After our morning and early afternoonn walking tour in the Marais and our lunch near the Paris City Hall (Hotel de Ville), my granddaughter, grandson and I set out for Notre Dame Cathedral. We left the restaurant near the Hotel de Ville at 2:40 pm.
We crossed Rue de Rivoli and walked over to the Hotel de Ville, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_de_Ville,_Paris), which has been at this location since 1357. The current building was completed in 1628. However, the interior was destroyed by a fire set by extremists in 1871. The inside was subsequently rebuilt during the period 1873 - 1892. The Hotel de Ville is a large and impressive building.
Hotel de Ville
We walked along the east side of the building, on Rue de Lobau. There was a long line of people waiting to get into a free art exhibit entitled, “Paris at the Time of the Impressionists: The Masterpieces of the Musée d’Orsay at the Hotel de Ville.”
One entrance to the Hotel de Ville was guarded by two large bronze lion statues on stone pedestals.
At the southeast corner of the Hotel de Ville, we crossed the Quai de l’Hotel de Ville and turned right, walking along the Seine. In the middle of the Seine, we could see the Île de la Cité, the island where Notre Dame Cathedral and other historic buildings are located.
We walked about a block to Pont d’Arcole, a bridge that crossed over to Île de la Cité. We turned left and crossed the bridge.
Île de la Cité (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_de_la_Cit%C3%A9) is one of two natural islands in the Seine River in Paris. The other island is its next-door neighbor, Île St. Louis. Île de la Cité is home to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the church of Sainte Chapelle, the Conciergerie, the Tour de l’Horloge - with the oldest public clock in Paris, a flower market, a Sunday bird market, and the Ancien Cloître - an old residential quarter.
After crossing onto the island, we continued straight onto Rue d’Arcole, which was lined with souvenir shops. The sidewalk was crowded with tourists.
Seated next to a tree was a homeless man with his dog and her four puppies. Three of the puppies were nursing.
Notre Dame Cathedral
Two blocks from the bridge, we came to Notre Dame Cathedral, also known as Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris), and the large square in front of it. We arrived there about 3:10 pm.
Notre Dame Cathedral (http://en.wikipedia.org/wik i/Notre_Dame_de_Paris, and http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/-English-, and http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/paris-notre-dame-cathedral) is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris. It is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Another cathedral, Sainte-Etienne (St. Stephen), originally stood on this site. However, Bishop Maurice de Sully, the Bishop of Paris in 1160, had something grander in mind. He had Saint-Etienne demolished and Notre Dame built in its stead. Construction started in 1163 and was not completed until 1345.
Before Notre Dame was built, the same site was occupied by other religious buildings - a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter, then a Christian basilica, then a Romanesque church.
For some really great interior and exterior views of the Cathedral, go to the web site: http://www.fromparis.com/virtual-tour-notre-dame/. Then click on the red or blue dots on the Cathedral. Then move the page view down toward the bottom. You will see great virtual moving views of the area selected. (Make sure to go to the bottom picture, not the middle picture, which does not move.)
The Cathedral has a number of interesting features.
The exterior walls have additional support in the form of arches called “flying buttresses.” These were added when it was noticed that stress fractures were developing in the upper walls. Notre Dame was one of the first buildings in the world to have this feature.
It has beautiful stained glass windows, including the spectacular huge rose windows on the north, south, and west portals. Most of the original stained glass windows were destroyed during the Revolution. However, those on the north and south portals were spared.
A Rose Window
The west facade - the front facade - has three portals, which are richly decorated with early Gothic art.
On the western facade is a row of statues representing biblical kings of Judah. French revolutionaries thought they were statues of French kings and beheaded all of them. In 1977, those heads were found buried nearby and are now on display in the Cluny Museum. The statues were later restored.
The Cathedral has two towers - a north tower and a south tower. They are 228 feet high. In the south tower is a huge bell that is named Emmanuel and that weights 13 tons.
The view from the rear of the outside (east side) offers a great view of soaring pinnacles and flying buttresses.
The Interior of Notre Dame
Notre Dame is reportedly visited by 13 million visitors a year - more than the Eiffel Tower.
It is important to remember that this is an active Catholic church.
Entry to the Cathedral itself is free. To visit the Cathedral towers, there is a charge of €7.50 for adults and no charge for children. There are 387 steps (no elevator) to the top. There are other viewpoints on the way up to the top. I could have could have used my Museum Pass to get into the towers without charge, but we decided against visiting the towers.
Photography is permitted inside the Cathedral, except during services.
Our Visit
We got into the long line in the square in front of the cathedral at about 3:12 pm. This square is known as the Parvis de Notre Dame. (A parvis is a courtyard at the entrance to a cathedral.) The Parvis itself was not particularly impressive, but its openness allowed a great view of the front of the cathedral. It was sunny while we were standing in line.
