Day 21 Report

This morning we took the Metro to Porte de Clignancourt, which is at the end of one of the lines. The area is where Paris' largest flea market is situated. Well actually it seems to be like clusters of different kinds of flea markets. The trip was Denise's suggestion (well the rest of the day was my plan anyway).

Although the place is supposed to open around 8 or 9 a.m., many stalls remained closed till 10 or 11 a.m. at least. We ended up spending most of our time in the Porte Dauphine market, which is the antiques market. The market was located in a brick building with green railings and a glass roof - it basically looked like the sort of place I'd expect an antiques market to be located. :P

The double-storey market was full of small shops selling antique books, prints, paintings, furniture, cameras and decorative items, as well as vintage clothes and shoes and bags. We spent a very long time at an antique bookstore browsing through old fashion magazines from the late 19th century to the 1960s (I bought three - from the 1920s to the 1930s). Then we went upstairs, which was mostly full of more antique bookstores. I got a thin kids' book on ancient French history (€2) and then I found a copy of The Rire ("The Laugh" - the magazine I bought at the antique market in Brest) from 1902 featuring the birth of Alexei (i.e. Anastasia's younger brother) and OF COURSE I had to buy that too. :P

We left Porte de Clignancourt at noon for Cluny La Sorbonne, where we got to kill two birds with one stone - Denise wanted to have lunch at a cheap restaurant recommended in her guidebook, and I wanted to visit the Musée National du Moyen Âge (the National Museum of the Middles Ages, also known as the Musée de Cluny).

We found a map and tried to find the road where the restaurant was located, and somehow we managed to walk down the whole long street before turning around and returning to the map...and realising that the road we wanted was RIGHT ACROSS FROM THE MAP. :P

Rue de la Harpe was a nice small street crammed with little restaurants. We got outdoor seats at La Petite Hostellerie and ordered from the set menu - an appetiser, a main course and a dessert for only €10.90. I had French onion soup, a fish filet with mushroom cream sauce, and the tarte du jour ("tart of the day", which was apple today). The food was good, but the onion soup was in a league by itself.

After lunch we headed back across the road to the museum, where we bought two 4-day Paris Museum Passes at the front desk.

My main purpose for visiting the museum was to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, but I didn't know where they were so we ended up wandering through the whole (relatively small, thankfully) museum.

There were lots of religious artefacts and tapestries on display (in fact the museum smelt of tapestries), and all descriptions were in French.

The room containing the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries was located at the end of the second floor. The room was circular and dark and extremely quiet although there were many people inside. On one side of the wall hung the first five tapestries of the series, each depicting one of the five senses (mouseover the pictures to find out which one is which). The other side of the wall was dominated by the sixth and most famous tapestry in the series, known as À Mon Seul Desir ("(To) My Only Desire", although it has a slightly different meaning in medieval French) from the words on the tent. The tapestries were all much larger than I had expected.

We headed downstairs after that, where there were lots of sculptures, before stumbling upon the giftshop. There were lots of (French) books on sale, although most of the other merchandise had the Lady and the Unicorn designs. I would've liked to get one of those woven cushion covers, but they were insanely expensive. And it's not like I have a cushion to put into it. :P I would've also liked to get the book on the tapestries, but it was also expensive (it cost more than the museum guidebook, which was already too expensive for my liking). In the end I settled for postcards of each of the tapestries, a bigger reproduction of À Mon Seul Desir, and two cardboard leaflets - one on the tapestries and one with a chronology of the Kings of France.

We left after that and crossed the Seine midway to the Île de la Cité, the island where the cathedral of Notre Dame is located. However, our first stop was at the other end of the island from the cathedral - namely, Sainte-Chapelle.

We had to go through a bag scan before entering the lower chapel. There was nothing much to see in the lower chapel (the giftshop took up everyone's attention).

Then we climbed the stairs up to the upper chapel, where most people gasped at their first glimpse of all the gold and stained-glass windows. There was a row chairs along the both lengths of the chapel, where people could sit and stare up at the windows. Anytime the noise level got too high, a security guard would come round and shush everyone.

