Today dawned rainy and cold (I miss the Spanish weather) but we donned warmer clothes, rain jackets, grabbed the umbrella and headed out to see the famous Notre’ Dame (Our Lady). We navigated the subway system and disembarked at the Notre’ Dame station. We arrived fairly early and so the lines to get in weren’t too bad and in about 20 minutes it was our turn to enter. (Remember that you can click on any of the pictures to make them larger then just click on the back arrow at the top of the screen to go back to the post).

Before we go any farther, let me relay some of the amazing history behind this massive and imposing work of dedication and love. I will interject here that one of our favorite guide book authors is Rick Steves and it is his books that we have followed in Madrid and here in Paris. I am going to quote his words about the building of Notre’ Dame here because I was so moved by his description:

Imagine the faith of the people who built this cathedral! They broke ground in 1163 with the hope that someday their great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren might attend the dedication Mass, which finally took place two centuries later, in 1345. Look up the 200-foot-tall bell towers and imagine a tiny medieval community mustering the money and energy for construction. Master masons supervised, but the people did much of the grunt work themselves for free – hauling the huge stones from distant quarries, digging a 30 foot deep trench to lay the foundation, and treading like rats on a wheel designed to lift the stones up one-by-one. This kind of backbreaking, arduous manual labor created  the magnificent Notre’ Dame. 

With this in mind we entered the immense sanctuary of Notre’ Dame we spent the next hour+ awestruck by the magnificence that surrounded us.

 

 

 

You may have heard of a flying buttress but if not, it is not something out of the Wizard of Oz, it is a support structure. Because the cathedral was built with pointed instead of rounded arches, the weight of the arch pushes the walls outward instead of down. The flying buttresses (I know it’s kind of a funny name) were designed as counterpoint to the outward pressure.  In other words, they were constructed to keep the walls form falling down and its worked pretty well for over 700 years. {Wow, art, history, architecture – you’re getting it all.}

 

After the cathedral we grabbed a quick hot lunch to get warmed up a bit. By the time we finished the rain had stopped and it was beginning to warm a little. *A side note about Paris weather – you’ve all heard the expression, “If you don’t like the weather stick around for a few minutes and it will change.” Well in Paris it is absolutely true. Every day it starts off chilly and warms up late in the day and it goes from cloudy to rainy to sunny all within the same half hour – crazy.

But I digress, after lunch we began the walking tour Rick Steves laid out in our guidebook. Our first stop was at the Conciergerie, which looks a lot like the title of the person at a nice hotel who directs you to a good restaurant or helps you get theater tickets but its not even close. Actually the Conciergerie was the infamous Paris prison known as the last stop for 2,780 victims of the guillotine, including King Louis XVI and his queen Marie-Antoinette during the bloody French Revolution.  The outward appearance of  the building belies the horrors that occurred within.

The upper floors of this imposing building now house the Paris police department, but the bottom floor is open as a grim museum of those dark times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the dining hall we proceeded to the small cell where Marie-Antoinette – the “Let them eat cake” queen – was incarcerated for the last two months of her life.  The picture below is of a recreation of her actual cell. The wallpaper is the original paper in the cell and her rosary plus a few other personal items are in a locked cabinet nearby.

 

Our walk then took us to the square where the executions took place. This obelisk was erected on the spot in the square where the guillotine was located to honor the 2,780 victims of that guillotine.

 

Alrighty then, on to more cheerful subjects. Tom and I walked along following the “Walking Tour” meandering along the River Seine and through the busy Latin Quarter where the tour ended.

We were walked out by this time and had returned to the famous Left Bank of the Seine where we decided a tour cruise, also suggested by the book, would be a lovely way to get off of our feet for awhile. This ended up being a great idea and we thoroughly enjoyed a view packed hour gliding along the river and taking in the Paris sights from the water/in-Seine view.

This sides of this bridge look solid but are actually rails with cross bars, however the spaces are filled in with thousands of padlocks of all shapes and sizes creating a foot thick solid wall along each side of the bridge. Why?… because the tail says that if you and your true love put a padlock on the bridge, it is a sign of your true devotion and your love will be everlasting. It is a truly lovely sentiment that causes the city thousands of dollars in damage repair to the bridge – can you imagine the weight of all those locks? You have to admit that it’s an interesting story.

After the cruise we headed for the subway and home. All this fun is wearing me out!

Tomorrow Museo de Louver or The Louver Museum!

We arrived in Paris just before noon on Wednesday 5/22/14. For those of you who fly you know that means we had to get up at 0:dark40 to get to the airport…ugh.

