October 5, 2001 : Musee Rodin, Notre Dame, St Chapelle, Jardin du Luxembourg
The previous night I had gone to Musee Rodin and it was closed by the time Ireached there, so that was my first stop this morning. It's got the famous"Thinker" statue, along with other sculptures by Mr. Rodin, including onecalled "Gates of Hell", which was pretty interesting. Other than those two, therest of the museum was not as "dazzling" as the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower atnight - so I was glad to be outta there in less than an hour!
I had a small fold-out cardboard map of paris which I had bought over here, andon there it listed a walking tour of the old city, so I took that next. In thehistorical center of Paris are two islands called Ile St Louis and Ile de laCite -- the city of Paris--and the walking tour--started here. On Ile de laCite is the famous Notre Dame cathedral. That was nice -- had lunch at astreetside cafe near there, then spent some time hanging around the cathedral.I didn't go inside, and the line to go to the top was too long, so I thoughtI'd come back another day -- it was worth coming back to. After some time thereI continued on the walking tour according to my map...
Now it was time to be dazzled again!
Next stop was another cathedral -- St Chapelle -- known for it's stained glasswindows. Before going in I was not expecting too much... "I've seen stainedglass windows before... what's the big deal?" ... and I think since I wasntexpecting a whole lot, I was VERY impressed by what I saw -- they have stainedglass windows about 30-40 feet tall (at least) -- a whole series of themdepicting scenes from the Bible. The detail of the paintings in them wasamazing! So this blew me away... completely unexpected!
Next on the walk was a few bridges over the Seine river, ending up at anotherchurch called St Germaine des Pres. There's a nice fountain over there... I didnot go inside this church.
That was the end of the walking tour according to my map, but there are somegardens just south of there, so I kept walking and that was my next and laststop of the day -- Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden). This was nice too-- "just nice" -- and it had a few ponds with some fountains in it surroundedby flowers, but nothing too great - I've seen better in Victoria, Canada. Butit was nice for a stroll.
That was the end of the day -- too much walking today! But by the time Ifinished this I realized I had already seen almost everything in Paris that Iwanted to see, and I still had more days left...
So I went back to a tourism office and (on a whim) bought a day-trip Eurostarticket to London, and also (on my brother's advice) bought a day-trip tour of atown called Bruges in Belgium.
The London trip was supposed to be the next day....................
Musee Rodin:
 Thinker |
 Thinker |
 Thinker |
 Gates Of Hell |
 The Kiss |
 All statues are exact replicas |
Notre Dame:
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 Charlemagne |
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 Joan of Arc |
St Chapelle:
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Jardin du Luxembourg:
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