After, erm, "stocking-up" at the giftshop, we walked across the island to Notre Dame. The square in front of the cathedral was swarming with people and there was a long queue to get into the building (well, entry is free and it's Sunday after all). We took pictures of the tower and the Point Zero in the middle of the square. The Point Zero marks the official centre of Paris and is also the point from which distances from and to Paris are calculated. It was incredibly hard to get even one good shot of the Point Zero, because every few seconds or so some tourist would jump onto it and ask their friend to take a picture of them, then they'd get off and their friend would jump onto it and ask them to take a picture and then the next friend would jump on and nobody ever seemed to care that there were people standing around it trying to get just ONE MEASLY PHOTO of the Point Zero. :P

The queue moved pretty fast and soon we were inside. Mass was about to start and there was organ music echoing in the cavernous interior, followed by some people singing. The sounds really added to the atmosphere of the cathedral. I didn't find the cathedral particularly interesting (having been inside just one year ago) but at least I got the time to walk around properly. There was a display on the building of the cathedral, with a scale replica of the building. There was also a doorway leading to the cathedral's treasury, but the entry fee isn't included in the Paris Museum Pass so we didn't go in. And then of course, I finally had time to use the vending machines near the cathedral entrance - one that dispensed little leaflets on the cathedral, and another that dispensed souvenir coins. I had already got the Sainte-Chapelle souvenir coin, so I added this to my collection.

We wanted to climb the cathedral towers (the entry fee is included in the pass, obviously) but we couldn't find the entrance. Besides, by the time we left the cathedral the towers (according to the handy guide included with the pass) had closed. UNFORTUNATELY, so had the Louvre, which meant that our plan to buy a museum guide first and plan tomorrow's trip failed.

We consoled ourselves by walking around the back of the cathedral and crossing to the Seine's other natural island, the Île Saint-Louis. The number-one thing to do on the island is to try the famous Berthillon ice cream, which is exactly what we did. Well it was exactly what we were there for anyway. :P

It was a hot evening and there was a long queue at the first shop we came across (they sell the ice cream all over the island). It was a long wait, but at least they had the available flavours listed on a board so we could plan ahead. The ice cream cost €3 for one scoop and €4.20 for two, so unsurprisingly everyone left the shop with a double scoop.

We finally got our ice cream - I chose Chocolat Noir (dark chocolate) and Caramel Beurre Salé (caramel salted butter) - and went across the small road to sit on the low wall overlooking the Seine.

Needless to say, the ice cream was superb. The dark chocolate was incredibly rich and thick and not bitter at all, whilst the caramel salted butter was unique (in a very positive way), with sweet and salty fighting a constant battle for dominance.

After our nice little ice cream break came the last - and most tiring - part of our day: walking to the Arc de Triomphe. The walk already looks far enough on the map! Just walking along the Seine to the Louvre (and we were hurrying) took a good half an hour.

We stopped in Louvre compound to take some pictures, before proceeding through the Tuileries garden to the Place de la Concorde and up the Champs Elysées. Like I mentioned before, this weekend is the Fête de la Musique and there were musical performances going on all over central Paris. It took at least another hour to walk from the Louvre up to the roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe. We went through the underpass and emerged right under the monument.

If you've ever wondered what is under the Arc de Triomphe, now you will find out. There are a few plaques on the ground commemorating French soldiers who died in certain wars (like the Vietnam and Korean wars), as well as commemorating key events in French history like the proclamation of the French Republic and the return of the territories of Alsace and Lorraine (of which I have read enough of in EU1101E!). But taking centrestage is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with its eternal flame.

Next we climbed the endless spiral stairs up to a room containing both an exhibition on the Arc and a (yay!) giftshop, where I got my third souvenir coin of the day.

And then it was up again, to the roof. There were metal bars all around the perimeter of the rooftop, and they were vibrating violently in the wind. Nonetheless, we had a good view of the wide boulevards of Paris, as well as the Eiffel Tower and the Sacré-Cœur basilica on Montmarte.

Finally, we left the Arc de Triomphe and crossed the underpass back to the Champs Elysées where, thankfully, the nearest Metro station was only a few metres away.