From Tours to Paris

We woke up in Tours and ate the same breakfast that we had the day before. Pascal hosted breakfast again and is was just as delicious as last time. Then we went up to our hotel room and finished up the packing that we had started the night before. Then we took a Taki to the train station in Tours. We arrived an hour early and waited around for the train that would bring us to Paris. Somehow the train switched platforms and we did not realize it, so we waited at the platform that it was going to be on for about twenty minutes after our train had left before asking someone if the train was going to come. We then had to get on a train that would bring us to a station that would bring us to Paris. It ended up taking us about the same amount of time to get to Paris then if we were to catch the right train because we took the high-speed train after we had to wait and switch trains.


This is my first lunch in Paris. This is beef bourguignon, a classic French bistro lunch

baba had another classic french bistro meal, French onion soup
The river Seine that runs through Paris.


On the island int he middle of the Seine, we went to Sainte-Chappelle.

Stained glass windows in Sainte-Chappelle

The top floor of Sainte-Chappelle

On our way back from Sainte-Chappelle we saw the bird market, wich has an incredible number of birds, bird cages, and bird food

Ninja bird

Notre Dame is Paris

Another incredible stained glass window in Notre Dame

Flying Buttresses on the back and sided of Notre Dame

The Pompidou center and art museum.

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 19, 2017 at 8:45 AM

    Charlie-I can't wait to hear your impressions of Paris! I remember my first time visiting all of those sights and eating new things... This post is bringing back lovely memories. I love that you saw the bird market-it's a riot, right?! And how you have to go through security to enter Ste Chapelle... Some of the totally unexpected things that are hard to convey and contribute to a cultural experience, the real treasure of travel. We are missing you but so happy for your trip.

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  2. Kerri LoriganApril 19, 2017 at 10:48 AM

    The architecture of those buildings -- all of them -- is so fascinating! I love the arches (and colors) of Sainte-Chappelle. They must have been really amazing to actually build. I'm also struck by the modern Pompidou Center -- do you have a sense of how people felt about that architecture when it was first proposed/built? Is oh-so-very different than everything around it. Have you talked to many people about their lives?

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  3. RogerApril 19, 2017 at 11:21 PM

    Charlie, on your tour of Notre Dame, you were probably told that it was built over a period of 180-odd years, and that it was the brainchild of a bishop, the Bishop de Sully I think his name was. What isn't widely known is how the wonderful cathedrals were built. Though they look completely different from your house and mine, they were built in a similar fashion. Bishop de Sully was busy with church affairs and he probably knew nothing about design and construction. So what did he do? The same thing your Mom and Dad did: he hired a contractor. The contractor knew whom to hire to design the building, build the walls, build the towers, sculpt the saints, make the stained glass, install the stained glass, and so on. What were the names of these people? In most cases, nobody knows. Notre Dame, with its towers and pointed arches, is an example of what is called Gothic architecture. Can you see Gothic architecture around where we live? Yes, you can, though the buildings are much smaller and less beautiful than Notre Dame. Gothic architecture became popular a second time in the 1800's. Andover Hall at Harvard is an example of Gothic architecture, as is most of Boston College and Yale.

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