The Cathedral was on the east side of the Parvis. There were low buildings on the north and west sides. There were small trees on three sides, but not on the Cathedral side. There was a large equestrian statue of Charlemagne on the south side.
Fortunately, the line to enter the Cathedral moved very quickly, and we entered the Cathedral through the right front portal within 8 minutes of getting in line.
The cathedral was magnificent on both the outside and the inside. Although it has suffered serious damage due to religious sectarian divisions and revolutions, it has been nicely restored and is currently very beautiful.
I have always been amazed, when I have seen ancient churches, palaces, monuments, and other grand buildings in Paris, Mont St. Michel, Chartres, Istanbul, Rome, Seville, Toledo, Granada, Ephesus, Knossos, etc., that architects and engineers were able to build such immense, beautiful structures, without modern construction equipment and often with very innovative designs.
After enjoying the interior of the Cathedral, we walked out onto the Parvis through one of the west front portals.
Archaeological Crypt of the Parvis of Notre Dame
The next site on the agenda was the Archaeological Crypt of the Parvis of Notre Dame (Crypte Archéologique du Parvis Notre Dame) (http://www.crypte.paris.fr/en/crypt/more-2000-years-history), which was located right under the Parvis. The entrance to the Crypt is at the very western edge of the Parvis - the edge farthest away from the western portal.
During 1965-72, excavations were conducted at the Parvis. Among the discoveries were remains from the Gallo-Roman city of Lutetia on Île de la Cité, and from the medieval period. These remains were incorporated into the Crypt, which was created in 1974 and opened to the public in 1980.
Inside the Crypt
The ruins include Roman ramparts, homes, underground heating systems, and other exhibits. It was very interesting.
The admission fee was €4 for adults, €2 for young people ages 14-26, and free for those under 14. Our Museum Pass entitled us to free admission. It is closed on Mondays and public holidays.
Chris decided he wasn’t interested in the Crypt, so he sat down and waited for us on the Parvis.
Sainte Chapelle
Our next visit was to The Holy Chapel - La Sainte Chapelle. It was only a couple of blocks from the Parvis. From the southwest corner of the Parvis, we walked one block west along the Seine on Quai du Marché Neuf to Boulevard du Palais. We crossed the boulevard and turned right on the west side of it. We walked about half a block to the entrance, where we got into a line. It rained a bit while we were in line. It didn’t take very long to get to the entrance, where we had to go through a security check because Sainte Chapelle is inside the Palace of Justice (Palais de Justice) compound. Then we had to walk to a ticket line at the Chapel itself. However, we were able to go to the head of that line because of my Museum Pass, which enabled us to enter without tickets.
Sainte Chapelle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-Chapelle) was commissioned by King Louis IX (commonly called Saint Louis) to house his collection of Relics of the Passion of Jesus Christ, including Jesus’ Crown of Thorns and a relic of the True Cross. Louis purchased the relics from a Byzantine emperor in 1239-41. The purchase price for the relics was more than twice the cost of building Sainte Chapelle! The relics were actually in the possession of the Venetians, to whom the emperor had pawned them. The Venetians delivered them to Paris.
Upper Part of Sainte Chapelle from Palais de Justice Courtyard
Sainte Chapelle was completed in 1248. It has one of the world’s best installations of 13th Century stained glass. The windows are 50.5 feet high and 14 feet wide. They were spectacular. It’s best to visit on a sunny day to get the most beautiful view of the stained glass.
The chapel building is much larger than any chapel I have visited. It is really the size of a church. There is an upper chapel and a lower chapel. The upper chapel was the royal chapel, and the lower chapel was the parish church for the inhabitants of the palace. Needless to say, the upper chapel has the magnificent windows. The lower chapel is colorful and pretty, but the walls are much lower than those of the upper chapel.
Sainte Chapelle - Upper Chapel
Stained Glass Windows
Upper Chapel Rose Window
Lower Chapel
Admission is €8 for adults. Children under 18 are admitted free. It is open every day except for a few holidays. It is closed between 1 and 2 pm.
The Conciergerie
Our next stop was the Conciergerie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conciergerie & http://www.ca-paris.justice.fr/index.php?rubrique=11018&ssrubrique=11076&article=15446), whose entrance was located just a few feet north of the exit from Sainte Chapelle. We used my Museum Pass to get in.
The Conciergerie is one remaining part of the Palais de la Cité, the palace of French kings from the 10th Century until the middle of the 14th Century. When King Charles V moved from this palace and into the Louvre across the river, he left his administration at the Conciergerie. The administration included a high-level official called a Concierge. He maintained his apartments in the Conciergerie. In 1370, it became a prison.
