Getting Acquainted with Paris
Written by Emily Shearer on July 10, 2009 – 9:17 am -I went to Rome once without a guidebook. Big mistake. There we were, three lost, lira-less Americans in the cradle of modern civilization standing with our mouths wide open and great big do-huh? expressions on our faces. It was sad. I really regret that trip. Good pizza though.
So, although I said in my introduction that I was determined to do my adventure in Paris in a carefree, Holly Golightly approach, I am much too much of a list-maker to actually follow through with spending a week in Paris without a list. There was just too much at stake. I didn’t want to miss a trick, and if I don’t want to miss something, I have to write it down.
So Sara and I sat at a corner cafe on Sunday morning, cafe cremes and croque madames pushed out of our way on the tiny terrace table. (The terrace wasn’t tiny; it was sprawling out into the street and packed with church-skipping Parisians and tourists like us. The table was tiny.) Anyhoo, we made room for our journals and guide books and mapped out our week.
Since our apartment was a block from the Seine, with Notre Dame in full view from our closest Metro stop, we didn’t have to put that on the list. We stopped there several times and took photos from both sides, romped in the courtyard at night in the rain, perused the fascinating, attic-like nooks and crannies of literary treasures at Shakespeare and Co. English bookstore across the river, even filmed an embarassing-ly goofy birthday video on our way to the island on which it stands. And although its beauty and craftsmanship represent a near-perfect example of Gothic grandeur, perhaps the most stunning cathedral, or even building in the world, it is not my favorite church in Paris. Just a few blocks away, and even closer to our home-away-from-home, is a true gem in the catalog on historical French monuments to history and to God: Sainte-Chapelle.
“Few sights,” reads the guide book I purchased at Shakespeare*, “even in Paris, rival the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle. This tiny jewel, built in the 13th century, 100 years before Notre-Dame, has a series of exquisite stained-glass windows.” Louis IX had it built to house the Crown of Thorns and other holy relics. The artifacts are no longer there, but their story is fascinating, told in glass that will take your breath away. Try to go on a sunny day, when light comes streaming through the facets like rubies and diamonds. I swear you will hear the glorious song of Heaven in that light.
There’s more to the story: built alongside the chapel was the Palais de Justice and the Conciergerie. Take this short video tour and you will see where Marie-Antoinette, among others, was imprisoned during the Revolution.
If beautiful churches in Paris are a dime a dozen, you can barely throw a lucky centime without having it land in a fountain. Every park has its fountain. Every square and courtyard, every monument, small and grand.
*A good guidebook is essential. Before I left home, I picked up Time Out Paris (Time Out Guides)
Tags: Conciergerie, French revolution, Marie Antoinette, Notre Dame, Paris, Sainte Chapelle
Posted in Adventures in Paris, OPMOM Series, Travel | No Comments »
