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Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Last Day in Paris; Rodin Museum and the Tomb of Napolean Bonaparte


Today is our last day in Paris and our last day in Europe. Tomorrow we fly home to New York, and the next day, home to Tennessee. It has been a fabulous trip, and my brain is overloaded, and confused, trying to remember everything we did, and everywhere we went.

Today is easy; We went to the Rodin Museum. There was some sort of demonstrations going on when we got there, so there were police blocking off all of the roads. Fortunately, we were able to reach the entrance to the Museum, from a side street.

We spent a lot of time in the gardens, viewing "The Gates of Hell", "The Thinker", "Adam and Eve", "The Burghers of Calais", and "Balzac", just to name a few. It was awesome to see so many of Auguste Rodin's (1840-1917) pieces in one place.













It was a great "last day" jaunt, as it is not too large, so we were able to just enjoy an easy stroll.
Afterward, we went to the Tomb of Napolean Bonaparte. That was quite an amazing, and absolutely stunning building, with a lovely garden outside. We did not go through all of the military museums but did view the Dome des Invalides, and Napolean's tomb, along with other shrines of France's leading military figures.







Interestingly enough, Napolean is encased in five coffins, inside a sarcophagus, made of purple quartzite. According to google; it looked like wood, of some sort to me. The coffins began with a tin casket, lined with white quilted satin, soldered shut, which was put inside a mahogany casket, which was screwed shut. These were then placed inside a lead casket that was soldered shut, and then another lead casket, and put into another mahogany or ebony casket, sealed with silver-headed irons screws.

These were then placed inside the sarcophagus. It looks like they wanted to make certain that he stayed put! (or so the story goes)

The domes, the flooring, and the sculptures were all amazing, and I am glad that we took the time to see the Dome des Invalides.



 
As we left, we walked through the garden, which surprisingly still had flowers in bloom. There were beautiful.




A quick metro back towards the hotel, and we could not resist stopping for a profiterole and beer, sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower! This was at 5 pm, so I guess it will be another sandwich from Alfi's, for dinner tonight.




Time to pack and get ready to head to the states!

Night y'all!

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Email: CMLMichele59@gmail.com

Monday, September 19, 2022

Slow Day in Paris: Or So We Thought!


Today, after another slow start, we decided to walk up to the Acr d'Triumphe, which is probably a ten-minute walk from our hotel, IF you turn the right way on the street you are looking for. Otherwise, it takes closer to an hour. UGH.

Once we turned around, after asking three people, we quickly found it but had we gone the correct direction, we would have missed this church; Saint-Honore d'Eylau Parish. It was a lovely little church with an art deco glass roof and a delightful blue ceiling. It was built as a temporary church, therefore is "poor in ornamentation", but I liked its' simplicity.




The Arc d' Triomphe is HUGE! We did not go inside, but standing next to it is impressive, and the design on the outside of the building made it worth the effort it took to get there.



I figured that since we were so close to Champs-Elysees, we should at least take a stroll and see what all of the fuss is about. I suppose that since I am not much of a shopper, I was not all that impressed.

We did stop and have lunch, at  Bistro des Champs, the burger was pretty good, some French Onion soup that was very good, and a 1664 beer, which was not 1664, no matter what the bartender said. The wait staff sucked, but the atmosphere wasn't bad.




Afterward, refueled, we hit the metro and headed to Notre Dame. It was sad to see it surrounded by scaffolding, and to view the photos of the fire, surrounding it, creating barriers.








I hope that someday it will be restored, and again open to visitors. I am grateful that we were able to visit it before the fire, on one of our previous trips.

After meandering around for a while, we stumbled upon the L'Hotel de Ville, aka City Hall; what an amazing building! It dates back as far as 1535 and is of Renaissance Revival and French Renaissance architecture.





It was kinda cool to see the Olympic Rings displayed in front of the City Hall since Paris is hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics.
 
A quick walk over to The Fountaine of St. Michel, and then we were back on the metro "home." I was so doggone tired that I took a shower and was in my jammies by 6 pm!




Joe went out to get food at 9 pm, and came back with a pastrami sandwich and two pickles from a deli named Alfi Nouvelle Tradition's; it was the best pastrami sandwich I have ever had.



Life is good, I am tired, three more sleeps and we will be home!

Night y'all!

FaceBook: CML: A Place for Hope and Humor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmlmichele

Email: CMLMichele59@gmail.com


Bricks for the Brave!!