After a good night's rest at the hotel, we resumed where we left off yesterday after our blip at the Louvre, and we crossed over the Pont Neuf to get to Ile de la Cite. It was the first time I saw the Seine river, and I hate to say it, but the Seine is more beautiful than the Thames - much less brown and a lot more green.
Once we were across, we quickly checked out the Square du Vert Galant and walked along the Quai des Orfevres until we reached Saint Chapelle, a Gothic chapel that's renowned for its stained glass windows. It's hard to spy the chapel from the street, and near impossible to see its facade in its entirety. You can only see a bit of it once you've passed through the security office.
The chapel itself is quite small but also enormously impressive. We were initially disappointed when we walked in because the bit of stained glass that we saw was nice and all, but there just wasn't that much of it.
Then we figured out that we had to go up a very tight and very curly and very steep staircase to reach the really good stuff. So we went up the stairs, and let me tell you, it was really, really good stuff. The windows were at least twenty feet high, and they were just about everywhere, except for one wall, which was dominated by a large rose window. Wow. Just wow. It was quite dim in there, and the chandeliers were lit a bit haphazardly, but the windows were amazing. I can't imagine how beautiful it must be when the sunlight streams through.
The caretakers had very thoughtfully lined the sides with seats, and J and I sat for a while just enjoying the windows. I hope J enjoyed his respite, because it wasn't long before we were headed for lunch at Au Bougnat, a restaurant on rue de Chanoinesse, but the place ended up being closed. Boo. But I did enjoy walking through a street that was somehow entirely free of tourists. =)
Anyway, we ended up lunching at the Cafe Quasimodo, and I ordered a hamburger with frites. When the hamburger arrived, it was just the meat patty, lettuce and tomato - no bun. I'm not sure if this is a french thing or something, but I thought it was hilarious and pretty perfect since I hate hamburger buns. It's protein-style at In-N-Out for me. After I ate my hamburger steak, we headed next door to Notre Dame Cathedral.
The Cathedral offers candles that you can light...
After we walked around the Cathedral, we took the long way back to the hotel via the Marais district, which is the oldest part of Paris. But I'll get to that tomorrow - this is already a super long post!
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