Our Blog - Paris 2015 - Day 2
Day 2 started with a trip down to near Ecole Militaire. One of the reasons that we went to Paris (other than it is just Paris!) is that I had signed up to run in the La Parisienne, which is an annual 6.7k women's-only run "around the Eiffel Tower". Not literally around the Eiffel Tower .... you start on one side of the Seine near Trocadero, run along the river, run across a bridge to the left bank of the river, up across in front of the Eiffel tower, and you end up in the Champs de Mars. There are tons of events throughout the year related to this with coaching and group training and it is all about women's health and fitness. There is a village setup with a couple different stages where they do things like teach Indian dancing, and a lot of vendors have tents there with information and product samples. I had to pick up my race packet that morning and so we grabbed a few pictures (among the raindrops) of the area.
From there, we headed over towards Notre Dame for lunch at a little crepe place called little Breizh (little being a key word here). There were probably only 10 tables, but was really interesting inside with the stone wall and wood beams.
In Brittany, crepes are traditionally served with cider which tastes a little like apple beer to me! But of course, when we do crepes ... we do cider! They serve it in these little bowls instead of glasses .. very typical. Tom went with a salmon crepe with a little dill cream sauce on the side, and I went with a more "typical" ham, cheese, and egg crepe. These are savory crepes (sometimes called a galette) which is made with buckwheat flour, which gives it the brown color. Then for dessert, we shared a salted caramel sweet crepe. You can see a difference in the color of the crepe itself, as the sweet crepes are made with a different type of flour.
We then made it over to Notre Dame (officially Notre Dame de Paris, or Our Lady of Paris). Yes, we've been there many, many times, but Tom had actually never done the English language guided tour. So this time we specifically put that on the itinerary. The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, and it is among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world. We are always amazed when we go inside and look up to the ribbed vaults on the ceiling and the amazing gothic arches.
The guided tour focused mostly on areas of the church that you cannot normally visit, namely the choir area. On the exterior of the choir, they have these great sculptures which tell various stories from the bible.
We didn't do very good at getting the rose windows this time ... sorry. Notre Dame has 3 rose windows: West, North, and South. The West rose window is the smallest but also the oldest, dating back to 1225. The main theme of the West rose is human life, featuring symbolic scenes such as the Zodiacs and Labors of the Months. Unfortunately, the interior view of its colorful medieval glass is now more than half blocked by the great organ. The North and South Rose Windows date from between 1250 and 1260. The first is the South Rose window and the 2nd is the North rose window.
The south rose window was donated by King St. Louis and installed around 1260. Designed by Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreuil, its general themes are the New Testament, the Triumph of Christ, and the symbolic number four. It contains 84 panes of glass. Radiating out from a central medallion of Christ, it consists of four concentric circles of 12 medallions, 24 medallions, quadrilobes, and 24 trilobes. In the first and second circles from the central medallion are 12 apostles. The 4th circle contains 20 angels carrying a candle, two crowns. The 3rd and 4th circles contain biblical scenes including the flight into Egypt, healing of the paralytic, Judgement of Solomon, and Annunciation as well as scenes depicting the Life of St. Matthew. The corner pieces depict: the Descent into Hell (left) with Moses and Aaron (top) and temptation of Adam and Eve (bottom); and the Resurrection of Christ (right) with Peter and Paul (top), and Mary Magdalene and John (top).
Below the rose are 16 spear-shaped windows (replaced in the 19th-century) which depict 16 prophets. In the center, the four great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel) carry the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) on their shoulders.
The north rose window dates from 1250 and its main theme is the Old Testament. while the central medallion depicts the Virgin and Child.
This is the central portal on the West side and it depicts the Last Judgement (sometimes called the Portal of the Last Judgement). The original works date from around 1230. The main scene is Christ with the Virgin Mary and St John on either side of him. Below this is St. Michael weighing the souls of the resurrected dead. Those on the left have been redeemed while those on the right are being led away by demons. Finally, at the bottom the dead are rising from their graves while angels sound trumpets.
A few pictures showing this West facade from the large courtyard. The rose that you see above the Central portal is the smaller (and now 1/2 hidden) West rose.
Last stop for the day was dinner at Bistro Paul Bert with a Parisienne friend of ours. It was a pretty typical French bistro with white table linens and the menu written on a chalkboard. Manu and I were having a good time in front with Manu somewhat making fun of Tom attempting to take pictures!
Tom went "wild" and ordered the house terrine (I say wild because he has always said he doesn't like terrines, which is somewhat like a cold meatloaf made up of coarsely chopped ingredients). Interestingly enough, he actually LIKED it!
I went with a swordfish tartare with a lemon butter. This from the person who used to not like sushi because it had raw fish in it .. go figure!
Our friend, Manu, got the deep-fried whiting (fish) appetizer with home-made tartar sauce.
For the main course, Tom went with lamb shoulder with mixed vegetables. Since I don't like lamb, Tom tends to order it in restaurants when he gets the chance.
Manu and I both got the same main course, which was a pan fried sole with steamed potatoes. I'm not a big fan of having to pick fish bones out of my dinner, but once I got them all out, it was really good.
You'll start seeing a trend here ... we get dessert almost every meal while we are in France on vacations. Tom went healthy (boo) and got the fresh peach and strawberry salad with sparkling wine. The fruit case out first and then they poured the sparkling wine over the top.
Everybody will be able to guess who got this one .. I'm somewhat addicted to lemon tarts. This was a very traditional tart with a thin crust and lots of ooey-gooey lemony goodness inside.
Manu got the raspberry macaroon and we all about fell off our chairs when it came .. it was HUGE!! Lots of raspberry cream filling with fresh raspberries.
Go to Day 3