klwilliams

Eglise St. Etienne-du-Mont, on the corner of Rue Clovis and Rue Clotilde (Clovis is the first Merovingian king, and Clothilde was his queen.), across the street from the Partheon. This church is absolutely beautiful, both inside and out. My camera battery died right when we got there, so I don't have many pictures, but I'll see what I can find on the internets. Or just go back. It's a working church, with many chapels, a gorgeous ceiling, and lots of wonderful touches here and there. There's even part of the cloister still there, which is now a big open room. Blaise Pascal is buried there. I love this church.

The Partheon was beautiful, but cold and sterile after St. Etienne-du-Mont. We also went to Eglise St. Sulprice, which was beautiful, too, and Eglise Germain des Pres, which was under construction, thus disappointing. Still, we wandered through the sixth arrondissement on a beautiful warm fall day, ate a lovely lunch (Chaz had gizzards and goose fat, I had an apple tart), and I am happy.

We tackled the Louvre today. I say tackled, but I think the Louvre won the point. The place is huge. We started out with the idea of seeing the Medieval art, but instead got sucked into the section that contains the actual Medieval foundations of the Louvre itself. Interesting, but not what we wanted.

We found what we thought was the right floor, but got sucked into gallery after gallery of Dutch Masters. Van Dyke (now I see where the beard got its name), Rembrandt, Rubens...all beautiful, all painting children with creepy faces. Not Medieval.

We staggered into the Louvre Cafeteria, where I had to have Quiche Lorraine (marvelous), French hot chocolate (rich and decadent), and a chocolate eclair. Mmmmm.....

The Medieval galleries were right next to the cafe, and were worth the wait. There were some very nice early ivory carvings, mostly from reliquaries, plus many decorated chalices, patens, pyxes, croziers, and crosses. There were some nice rings and a couple of decorated book covers, plus quite a few enamel ("email" in French) decorations. I enjoyed seeing the aesthetic of All the Colors in the enamels and when using jewels.

After that, we were tired, so we went to just a couple of specific pieces. I had to see the Mona Lisa, which looked a lot like the refrigerator magnet version, only bigger. We also went to see the Victory of Samothrace, just so I could say, "Look! The Winged Victory of Samothrace!" (And take pictures, of course. I have taken Many Pictures.)

Now we are at home, with wine. Chaz is cooking. All is right with the world.

I should probably add that I'm very glad that Chaz speaks French. I do not. Even the few words I do know become Spanish when I try to say them.