Ile de la Cite and the Left Bank

So with time rapidly running out for our holiday, we are back in Paris catching a few of the things we didn’t quite get to in that first week we were here. We are staying in a quirky hotel in the Paris Hospital called Hotel Hospitel… coincidentally. We chose it mainly for it’s central location … right next to Notre Dame. Luckily… Quasimodo doesn’t start ringing the bells until 8 in the morning… very reasonable I think. Unlike the apartment, we don’t have cooking facilities … so it was out for a ‘Parisien’ breakfast….

We were early enough after breakfast to get into Notre dame before the queues started to build. We didn’t really have to worry too much as it was a drizzly day. Inside … the stained glass is amazing… although the cathedral itself is quite dark.

Then we went to ‘The Conciegerie’ which was essentiall a set of prison cells used for political prisoners during the ‘Reign of Terror’ after the French Revolution. Around 2800 people were executed in a 3 year period… and the holding cell you would be kept in was really determined by your wealth and social standing. They also had and interesting display on King Louis IX who led a crusade or two and became St Louis. He had a chapel built … which has the imaginative name for Saint Chappel. Parts of it are under restoration, but it is still rather spectacular… It was built in the 1200s.

After lunch we embarked on a ‘Left Bank’ walk … another one from the Paris Walks app. We started at the narrowest street in Paris… wandered through the Latin Quarter … which has lots of good cheaper eating (note for later) the to the Cluny Museum … which has an amazing collection of artifacts … mostly religious … but most interesting .. including some tapestries, painting and sculptures.

From there we walked up past Sorbonne University up to the Pantheon which is a magnificent building … but more importantly has a crypt where many famous French people are buried … Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Marie Curie … to name a few.

Dinner in the Latin Quarter … Snails and Confit Duck for me… Snails and Steak with Roquefort Sauce for Deb … and then back past Notre Dame for a good rest before one more full day…

Until tomorrow

Rob