Monday, May 6
Wow!  another very busy day.  Dave says that I like to see things off the beaten path.  He may be right, I don't like the crowds, but I have wanted to come here for so long that I know what I want to see.  The whole time we have been in France I have taken him to interesting places... the path less traveled, I say.  Anyway...
 
We started off the day in the Latin Quarter.  After walking a bit to get a feel for this part of the city, we went to the National Museum of the Middle Ages.  This museum is built around some of the ancient ruins of thermal baths from the 1st century (unfortunately, that part of the museum was undergoing renovation, so we could only see them from afar) and a gothic chapel from the 15th century.  The highlights of the museum included some Alabaster plaques from Nottingham (can you say Robin Hood?), and a series of tapestries called the Lady and the Unicorn from the 15th century which were in really good condition.  Dave's favorite part was the 15th century Waffle Irons.
 
From the museum we walked over to the Church Saint Suplice.  This church was built in a different style from the other churches we have been in.  The ceiling arches were much more subtle.  There are some beautiful murals by Delacroix inside.  From the square in the front of the church, we got a good view of the huge facade.  Michael enjoyed chasing the pigeons in the square.
 
Our next stop was the Luxembourg Gardens.  The boys got to play in the sand pits until it started to sprinkle on us.  Fortunately, it didn't do anything more than sprinkle.  We enjoyed wandering around the gardens and stopped outside the senate building.
 
On the way to Ile-de-Cite, Andrew found time to play on a playground for a little while.  Then we crossed over the river, to look at Pont Neuf (translated: new bridge), the oldest bridge in Paris.  It is very pretty, and currently undergoing a much needed cleaning.
 
Then we were off for a tour of the Conciergerie.  This was the last stop for prisoners before they met the Guillotine.  We saw some of the cells (if you could afford it, you could buy a bed and better food), the cell of Marie Antoinette (very small and not very private), and the chapel built for the king and sister of the king.  It was a very chilling place as over 2,700 people spent time here on their way to the guillotine.
 
We walked past the Palais de Justice (court house) on our way to see Saint Chapelle.  We had to pass through a metal detector to see the chapel as the courts are built around it.  When I had gone through the detector and was retrieving my bag (diaper bag/purse) from the x-ray machine, the guard asked to see my bag.  I was surprised but got it out to show him.  He showed me what he thought was the problem.  I knew exactly what it was.  A matchbox car in the bottom of the bag for Michael to play with at restaurants.  The guards were quite amused by this and were calling to other guards to see the x-ray of Michael's car.  How funny!!
 
We did eventually get into the lower chapel of Saint Chapelle.  It is very pretty, with a few stained glass windows and lots of painted walls.  This was the place where the "commoners" were allowed to worship.  We then took a winding stair up to the King's chapel.  WOW!!  The stained glass here is amazing.  The windows are about twice the size of any we have seen so far.  The really amazing thing is that the lower windows were removed and lost when the state used this chapel for storage!!  These windows are beautiful.  The best part is that the sun came out while we were there.  Michael had fun chasing the colored spots of sun on the floor.
 
Then we were off to Notre Dame.  It is very large and impressive.  The rose windows were as pretty as we had heard and there were some interesting sculptures on the choir stalls depicting the life of Christ.  But most interesting to us was the relics museum.  We were the last people in before it closed.  We saw many things from the early history of the church and relics of many saints.  But we also saw THE Crown of Thorns (actually the container holding it) and a NAIL from the Cross.  WOW!!  It really is amazing the things that we have seen the last few days (and months).
 
Since it had been a long day for the boys, we opted out of the trip up to the bell towers and instead went to a garden behind the cathedral where we visited the Deportation Memorial.  This is an underground crypt built in remembrance of the 200,000 French victims of Nazi Concentration Camps.  This was a very moving memorial.  There were two mock gas chambers and a hallway with 200,000 small lights to give you an idea of how many people that really was.
 
We then headed across the Ile St-Louis to the Metro for a ride back to the hotel.  We ate dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant (we have had take out pizza from there twice all ready) and were all in bed as soon as we could.  The next few days are going to be tiring.  We need all the sleep we can get.