Anyway, we found our place. Again we are in a tiny VRBO, again in a 100+ year old building on the third floor with no elevator, quiet neighborhood with lots of charm, but this one is surrounded by major hills! The doves -ok they’re pigeons – sit on the ledge outside our window and coo to me as I’m writing my blog. It’s very soothing.

Once we settled in we explored the neighborhood. It has much the same format as the neighborhoods in Madrid – shops below and 4+ floors of apartments above. It is picturesque and functional with markets, venders, and restaurants all around, and very near the subway. It’s great!

Half a block up the street we came to a daunting stairway.

Being the brave souls that we are, we proceeded up, be it slowly, to the top and WOW was it worth it!

This is the Basilica Sacre’Couer (Sacred Heart Basilica) which we found out later is #5 on our guide books must see list. Sacre Coure Basilica sits majestically on the highest point in Paris and gazes out at the city stretched below.

The balcony you see in the picture also looks down on a park below. Yet more stairs led down to this enchanting area.

 

 

On Sunday we returned to the area after reading about it in the guide book.  The book lead us to the neighborhood behind the basilica and we were amazed at how enchanting and incredibly busy it was. Tiny art galleries, cafes, and venders line the narrow cobbled streets and surging through the whole chaotic malaise were hundreds of people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this is our little section of Paris. Welcome to the neighborhood.

Our real exploring began on Thursday 5/23/14 beginning with Notre’ Dame (awesome) and then a walking tour of the surrounding area. So tune in tomorrow for the next exciting adventure.

 

For our last two days in Madrid, we bought passes on the Hop-on….Hop-off buses to tour the city and catch some of the sights that we missed.

As in Sydney, we could probably be here for months and never experience it all, but this gave us another flavor of the Madrid.

 

 

 

Our tour highlighted the fact that despite the antique quality of much of the architecture, Madrid is an up to date, modern city with subways, live theater it’s got it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon of the first “Art” day, we visited the Museo National Del Prado (National Prado Museum). This building, built in 1785 to house the National History Cabinet, at the order of King Charles III (here he is yet again).  It was later dedicated as the new Royal Museum of Paintings and Sculptures and opened as such in 1819. It houses works by Goya, Degas, Rembrandt, Ribera, and Regoyos to name a few.

On the second day we went to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.

 

 

This mansion was bought by the very wealthy art lovers Baron Van Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and his wife Carmen. Between them they amassed the largest private art collection in the world. In 1992 the couple opened The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum to the public. A year later the Spanish government bought the entire mansion and art collection for around $345 million – that’s a nice nest egg.

 

 

 

My pictures got a bit mixed, so I’m just going to let you see them and not worry about which picture came from which gallery, okay?  Good then, here goes.

 

At various locations around the Prado we saw art students learning by imitating the masters. Some of them were very good.

 

There was a large showing of Goya’s works at the Thyssen Museum and a statue of him in front of the museum.

Both Tom and I have come to the conclusion that we just are not all that into Renaissance paintings.

 

 

 

We do however enjoy the impressionists,  sculpture, furniture, pottery… so it was on that which we focused.

Just a taste of what we saw.

Next stop Paris, wait till we go to the Louver!

 

 

 

 

On Sunday after lunch we toured the Royal Palace which is magnificent!  Once we had purchased tickets, we stood in line for quite awhile waiting to get in. They only allow a certain number of people in at one time, but between people watching, taking in all the sights and the street entertainers the time went pretty quickly.

. (Sorry I kept cutting off his head – still trying to figure out my new camera).

Once inside we headed up the Grand Staircase

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and spent the next hour wandering from one incredibly extravagant room to the next.

It seems the former kings were somewhat competitive and each consecutive king would add something trying to outdo the previous king… eye roll. But the results are breathtaking. Here are just a few samples – I should tell you ahead of time, I took the Grand Stairway picture before I found out that photographs were not allowed…ooops.  So the rest are from the internet, but I swear we saw then and they really are unbelievable.

The grounds were just as lovely – quiet and serene.

Next we headed to Retiro  Park. I mentioned it in the last post when I talked about King Charles III. Among the other incredibly forward thinking things he did for his people, giving this park – which had once been a royal retreat – to the people making a public park for use by all. What a great guy!

Anyway, we hopped on the subway and zipped down to the Retiro Exit. This park, by the way, is over 300 square acres – huge and obviously well used.  There were people everywhere – joggers, strollers, segwayers (is that a word?) – locals and tourists alike enjoying the great weather and beautiful surroundings.

 

 

Though Parque de Retiro is  beautiful, we had worn ourselves out so we headed home. We had to rest up because tomorrow  – Museo Nacional del Prado – or in English The Prado National Art Museum!