Paris is one of my very favorite cities. I think it is for a lot of people. The history, the culture, the food, the art – so much to do and see. Or, just hang out at one of the sidewalk cafes and let Paris parade by.
I am separating a post on just Notre Dame Cathedral from this one on the rest of my visit to Paris partially because of all of the photos I took of the cathedral. That post follows this one.
The included morning excursion on our full day in the city was a choice between a coach trip of the entire city of Paris, or a walking tour of part of Paris. Since I had been to Paris a few times before, I chose the walking tour. It was to take place mainly on the Île de la Cité, which was the location of the origins of Paris.
A Celtic tribe called the Parissii inhabited what eventually became the Île de la Cité starting in the middle of the 3rd century BC. In 52 BC, the Romans settled on Paris’ Left Bank and called their settlement Lutetia. Eventually Lutetia joined with the Île de la Cité becoming Parisius and then Paris.
During the 12th century AD, the royal residence was located at the western end of the Île de la Cité and Notre Dame Cathedral was being constructed at its eastern end. As the marshland on the Right Bank began to fill in, the city expanded in that direction. At this time the medieval Louvre fortress was extended to defend the city on the far west of the Right Bank.
Our ship was docked by the Eiffel Tower, so we were piled onto a motorcoach and driven to the Louvre, from where we would begin our tour. On the way to the Louvre, we could see the Musee d’Orsay on the other side of the Seine.
Remnants of the original medieval building of the Louvre can still be seen in the crypt of the current building. We would not be going inside though. It can take an entire day just to explore the Louvre. My mom and I had done so on a couple of previous trips.
In the 14th century, the Louvre was converted from a fortress to a royal residence and began to be rebuilt in the 16th century in the French Renaissance style. But in the 17th century, the court was moved to Versailles and building at the Louvre was stopped.
The Louvre had started to house works of art during the 16th and 17th centuries. By the middle of the 18th century, a public gallery began to be planned. By 1776, the Grande Galerie of the Louvre was being converted, but remained incomplete until the French Revolution.
We entered the Cour Carree through the portion of the Louvre known as the Sully Wing. This is the oldest part of the building. When I had been in the museum in 2000, there was a wonderful Rembrandt exhibit up on the 1st floor. The Venus de Milo usually hangs out on the ground floor.
We then passed through the Pavillon de l’Horloge into the Cour Napoleon where we could see the glass Pyramid that was used as the main entrance. In the Cour Napoleon (named after Napoleon III who greatly enlarged the museum), we not only checked out the Pei Pyramid, but also the Carrousel de Louvre and an equestrienne statue of Louis XIV.
The Carrousel was a much smaller version of the Arc de Triomphe and once had the horses from Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice at the top. Napoleon Bonaparte stole them from there. But they had been stolen from the Hippodrome in Istanbul (then Constantinople) many centuries earlier.
In addition to the Sully Wing, the other two main wings are the Denon Wing (home of both the Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa) and the Richellieu Wing (chock full of loads of cool stuff, including the rooms used by Napoleon III).
When leaving out through the Cour Carree again, we encountered a heavily-scaffolded Church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois. It also had the sun behind it. So a decent photo wasn’t possible. It had been originally built in the 5th century to commemorate a meeting of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois with Saint Genevieve (the future patron saint of Paris) on the spot where it is said the meeting took place. Over the centuries it has been enlarged and rebuilt several times. Since the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, it temporarily held the services that had been conducted at Notre Dame.
We headed over to the Île de la Cité where we would have visited the Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral. But there was a very big trial going on which meant that both of those buildings and much of the island were off limits. The trial of 20 men accused in the coordinated attacks on Paris (on a stadium, bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall) in 2015 was underway. The lone surviving actual attacker from that night, Salah Abdeslam, was the key defendant. He was also the only one charged with murder.
The Palais de Justice de Paris includes both the Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle in addition to the Prefecture de Police. A special courtroom had been constructed somewhere within the vast expanse of court buildings covering the west end of the island. What was needed was very high security (bomb-proof and bullet-proof) as well as an attempt to create a calming atmosphere.
Normally we would have been able to cross over the Pont Neuf to reach the Île de la Cité, but we weren’t allowed to cross there. We went down some stairs to the Quai de la Megisserie, which didn’t allow any motorized vehicles so we could walk along in relative peace and quiet while looking across the river at the island. Normally there would have been sightseeing boats along the river, but we didn’t see any other than those docked by the Pont Neuf.
In the included photo of the Île de la Cité with the Pont Neuf, can be seen an equestrian statue of Henry IV. He was the king who inaugurated the Pont Neuf in 1607.
At the Pont au Change, we went back up some stairs to see if we could cross there. We couldn’t, so we just stayed up on the street level until we got to the Pont Notre-Dame. I was so glad that it wasn’t my first (or only) time in Paris. The Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle are both very much worth a visit. I had been looking forward to spending some time in both.
The Conciergerie was originally part of the former royal palace. During the French Revolution, 2,780 prisoners, including Marie Antoinette, were imprisoned, tried and sentenced there. Most were executed elsewhere by use of the guillotines which were set up all across Paris. But there were still hundreds who died in what is known as the Women’s Courtyard when they were simply shot to death there.
Parts of the 10th century building constructed under Hugh Capet still survive. The cell where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned can be visited, as well as a later chapel built in her honor. Many other historic areas of the very large building were also normally open to the public.
The original version of Sainte-Chapelle was built in 800. In 1238, Louis IX had it redesigned and enlarged. The two levels of the new chapel, equal in size, had entirely different purposes. The upper level, where the sacred relics were kept was reserved exclusively for the royal family and their guests. The lower level was used by the courtiers, servants, and soldiers of the palace.
Sainte-Chapelle is breathtaking. It appears to be all stain-glassed windows with no real structure other than the windows. It glitters and shines like thousands of jewels.
Everywhere on the Île de la Cité we could see barricades and lots and lots of police. They were watching everyone. Not wanting to attract any attention, we kept quiet and kept moving across the island towards Notre Dame. I did manage to take a quick photo of the spire of Sainte-Chapelle as we passed from a couple of blocks away.
After a fairly long time sitting in front of Notre Dame while listening to our local guide talk about its history, we crossed the Petit-Pont and had some free time on the Left Bank. I took tons of photos of Notre Dame, then a short break at the café on the corner of the road there. After that, I explored the Square Rene Viviani and the adjacent Church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, which was built at the same time as Notre Dame.
When we regathered by the entrance of the square to continue our tour, we heard a lot of sirens heading our way. It turned out to be the main terrorist going right by us on his way to his trial.
Moving further into the Latin Quarter, we could see the remains of a Roman bath house upon which was built part of the Musee de Cluny (aka Musee National du Moyen Age Paris). This museum is loaded with tapestries statues and other artifacts from the Middle Ages in Paris. They also have quite a few pieces of Roman antiquity in addition to the bath house.
Once we hopped back onto the coach to head back to the ship, we drove by the Sorbonne, Pantheon, the Luxembourg Gardens, a cute little church called Notre Dame des Champs, the Hotel des Invalides (containing Napoleon’s tomb) and the Eiffel Tower again.
Next time – Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral (with loads of photos of the building in scaffolding)
