After another delicious buffet breakfast (the blue cheese was
outstanding), we boarded the bus for a short trip over to the Île de la
Cité, the island in the heart of Paris, and the nearby Latin Quarter on
the left bank of the Seine.
Our bus parked across the street from the oldest - and most famous -
university in Paris, the Sorbonne, dating back to the 1100’s. We made
our way through the Latin Quarter (so named because Latin was the
language of choice among the medieval intellectuals that lived here)
over to Notre Dame.
It just reopened last summer right before the 2024 Olympics. The huge
fire in 2019 destroyed almost the entire roof and the devastation it
caused to the interior was overwhelming. Phases one and two are
complete— all of the interior portions are now clean and even have a few
modern touches.
You need to have your shoulders covered to enter, but they didn’t
seem to care about all the shorts that many of the kids were wearing. We
were very happy that the line took less than 10 minutes to get in.
Wow! It is blindingly beautiful, and although somewhat crowded, it is
big enough not feel hemmed in. There are several side chapels, but the
most beautiful part is the stained glass— two Rose Windows on either
side of the middle of the Nave, and more along the walls, back and
front.
Statues, paintings, the altars and adornments added to the
appropriate simple opulence of this beautiful place. And a few modern
pieces of artwork are now included. We are SO happy we got the chance to
go in and visit. The French government and people are understandably
proud of their revival of their masterpiece.
Phase three, the last, is cleaning up the outside so you can see
walls still pretty dirty as the big crane continues to give access to
those very high areas. The gargoyles are still dirty, but impressive.
Fun fact—since their job is to collect rainwater and direct it through
the spouts, they are the origin of the word “ gargle”!
Our walk back to the bus took us past another large church, the
Church of Saint-Séverin, with interesting gargoyles, to the Sorbonne and
the statue of the philosopher Montaigne across the street whose shoe is
all polished from students rubbing it for good luck before exams.
On to the largest museum in the world, the Louvre. We entered from
the cavernous underground parking area and came upon the inverted
pyramid. It was made even more famous in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code where
one of the clues was supposedly buried underneath.
Our guide wisely chose to visit just a few things in depth, but since
the Louvre has 8 miles of hallways, we passed many others along the way.
Our first stop was Venus de Milo, followed by a walk up a long staircase
leading up to Winged Victory.
Many people here and more pushing to get into the next room which was
very large and extremely crowded. The largest painting in the Louvre is
in this room, “Wedding Feast at Cana” but hardly anyone was looking at
it. Instead, they were pushing their way through towards the front where
the prize awaited— Mona Lisa.
If we were still in London, it would have well organized queues or
moving sidewalks to accommodate the crazy crowd, but this is Paris…
We finally got close enough to see, honoring the rules of congested
highways to “ stay to the right”, which kind of worked. The way her eyes
seem to follow you is amazing! And the kids were taken aback at the
small size of this iconic masterpiece.
Whew! We continued our path through many beautiful paintings ( wish
we could stop!) until we got to the final stop, “Liberty Leading the
People”.
From there we made our way back through galleries, pausing just a
moment to see two statues, Hermaphrodite, who from one side looks like a
women lying down, until you walk around to the other where you find it
is also a “ him”. The second one our guide called “ taking a
selfie”—even the Greeks couldn’t stop using their phones!
Finally back to the area underneath I.M. Pei’s pyramid and out to the
street. A short taxi ride home with a couple of hours to rest before our
grand finale tonight. Stella and I took a walk over to the Galleries de
Lafayette— the largest department store in Paris ( actually three large
buildings taking up two blocks on each side if the street).
They were having their annual sale, but the prices were all in three
figures to begin with, and the designer clothes weren’t really
appropriate or accessible to her.
We ended our tour with an incredible experience at a unique small
cafe of magic, Le Double Fond. It was founded 35 years ago by a magician
Dominique Duvivier and is now run by his daughter, Alexandra Duvivier, a
world famous magician in her own right. During dinner, kids were all
inside, and adults sat outside. The staff entertained the groups with
several card tricks during the servings of about 15 or more bites of
various tapas- like appetizers and drinks.
After dessert, we moved to a very intimate theater downstairs where
Alexandra did a magic show. She had been on Penn and Teller’s “Fool Us”
TV show a few years ago and was one of the rare guests who actually
fooled them! She put on a magnificent show. At the end, each kid got to
do one quick magic trick for us. Stella was second, and so quick that I
couldn’t even get a picture🥲.
A final group picture before heading to the bus. Tomorrow we leave,
although we have a mid afternoon departure, so a little time.
