Ile de la Cité and Ile St Louis

Wednesday, May 22

Ok Peeps, we took the BUS this morning to Ile de la Cité.  We rode past the park where the oldest tree in Paris still lives which is next to Shakespeare & Company bookstore.  The bus turned onto Boule Miche (Boulevard St Michel) and got off at the Palais de Justice.  We passed another water fountain that I had not catalogued before, and alas, no photo record.  Within the confines of Palais de Justice is Sainte Chapelle, the chapel that Louis IX, St Louis, (yes, St. Louis friends, our city is named for Louis IX, whose statue is also in front of our St. Louis Art Museum), built in which to display his holy relics, especially the Crown of Thorns.  The Crown of Thorns is currently in the Treasury of Cathédral de Notre Dame de Paris.  Sainte Chapelle is currently being cleaned.

East of Sainte Chapelle and Palais de Justice is the Marché des Fleurs.  It is such a pleasure to walk through the flower displays, and you just want to take some home!  The hydrangeas are absolutely gorgeous and far bigger and a variety in color than I have seen at home or elsewhere.  I find some red poppy seeds and buy a homemade birdhouse. 

Mom and Tom take their time viewing the orchids while I go in search of these specially treated tablecloths from Provence.

We make our way to view Notre Dame, the scene of a tragic incident the day before.  I stop to record the playing of the recently installed new bells. Notre Dame has recently undergone the cleaning process, and it is so nice to see the cathedral without scaffolding obscuring this magnificent building.

 For lunch, we visit another favorite restaurant Au Tours de Notre Dame.  The waiter tries to seat us deep inside the restaurant, but I insist on a seat in front the of the windows.  Across the street is a line of people waiting to climb Notre Dame’s Towers to visit Quasimodo.  My niece Jessica and I climbed the Towers 4 years ago, so I can say that I have done it!  It is quite a view, and you can see the gargoyles up close and personal.  This time, instead, I use the zoom on my camera to catch a couple.

Statue of Charlemagne

After lunch, I tour the shops across from Notre Dame, in search of scarves my sisters have requested.  I am not very successful, however.

We stroll over to Ile St Louis where sculptor Camille Claudel lived, and I am in search of a store in which my sister Dana has bought some hand-painted Ricard bottles.  I had hoped to surprise her wit h a new one; however, it seems the store is now gone, and she will have to be surprised with something else!

Across Ponte St. Marie, we find a metro to take us back to our neighborhood and a neighborhood boulangerie for une baguette, quatres croissants, et trois pain au chocolate for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Back at the apartment, we discover yet another incident we, probably thankfully, missed at Notre Dame:

To denounce "fascism", a feminist activist FEMEN, topless, the barrel of a toy gun down in the mouth, mimicked a suicide, Wednesday, May 22, in the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, precisely where before, Dominique Venner, a right-wing intellectual is given death. The communication operation lasted only a few minutes. Then the young activist joined the exit before being intercepted by security agents of the cathedral.They handed the woman the police remained outside the site. After this incident, the cathedral was closed fifteen minutes. Already in February, activists of FEMEN had invested Notre Dame had already exhibited to celebrate the renunciation of Pope Benedict XVI at his papal office.

“Notre-Dame de Paris:  a Mime FEMEN Suicide Dominique Venner.” Le Monde 22 May 2013. Web. 23

May 2013.  <http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/video/2013/05/22/notre-dame-de-paris-une-femen-

mime-le-suicide-de-dominique-venner_3415577_3224.html>.