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| Notre Dame |
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| St. Denis holding his head...see story below |
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| once again, love the gargoyles. The ones on Notre Dame are my favorites |
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| The spot on the ground outside of Notre Dame where all distances from Paris are measured. |
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| Notre Dame from the back |
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| our love lock...awwww |
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| attaching our lock to the bridge |
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| celebrating 27 years in May |
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| sealed with a kiss |
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| attaching their lock |
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| sealed with a kiss |
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| Our love locks |
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| this is only one side of the bridge! |
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| french cheese |
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| my favorite ice cream |
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| Andy with his Berthillon ice cream reward for LOTS of stairs today! |
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| love this metro station design |
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| Musee d'Orsay |
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| our dinner spot |
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| these drawings along the wall were quite bizarre |
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| radishes and butter instead of bread...interesting |
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| escargot |
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| and they thought it was delicious! |
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| steak and macaroni and cheese with Burgundy sauce |
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| magret de canard (duck breast) |
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| melting center chocolate cake...divine |
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| pistachio and chocolate pastry |
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| chocolate mousse with orange sauce |
Notre Dame was beautiful and they still allow photos inside although
only without a flash. The "flash police" descended quickly upon anyone
who used one. Here is the story of St. Denis, depicted on the left portal of Notre Dame. It is not John the Baptist as I once thought. "Saint
Denis, the first bishop of Paris, met his death around 273 A.D.,
almost two millennia ago. The Romans, who then occupied Paris, already
had their hands full in fighting off barbarian hordes when this
charismatic Christian arrived on the scene. According to legend, Roman
soldiers tortured Denis near the present site of Notre-Dame and then
decapitated him on the slopes of Montmartre. Then—still according to
legend—the martyred saint astonished one and all by picking up his head
and walking northward almost four miles until he collapsed on the site
now marked by the cathedral (formerly the abbey church) that bears his
name. No matter that the legend was created centuries afterwards,
probably by the monks of Saint-Denis. It gave their abbey and their
founder a special aura, and Denis—whose torture and martyrdom were
doubtless real enough, if not so fanciful—went on to gain a special
prominence among French saints. His abbey church became the traditional
burial place for French royalty, and his legend continued through the
centuries. Which is why, on the portal of Notre-Dame or wherever you see
him depicted, he is the saint who patiently holds his head in his
hands." Interesting story don't you think. Anyway, because we were celebrating anniversaries, Andy had asked for something romantic to do and we decided to "lock our love" onto the Pont de
l'Archevêché..which is the bridge behind Notre Dame. The tradition is to
attach a lock onto the bridge, kiss your love and throw the key into
the Seine. Our locks are on the 10th post from Notre Dame on the bottom
just in case you happen by and want to check them out. There was a street musician playing near us which only added to the ambience. We had a lot of giggling during the whole procedure. We were tired
from walking and doing the stairs up from the metro so we stopped
at Berthillon for ice cream. The ice cream is very famous in Paris and only served on
and near Isle St Louis. It was the perfect rest stop before we went to
Musee d'Orsay, the Impressionist museum and one of my favorites
anywhere. We saw Monet, Manet, Pissaro, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir
and many more. The last time I was there, the top floor was under
renovation and we couldn't find anything that we were looking for because the exhibits had all been mixed up. It is
all complete now and beautiful. One of my favorite spots in the museum
is the giant clock where you can look out at Sacre Cour and Opera. We
had dinner last night at Roger Grenouille whose specialty is frog legs.
We didn't have any, but Andy said he wanted to try them if he ever got
back to Paris. Andy and Danny had escargot (snails) instead and said
they were very good. Our waiter was very entertaining and tried to speak
English with us as we tried to speak French back to him. It was sooo
funny. Andy told him about the bomb threat and he was amazed! He said it
was not on the news! He had no idea where Louisiana was which really surprised Laurie. He thought it was near North Carolina? Laurie said surely he knew that Louisiana was founded by the french and he should know where it is. Well he didn't, but we had fun telling him where it was. Danny and I spent the rest of the evening packing for the trip home and figuring out where in the world I'm going to put all of my mustard! We are sad to leave and wish we had just
one more day, but we have had so much fun and enjoyed our time together
and with our friends. Until the next trip!
