Today was our last day in France. We didn't have much planned so we left our hotel, grabbed a croissant, and walked toward Ile Saint Louis and Notre Dame. We passed some people running a marathon
We walked around the Ile Sainte Louis (an island in the middle of the River Seine) because I read it was largely residential and non-touristy. There were a lot of Parisians walking around with their baguettes (really) and window shopping. Of course when we made it over to Notre Dame we saw lots of tourists.
It was Palm Sunday so the queue to go in the cathedral was very long. We had both been in before, anyway
We walked back over to the Centre Pompidou near our hotel
I loved that the metro was like an underground city. We don't have anything like this in LA. There were full on bands entertaining people while they waited for the trains
We went to Pierre Herme, one of the best chocolate stores in Paris. A pastry chef friend back home wanted us to bring him some chocolates so we gladly made this stop. Just outside of Pierre Herme was the Church of Saint Sulpice. I didn't get a good picture of the outside because of all the construction, but the inside was interesting. The church contains a gnomon, or meridian line--a brass strip--in the floor leading to an obelisk. The meridian line is a fascinating astronomical instrument of the 18th century, used to study the planets and determine the date of Easter each year. The sun's rays enter the church through a small opening in the south transept and rest on the line at various points throughout the year. On the winter solstice, the rays hit the obelisk; on the spring and autumn equinoxes, the bronze table. Those of you who have read or see
The Da Vinci Code will recognize this
Next, we took a stroll through the Jardin du Luxembourg. I was amazed to see the amount of people just reading the newspaper and eating baguettes while laying on the green grass. We need to do more of that here!
That night we rode the metro out of the city a bit to La Defense, a business neighborhood outside of the city center. I wanted to go here because La Grande Arche de la Défense is located here (a kind of 20th century Arc de Triomphe) and it marks the western end of the "Axe Historique". The Axe historique ("historical axis") is a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the centre of Paris, France, to the west. It is also known as the "Voie Triomphale" (triumphal way).
La Defense:
This is a very very bad picture, but this picture is taken along the Axe Historique looking from La Defense to L'Arc de Triomphe in the distance (and the Louvre is beyond that)
We rode the metro back to the Arc de Triomphe
We said goodbye to the Eiffel Tower one last time
Finally, over a year later, I'm done blogging about France! Now I've got to get to Spain.
In case you missed all my posts about France click for
Day 1--Normandy,
Day 2--Normandy to Loire Valley,
Day 3--Bourges, Sancerre and Chambord,
Day 4--Puy de Dome, Clermont-Ferrand, Domaine de Gaudon--Auvergne/Massif Central region,
Day 5--Le Puy-en-Velay, Gorges du Tarn and Beziers,
Day 6--Narbonne, Gorges de la Fou and Les Orgues,
Day 7--Cathar country and Carcassonne,
Day 8--Pont du Gard, Montpellier and Paris,
Day 9--Paris and
Day 10--Paris.
