Days Three & Four

*So, I totally fell down on this blog, but I had started this post, so I will post it to share the pix. 

Day Three in Gay Paris (oh, a rhyme!), I headed out to do hit the touristy sites St. Chapelle and the Louvre. I had been to both before, and I should have stuck to my plan to visit places I had not been before, because both places were insanely crowded. The line at St. Chapelle took almost an hour to get through, even though I had a ticket that was supposedly a skip-the-line ticket. I am not a patient person, and I was most unhappy. Getting inside proved to be not much better -- there were so many people, I couldn't really enjoy it. It's difficult to really appreciate the antiquity and beauty of the stained glass with people running around like complete maniacs, yelling at their screaming children, and posing like idiots at every turn. And why do tourists push and run everywhere? This stuff has been there for hundreds of years, sometimes thousands, and none of it is going anywhere! Still, the spectacle of the stain glass is pretty amazing, especially when you consider the age -- it was built in the 1200s, which completely blows my mind. The windows tell a biblical story, and there are relics in the church (I think), but I got in and out because of the crowd. I did get some pix, though, so here you go.

Day Four, it rained, so I spent the day exploring some covered passageways, which are really nothing more than covered alleyways with shops. I chose a couple in the Grand Boulevards area, a busy shopping street that didn't have a lot of charm, if I'm honest. I did find a lovely patisserie, called Valentin's, a cute little toy shop, and an amazing shop that specialized in umbrellas and canes. Like, $1000 handmade umbrellas and antique canes with little signs that said, "Price upon request." I also wandered through Canal St. Martin during a lull, and then I headed over to Pere Lachaise cemetery. 

I missed the cemetery on my first trip and was quite sad about it, and an overcast, damp day seemed like the perfect day to visit. The attendant was absolutely lovely to me. I got there late in the day, so he took the time to direct me to the couple of graves I was interested in, and told me about an exit in the back that would keep me from having to walk all the way back to the front of the cemetery to leave.

Which was great, because the cemetery is HUGE. I have visited villages that are smaller. If not for the crypts, one might easily mistake it for a medieval town, with its wide, cobblestone streets and central roundabout.