Skip to main content

October 18th -- On my own in Paris

I saw Laurie and Mercy off at about 11:00 a.m. and then headed down to the Luxembourg Gardens. My Paris Pass was used up--I had only purchased the 4-day Pass--so I decided I would do one paid attraction and that would be Musée d’Orsay. Before going there, however, I did want to see the Luxembourg Gardens. 











I missed my girls of course. But I never really mind wandering around by myself. The Gardens were lovely and the day was warm. As I walked down from the Gardens toward the d'Orsay I came across a beautiful old church, Saint Sulpice.  

Saint Sulpice was built over an original church from the 13th century. The present church was begun in 1636 and finally "finished" in its present state in the late 1700s although something always seemed to be happening, including a fire in March of 2019 that damaged parts of the church and was apparently arson. 2019 wasn't a good year for Paris churches. 

What I found most interesting was a memorial to St Vincent de Paul.



Our local Catholic charity is called St. Vincent de Paul and of course there are St. Vincent de Paul charity shops all over, including Montreal. As well as the Sisters of Charity, also mentioned in the memorial above.

The church itself is quite beautiful and I actually didn't notice any fire damage as I walked around. I was just about the only person in the church.













I spent about half an hour reading the posters about the church, thinking about its history, enjoying its beauty. Then I walked down a few more streets and finally found the entrance to d'Orsay. 

The museum was breathtaking. I find the Impressionist paintings so full of light and movement. Some are so real in the way the people and places are painted and some are so ethereal. And I think it is most true of the Impressionists that you have to see them in real life to appreciate the color. Especially Van Gogh. When I saw "Starry Night" it was as if I were seeing it for the first time. I took so many photos of paintings. Like the Louvre, you can photograph anything as long as you don't use a flash. I have chosen a few of my favorites although it was difficult as I was drawn to so many:



View from the balcony toward SACRÉ-CŒUR
This is one of the restaurants. I had a lovely, quite decadent, lunch.








Add caption


How lucky these schoolchildren are to have art appreciation in such a place!





Model of l'Opera in the Degas exhibit






By the time I left the d'Orsay, it was 4:30 p.m. and I decided to go back to my hotel by walking up the Champs-Élysées. First though I stopped at a creperie in the Tuileries and enjoyed my last French crepe (for this trip anyway.) I relaxed and thought and people watched until the store owner warned me that they would be closing the Tuileries gates soon. So I gathered my thoughts and meandered up the 1.9 kms of the Champs home.

















Sleep in my little attic bedroom and demain, on to Belfast!









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

January 2024 and blogging

  I haven't posted on my blog for a long time. Partly that was due to not knowing what to write about and partly it was wondering if I wanted to put myself "out there" anymore. And in what way. I subscribe to a few blogs on Substack, which is a subscription-based blog. You can pay to have your own blog, you can pay for someone else's blog, and that means you get to write and post and get comments back from a whole lot of people. You can comment on other people's blogs--if you pay--or else you can just read the blog and not pay. Of course you might miss some of the "pay only" content--much like modern news media has teaser stuff but to read the whole article, you have to pay for a subscription. The Substack blogs cover all kinds of topics and there are a few "professional" writers--meaning they're journalists and writers who have published and been paid larger bucks than the $5 a month they get per subscription on Substack--but I think most
12 comments
Read more

It’s just another day

  Yesterday was the final day of my 8-day assignment in a 4th grade class; I’ve written something about that assignment in a previous post, “Revolt of the Guinea Pig,” It’s been a challenging 8 days which, as Dickens might have said, brought out the best in me and probably the worst in me as well. But yesterday morning I had that experience that every teacher dreads—shelter in place, also known as possible shooter situation. I had arrived at the school at 7:20 thinking how wonderful it was that our heat had broken a bit. The skies were overcast, we’d had rain the day before, there was a cool breeze. As I walked to my classroom (photos below of what the buildings look like), I waved to the students already gathered on the other side of the gate, who were waiting to rush in, some to the cafeteria for their breakfast, some to the playground to run and hopefully get some of that energy out before the bell rang at 7:55. I unlocked the outside door to our building, walked down the corridor t
2 comments
Read more

And now for something a little different from the substitute teaching lens

  I subbed for my daughter yesterday. I wasn’t sure how I’d cope as I am still somewhat jet lagged but she has a very well behaved fifth grade class: they’re respectful, good humored (most of the time) and willing to learn (most of the time). She warned me the night before that there had been some “issues” this week—kids fighting on the playground, some backtalk in class from a boy who’s normally a very hard worker. With that in mind, I started off my day in the classroom addressing this up front. “I hear it’s been a tough week,” I said and then waited for a response. Some shifting in the chair, some rolling of the eyes, a couple of “Yeah, it really has” emanated from the kiddos. I then sat on the corner of my desk and talked about how I remembered being their age, the emotions, how things seem so very important, so very “raw” in the moment. I shared with them how my own teachers reacted to misbehaviors, after-school detention (Wow, Mrs A, AFTER school? They could DO that?) But then I
1 comment
Read more