Day 7 – Water lilies, Walking, Stained Glass & our lock on the Pont Des Arts

(Hey out there, if you are reading this, please make comments…I love to write, AND I love to know what people think...bon ou mal…come on whatdaya think!)

Waking up we decide this will be our L’Orangerie day. We bought the tickets in conjunction with the D’Orsay and today is the last day they are good…but honestly, this is one of the crowning glories of Paris that I have wanted to see forever. The L’Orangerie is a building near the Place de la Concorde and within the Tuileries that is the site that Monet himself agreed should hold his absolutely massive water lily paintings. There is other art here as well, some fabulous Renoirs, early Picassos when he was still very representational, and Utrillo among others, but the top floor is two extra large, egg-shaped rooms with low ceilings and filtered natural light that each hold four canvases. To be with this work was a dream. To be able to see and study this master’s work was a privilege. And to be allowed to photograph it seemed a gift from Monet himself who was very egalitarian. I will post photos, I promise!

Dennis left the museum before me and found Rodin’s The Kiss, just outside the front doors and off to the left where we hadn’t seen it on our way in! Amazing statue. I remember seeing an interview in Time magazine with a wizened old man, perhaps 90, who had modeled for Rodin and this statue when he was in his 20’s. So cool to have your very best body immortalized! I think that’s what Brad Pitt said about one of his movies ;-)

So now, what to do? We decide to walk from Place de la Concorde in a direction we have never gone. We walked along the banks of the Seine for miles – buying one little painting on copper from an outdoor kiosk – until we reached the Trocadero across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. What a HUGE building, but we are learning everything here seems to be on growth hormones. Honestly, many of these sites/sights will not fit in my most wide-angle camera setting!

We stopped to have a bite before climbing up to the Trocadero itself. I had the most amazing cheese crepe from a little vendor and Dennis had a “hotdog” that had some edible sleeve on the outside that was red! It was wearing a baguette condom into which hot mustard had been squeezed. When he got to the bottom of the sausage, I got to enjoy just the bread and hot mustard part. Yum!

Up on the Trocadero after taking more portraits of her majesty The Tower, we watch some very talented dancers of the crump, hip hop variety then decide to go back to the Ile de la Cite for supper.

As we arrive at the subway stop, I remember that there is another church here that I wanted to see – Ste. Chapelle. It is the church that was built to house relics of Christ’s passion – the crown of thorns, a piece of the cross, the Image of Edessa – that France purchased as they surfaced in the 1200’s – and others they acquired.

This place is like no other. We were there at an overcast time with little sun, but to be inside this church with the sun high must be like being inside a prism, since its walls are 90% of stained glass. It is breathtaking.

The lower chapel, literally “downstairs” is also heavily glassed and painted in the cover-everything-with-pattern-to-show-it-that-we-love-it style. They really loved it and it is oddly lovely to my taste.

Dennis is blown away by this church that he didn’t know was here. I had the fun of doing all the research and now he has the fun of being surprized occasionally. This is one of those times. And it makes him hungry.

We walk to the narrow streets of restaurants and Dennis enjoys a Greek pita with meat from a spit shaved into it. We decide to go to The Great Canadian Pub for a beer – thanks Justin for pointing it out in your pictures – funny part is, the only Canadian beer they have is Moosehead!

To wrap the day we walk to the Pont des Arts. I subscribe to Paris Daily Photo and a month or so ago Eric ran a photo of couple in love putting locks on the Pont des Arts, so we brought one from Victoria which I had inscribed with “Sharon and Dennis, Victoria, Canada – 60 years of life, 30 years of love.” After we hung it – two lampposts and 30 links in from the right bank on the Ile de la Cite side – we kissed deeply. Then we tried to take a photo of us and our lock and a lovely French person offered to take a picture of us both. We laughed and posed and told her – 30 years! She pointed at the man with her and said happily, “Three months.” We said it, “It starts with three months.”