Monday on Ile de la Cite

Today started with late coffee, but we gained an hour because the Europeans started daylight savings time this weekend. Surprise!

The plan was to go to the Ile de la Cite, the island we visited to see Notre Dame, and finish the Rick Steves Historic Paris walking tour that we had started last week. We walked on rue Montmontre to the Les Halles metro station and took the train to the Cite stop. What a wonderful surprise when we came up out of the metro. The metro sign was one of the old ones, the art deco ones, and not many of these still exist. (I'll take a picture of the new ones at a later date so that ou can see the difference.)

We went directly to St. Chapelle, but the sign said that they were going to close between 1 and 2:15 PM. We decided to go to the little cafe across the street, Cafe Deux Palais. We sat outside to take in the street scene. We were not disappointed! This is hard to see in the picture, but the group gathering on the right side of the photo were protesting, and lined up on the left side of the photo in dark blue were the police. The building that is to the left outside of the picture was the "Palace of Justice". So they group was protesting in front of this major government building. There were photographers, so I will try to find something on line or in a newspaper tomorrow about the demonstration. It was peaceful, with a couple of slogan T Shirts, face masks that cover the mouth, and handcuffs. Quite entertaining. When we asked the waiter what was going on, he just shrugged and said (in English) "Oh, eet eez just zee French, madame. Eet eez alwayz zum zing."

After lunch, we saw that the line was HUGE for the church, so we went to the Conciergerie. I didn't take any photos (sorry) because I have so many of them from the last trip and wanted to save photo space on my camera for the church.

By the time we finished with the first tour, the line was still long but it was now or never. So, we got in line and waited our turn. This is what the street looked like as we waited.

After inching along for about 20 minutes, we rounded the corner to see that we had to go through a security check. Because the grounds are shared with the court building, different security is in effect. No big deal, just like the airline check-in except we were allowed to keep our shoes on. Then it was free-wheeling touring once we were inside the grounds.

This is the wooden spire of the church. They are working on the exterior of the building with a little facelift. A sign was posted about the ongoing restorations and they are very proud of the project.

This is a photo of the front of the church.

You enter through the bottom floor, where the peasants would have entered. They worshipped below in the smaller, lower area.

There was a winding stair case that took us to the upper floor. The first thing that catches your eye is the high ceilings. The painting style draws your eyes up to see the drama.

The room is surrounded by fabulous stained glass windows. One side is a little dark because a building is right next to it, but the other side allows the light to shine in. Beautiful. There are seats all around so that you can sit and look at the stained glass.

The magnificent part is the front by the alter. This is what it looked like today. There is a restoration project going on for the next few years.

Luckily, they have a beautiful photo on an easel at the front of the room that shows you what the completed alter section looks like. Wow. This is worth visiting again when it is completely restored.

We left the church and walked south on Boulevard du Palais to the Pont Saint-Michel (bridge). Crossing the traffic to get on to the bridge was insane. A bus, double long, was trying to make a right hand turn on to the bridge and traffic would not yield. The driver kept inching forward and suddenly he won and could complete the turn. We zipped across the street while the pedestrian light was green and safely made it to the other side. The bridge was crowded with a student group gathering, and as we made our way past them, the view was astounding.

Looking west from the bridge, I just had to stop and take a photo of the Seine and the Pont Neuf (bridge. "Neuf" means "new" and this is the oldest bridge. Go figure.)

We stopped at some of the local shops (I HAD to have two more scarves!) and decided to take the Saint-Michel Metro as our return route. Since it was rush hour, we decided to give traffic another hour to calm and had cappuccinos at the cafe La Fountaine Saint-Michel. We passed the time people watching and decided that this area, Rive Gauche/Left Bank, was an active part of the city with a wide collection of people. Tourists, students and locals all hurried past on their way home, or out. (Joan, I didn't see any new fashion trends. It looks like fishnet stockings are the statement for this Fall.)