Gypsies, tramps and thieves (Paris)

Paris: the Pantheon and Sainte Chapelle

Not such a funny post today, so I'll begin with the funniest bits.

Stupid question of the day:  In the crypt beneath the Pantheon. "Oh, Marie Curie." Snap goes the camera.  "Who's that?" her friend asks.  "I don't know" came the response.  Seriously?  As Cait would say, add your own nationality of prejudice (but it is the same as yesterday, LOL).

Random fashion statement of the day: The nanna walking her blade scooter through the afternoon Paris pedestrian traffic.  Sorry, no photo.

Then there were these two:

Matching your hair with your handbag ... priceless.

Not just socks and sandals, PINK socks.

Another beautiful Paris summer day.  Cloudless blue skies and sunshine.  Cait's friends were arriving today, so Jayne and I set out on our own this morning.  Ignoring the metro, we decided to go on foot down toward the Ile de la Cite.  The Rue du Temple is the jewellery strip.  Every second store sells jewellery, some fine and radically expensive, while others were just massive bling outlets.

Our destination for the morning was Sainte Chapelle, a church not far from Notre Dame.  Disappointingly, when we arrived, there was a queue.  Still suffering trauma from the L'Arc queue, there was no way I was lining up again.  We continued on to the second destination, the Pantheon.  It wasn't much further to walk, but it gave Jayne ample time to pay out on me about refusing to line up.  "What are you going to do if there is a queue at the Pantheon?  Just keep doing laps of Paris tourist attractions until you find one without a queue?"  No need to worry, we arrived there before the crowds.

The Pantheon

A former basilica that is now a museum, the architecture is magnificent, soaring domed vaults with intricate patterns, massive corinthian columns, patterned tile floors and a crypt.  Inside there were paintings  on canvas that were commissioned to cover up former windows, a mixture of the stories of saints and kings.  There were also sculptures that reflected particular periods of French history.

I love the French propensity to destroy a view.
Let's put the ticket office in front of the painting!

The vaulted ceiling. Each square is a rose.

Another sculpture where the artist has said, "OK girls, tops off".

The crypt contained the remains of many famous French people, some of whom I thought we'd spotted places for at Pere Lachaise earlier in the week.

Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas

Marie Curie

The Pantheon completed, we commenced our walk back towards Sainte Chapelle.  As usual, we decided to take a slightly different route and in doing so discovered the best shop ever.  There we were staring in the window at a range of wands from Harry Potter, above which were swords from The Lord of the Rings.  Star Wars, Superman, dolls of Astro Boy (Prince Planet was way cooler btw), this was nerd city.  Did we go in?  Did we what!  Inside there were T-shirts and caps with your favourite super hero emblem, there were CDs, comics, models, you name it they had it.  Yes, I said comics. I thought I was trapped in an episode of Big Bang Theory.  Money wasted, I mean, purchases made, we continued on our merry way, wand in backpack.  Don't mess with me now, I'm packing some serious heat.

Around another corner we stumbled into a series of little cobble-stoned lanes filled with shops and restaurants.  I'll be back here to explore more closely in 2014 or 2015.  All this excitement was too much, so we paused for a refreshment break.  I still haven't had a bad coffee.  Then onwards to Sainte Chapelle.

Yes, there was still a queue.  Decision time.  Line up with the plebs.  Not happy.  Interestingly, the length of the line never really varied.  As we turned the corner to go inside, it was about the same length as when we joined it.  Inside, not to purchase tickets, but to go through a metal detector.  All pockets to be emptied, it was like an airport.  Sainte Chapelle is now in the same complex as the Palais du Justice - the courts of Paris, so not all of those waiting inside were there for good reason.

The church itself has two levels, the ground floor is the poor people's church and upstairs was where the royalty and privileged hung about.  The windows!  The photos can't possibly do them justice.  They depict scenes from the bible and they grace every wall.  A pity some were closed for restoration, but it was absolutely amazing.  We had our audio-guides, so we scored a run down of what the windows were depicting, even if the specific section was too high off the ground for us to see clearly.

The apse of the church

The ceiling

Part of the rose window

Following Sainte Chapelle we visited the Conciergerie.  A nice name for the building that housed criminals and those awaiting execution, including Marie-Antoinette.  It was a tad challenging to find, although we purchased the tickets at the same time, you needed to return to the street and walk about 50 metres to the next entrance.

Part of the list of the executed.

Marie-Antoinette's last days.

You should have come with us Cait!

Back into the 21st century we commenced our walk to the Tourism Office to purchase some tickets for the kids to go to the Louvre on Saturday.  We didn't get to the corner before the gypsy kids were on us with their 'petitions' to raise funds for a school for the hearing impaired or visually impaired.  I don't read them anymore.  Hand up and non.  We were waiting to cross the road when the gypsy kids flew past us at pace, it was like being caught in flock of seagulls as they took off.  Scrambling across the road they went through the traffic.  I turned around and saw a gendarme walking across the street towards where they had been 'collecting for charity'.  And that episode spawned today's title.

Not much else to report.  We walked into the Tourism Office and straight to the counter - that has never happened before.  We caught the metro to an area beyond Republique in search of another cave that sells Larmandier-Bernier and then walked home.

We went out for dinner as Cait, Steph and Stuart arrived.  Our paths did not cross until after dinner as they were about to leave for the Moulin Rouge.  They had a great day too.  Tomorrow we are heading for the Musee D'Orsay and dinner at Jules Verne in the tower.

Until then dear reader, a bientot.