As a prison, it was notorious for a couple of reasons. One was because of the torture of inmates. The other is that many victims of the French Revolution were kept there until they were taken to the guillotine. One of those inmates was Queen Marie Antoinette. In the Conciergerie, there is a re-creation of her cell complete with a figure of her and a guard watching over her. More than 2,700 prisoners of the Revolution spent their last hours in the Conciergerie.
There are three round medieval towers on the outside. Another tower, the Tour de l’Horloge (The Clock Tower), had the first public clock in Paris. It was installed in 1370. The current clock is from 1535. The Hall of the Men at Arms (Salle des Gens d’Armes) is very large - 210 ft long by 90 ft wide by 28 feet high. It has a beautiful vaulted ceiling and three rows of columns - with at least 9 columns in each row. It is the lower story of the Great Hall (Grande Salle). It served as a dining hall for the palace staff of 2,000 people.
Hall of the Men at Arms
Today, it is part of the Palais de Justice complex.
At the souvenir shop in the Conciergerie, Chris purchased a model of an ancient cannon for €27 ($38.89).
The next stop on our itinerary was for ice cream at the famous Berthillon ice cream parlor, 29-31 Rue St. Louis en L’Île (http://www.berthillon.fr/) on the island - Île St. Louis, the only other natural island on the Seine. The two islands are connected to one another by a short bridge, the Pont St. Louis
To get to the ice cream parlor, we turned left out of the Conciergerie exit and walked about a half block north to Quai de l’Horloge/Quai de la Corse. There, we turned right and walked along the Seine.
On the left side of the street, the Seine side, were the green stalls of the Bouquinistes (sellers of used and antique books - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouquinistes). On our right, we passed the flower market, which has several rows of flower shops. On Sundays, the flower market becomes a bird market.
As we walked along, we had a nice view of the Hotel de Ville on the other side of the Seine. We continued on the same street as it turned into Quai aux Fleurs. We had a nice view of the western tip of - Île St. Louis, and of the Pont Louis-Philippe - a bridge from the right bank of the Seine onto - Île St. Louis.
As we came to the eastern end of Île de la Cité; it started to rain and the wind started to blow. We hurried across the Pont St. Louis onto Île St. Louis.
(Had we continued a short distance further on Île de la Cité, we would have come to the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation. It commemorates the 160,000 people who were sent from France to German concentration camps during World War II. Most of them probably did not survive the ordeal. About half of them were Jews. The others were political activists, resistance fighters, homosexuals, and gypsies.)
On Île St. Louis, we took shelter for a few minutes until the rain let up a bit.
Most of Île St. Louis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_Saint-Louis) is residential. It has only three narrow, parallel, one-way streets running the length of the island - one in the center and one on each side. The one in the center is Rue St. Louis en L’Île. It has one lane for traffic and one lane for parking. It is lined with four-story buildings that have restaurants or shops on the ground floor.
We then walked four blocks to the Berthillon ice cream parlor. Along the way, I saw several shops that advertised Berthillon ice cream. When we reached the ice cream parlor, we got into the relatively short line for ice cream to go. Unfortunately, the line moved slowly. There were also seats inside in a separate room. For some reason that I don‘t remember, we got ice cream to go. While we were in line, we saw several pigeons fighting over an ice cream cone someone had dropped. The fight ended when a car started pulling into a parking spot where the cone had fallen.
We took our cones and ate them next to a building across the street. They were delicious.
After finishing our ice cream, we continued walking east on Rue St. Louis en L’Île to the eastern end of the island, looking in shop windows along the way.
One of the places at which we wanted to stop was la Charlotte de l’isle, a tea house that is famous for its hot chocolate (http://www.lacharlottedelisle.fr/us/homepage.html). It is located at 24 Rue St. Louis en L’Île. We had stopped there for hot chocolate in 2006, and Chris had forgotten his camera there. Unfortunately, it was not open.
We continued east on Rue St. Louis en L’Île to the end of the street and turned right onto Quai d’Anjou. We walked a few feet to the Pont de Sully, a bridge which connects the Left Bank to the island and to the Right Bank. We turned left and crossed over to the Right Bank.
We turned left onto Quai Henri IV, and walked one block alongside a small park to the Sully-Morland Metro station. We entered the station, and took Line 7 to Jussieu - one stop in the direction of Villejuif. There, we transferred to Line 10 and took it one stop west to Cardinal Lemoine.
From there, we walked back to the apartment via our usual route Rue du Cardinal Lemoine to Rue Rollin. We arrived back at the apartment about 6:10 pm.
Beautiful pictures, would you recommend buying a Paris Visite?
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