Day Fiftyeight - Jul 18, 2012
Paris, France
Daily Didactic
On our last day in Paris we rose early and caught the metro to the Catacombs, arriving a half hour before it opened at 10:00. The line was longer than yesterday. Nope. We jumped back on the metro and got back off at Sainte-Chapelle. We waited fifteen minutes in a line that is more of a TSA experience because the historic chapel now finds itself in the courtyard of a police station and everyone goes through security. Sainte-Chapelle is basically a really small footprint (relatively) church of enormously tall stained glass windows. It also historically houses Jesus's crown of thorns, although we are not quite sure where that would have been. It is both incredibly pretty and under restoration, so the 360 degree experience is mildly obstructed as they work on some of the panes. We had a quick picnic near Dauphin Place at the end of Ile de la Cite before heading on for the day's big event, Louvre day two. Today was Flemish and Northern European painting, followed by French paintings, augmented by a current Wim Delvoye exhibition. Lots of Van Eyck, Vermeer, Reuben, Van Dyke, and such. It was again, pretty overwhelming. In the late afternoon, we headed back to the left bank and took a compelling easy out for dinner, the Chinese restaurant we had been evening three. It was absolutely the best Canton duck we could have imagined. Getting a little exhausted from touristing, we returned to our petite flat and enjoyed a movie on iTunes. We set our alarms early for a visit to the Pantheon before catching a 10:30 metro to the train station for our trip to Brussels tomorrow.
Today's Photos
