris on foot.  We were staying directly opposite île de la Cité so we crossed the Seine on Pont Neuf and walked towards Notre Dame Cathedral.  The line to enter Notre Dame began a block back from the entrance.  We have been to Notre Dame once before so the decision was easy not to go inside this time.  However, as it was pouring down and freezing last time we visited, we didn’t see the outside.  The Cathedral is celebrating 850 years and is still such an impressive site, with its great flying buttresses and its magnificent carvings.  I especially loved the gargoyles but couldn’t bring one home with us, so settled for pictures instead.

Notre Dame Front 

Side view

Example gargoyle

 The gardens all over the city are blooming with annuals.  In front of the Hotel de Ville was an ‘ephemeral garden’, the prettiest sight to see with its meadows of wild flowers. 

Ephemeral garden 

Pompidou Centre

We were headed for the Pompidou Centre, its brash, modernist look such a contrast to the historic buildings of central Paris.  As it was Tuesday, the Centre was not open, although people seemed to be going inside.  We bought a crepe each from a vendor.  You have to do that in Paris!  Doug was very amused by a man/statue who began making balloon animals for a group of schoolchildren.  The man had them enraptured for many minutes.  When he had finished and presented a girl with his creation, a poodle we think, not one of them left him a gratuity.  Doug was most upset for the man, and added one himself.

Inside eglise St. Merri

We happened upon a church that had door open and we wandered inside.  It was the eglise St. Merri. It was such a sad place that was really in need of some attention.  The paint on the murals on the walls was peeling off, and it was in a poor state of repair (photo too dark for posting).  It looked like some work was going on to restore the church, and the building had been cleaned and restored on the outside.  There was an exhibition of photographs about famine in Africa on display. 

We crossed back to the Left Bank and walked through the Latin Quarter on our way to the Pantheon.  Along the way we saw a number of stations where people can charge their electric cars.  This was outside the Academe where St. Francis Xavier studied at one time. 

Kerbside electric car charging

The Pantheon is an amazingly huge building.  The weight of its roof and other factors are causing it to be at risk so $100 million euros is being spent over the next twenty years to repair and restore the building.  It is a memorial to the patriots of the country after the evolution.  In the crypt are the tombs of various French significant heroes, including Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and the Marie and Pierre Curie.

The Pantheon

Inside the massive Pantheon

 

View from Pantheon

The Gardens of Luxemburg were a very attractive place to stroll through.  It is well used by the local public with its shady trees, ponds and a multitude of statues. This is next to the Senate building, and is only a few streets away from our lodgings.

The gardens of Luxemburg