Started the day by forgetting our camera, but it all got better from there. We started by visiting the bird market on Ile de la Cite. Ruby had a great time, petting rabbits and examining birds. Every two seconds, she asked if we could take one home. Thank goodness for quarantine laws.
She was appeased by that excuse, but announced that when she had saved enough money, she was buying a little dog just like all the French have. We see little dogs everywhere: on the subway, in the cafes, on the promenade in front of our hotel. And really, they are cute. Why do they seem so lame back at home?
From the bird market, we went to the Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette spent her last days before having her head lopped off. Her cell is re-created, with the queen sitting peacefully at her desk. Really, it seems pretty comfortable. Not so for the poor schmuck sleeping on the straw on the stone floor upstairs. Prisoners apparently paid for their accommodations. There was also a special room where the prisoners’ heads were shaved and their shirt collars ripped off. Didn’t want to dull that guillotine blade.
Just a couple of blocks away is Notre Dame. We found St. Denis carrying his head on the front of the church, as well as the angels and demons weighing the souls of the dead, and one poor sinner who is diving headfirst in a boiling cauldron. Eagle-eyed Ruby spotted a statue of St. Joan of Arc inside. We dropped in a coin and Ruby lighted a candle there. We planned to climb the tower to get a better look at the gargoyles, but the line was too long. And in true Barrett fashion, I wanted to race to two more museums before my two-day pass expired and I had to pay to enter.
We quickly hit the Cluny to see the unicorn tapestries – a series of six medieval tapestries showing a lady, her maid servant, a lion and a unicorn in various scenes, surrounded by flowers and cute little forest creatures. Very cool. We spotted the five dedicated to the senses: smell, sight, taste, touch and hearing. The last one is mysterious. It’s dubbed “A Mon Seul Desir,” “To My Sole Desire.” One interpretation is that she is renouncing the worldly pleasures she experienced in the previous five panels. I think that one kind of sucks. Especially here, in pleasure-driven Paris. Everyone is eating, drinking, laughing. Ruby has certainly gotten an eyeful of necking. Couples are making out everywhere! How have I not noticed this in Paris before?
Then I quickly dragged Ruby over to the Orangerie to see the Monet water lilies, displayed in the oval rooms Monet had imagined for them. So beautif . . . Oh wait, the museum is closing – five minutes after we walked in.
About this time, Ruby began complaining about her feet aching. So naturally, we began the two-hour walk from the Louvre, up the Champs Elysee, to the Arc de Triomphe. I stuffed her mouth with a sugar and butter crepe a quarter of the way there to keep her happy and quiet. A kindly elevator operator took pity on Ruby’s “mal pied” (“bad feet”; it was the best I could do in French), and whisked us to the top. The view was incredible: Eiffel Tower sparkling, the Champs Elysee aglow, the other streets radiating out like a star. Amazing. Well worth the blisters.
Just wish we had a camera.
No comments:
Post a Comment