Saturday, August 20. Edward and I took the RER train to the Charles De Gaulle Airport (what a huge place) to pick up Elaine’s my brother, Lee, and Becky. They are going to be taking a tour in Italy and decided to stop for a few days in Paris/London on the way to Rome. We met them at the airport and then we all took the RER train from the airport back to our Paris apartment. After a short visit and then rest we went out for dinner on the Left Bank. We went to the Latin Quarter and ate at a sidewalk café then strolled through the streets on the Seine River.
We ended up later on Boulevard Saint Germaine at the Les Deux Magots Restaurant and Bar. This place had the reputation of the rendezvous of the literary and intellectual elite such as surrealist artists, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, some young writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, Orson Wells and artist, Pablo Picasso. We had to stop and “drink us one” at such a famous place.
As we were finishing our wine we noticed a few drops of rain and decided it would be a good idea to just take a taxi back to the apartment and not the Metro (subway). We went over to the taxi queue and the first taxi told us he would not take 4 persons. We go to the next taxi which appeared to be about the same size so we just went to the next which was larger and the 2nd taxi driver jumped out and shouted at us “What is wrong with my taxi!” We were a little startled that he did that but he was offended at us for passing him up. We were just stupid and thought we were doing the right thing by going to a larger taxi. We apologized to him and everything was fine. It actually was a very nice BMW taxi and was very comfortable. He took us directly to the apartment and was reasonable with the rate. It had been a long flight and then a long evening. When you first come over you just can’t help but to get out to see everything.
Sunday, August 21.
We started Sunday afternoon going up to the Pigalle Area of Paris. This is the Old Red Light District of Paris. This is where the famous Moulin Rouge is located. It was built in 1889 and is best known as the birthplace of the can-can dance. Today it is mostly a tourist destination with musical dance entertainment shows with 1000s of costumes with feathers, rhinestones and sequins much the shows in Las Vegas with dinner and champagne. It still has a lot of sex shops and clubs(?) that are not on a typical tourist itinerary. It is on the way up to Montmartre and they still have plenty of buses to take people to see the shows at the Moulin Rouge.
Tabletop at Le Chat Noir Café and Menu. They had some really cute napkins also, white with the black cat.
After the cruise we strolled along the River Seine.
We passed by the Freedom Torch or Liberty Flame, which is a replica of the Statue of Liberty flame in NYC. It has become an unofficial memorial to Princess Diana. It is located above the tunnel where she died in the car crash.
Monday, August, 22
La Sainte Chapelle – The Holy Chapel is actually located within the Palais de Justice complex (Court House) on the Ile de la Cite at the opposite end of the island from Notre Dame. It was erected by Louis IX, King of France, to house the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross. They could never prove it but they couldn’t prove it wasn’t. He paid a lot of $$$ for it.
The stain glass windows are brilliant reds, blues, greens and yellows. The windows tell the complete biblical story in each set of windows – Genesis, Exodus, etc. It is so interesting to see that each window is completely different than the next. THIS HAS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STAIN GLASS WINDOWS OF ANY CHURCH WE HAVE EVER SEEN. It is not on many tourist guides but it should be.
Next we went to the other end of the island to Notre Dame to see even more stain glass windows.
After this we walked to the Shoah Memorial Museum. They have large collection of history of the Jewish genocide in WWII and remembrance and education.
For lunch, since we were near Marias Area, we had introduce to Lee and Beck the BEST FALLAFEL and an Israeli beer at L’as du Fallafal. It is the best place to have a fallafel.
After lunch we went to the Louvre Museum. Always crowed and it was too late to get in that day but we were able to see some of the sculptures, etc. through some windows. Then we walked through the Carrousel du Louvre shopping center below the Louvre to get to the Metro station.
They have some stairs with an elevator in the middle of it located under the pyramid at the Louvre.
Getting on the elevator. Going up. 2nd floor.
No comments:
Post a Comment