We arrived just in time at Sainte Chapelle because, as usual, they had decided to close it early. We were the last group allowed in. The entrance is unusual because we actually entered from the back, through a kind of nondescript entrance hall that in no way prepared us for the magnificence we saw once we came through the door.
Once again, photos can only hint at how magnificent it truly is. It was built between 1242 and 1248 to be a royal palace. It houses Christian relics and it also, as these photos show, contains 13th century stained glass, some of the oldest surviving stained glass in Europe. The bottom photo shows the front entrance which, for some reason, isn't the way that tourists are allowed into the chapel. And maybe we never were on the "right" side of the area around Sainte Chapelle to see it because, truly, I had no idea how gorgeous it was. Luckily Laurie had done her homework and she knew that it was something we oughtn't to miss. Absolutely beautiful.
When we left Sainte Chapelle we walked a few blocks and arrived at Shakespeare & Company, an English bookstore whose history is fascinating. The original bookstore was opened by an American named Sylvia Beach in 1919 in another location. It became the hangout for such authors as F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Ernest Hemingway, who mentions Beach and her store in his book "A Moveable Feast." (Wonderful book, I need to re-read it.) The Nazis closed her shop down in 1941 and, after spending several years in an internment camp, Beach never reopened her shop. This current store opened in 1951 as Le Mistral and its owner, George Whitman, renamed it in April 1964, on the 400th anniversary of Wiliam Shakespeare's birth, in honor of Sylvia Beach. In its time it has hosted famous writers and poets once again and its groaning shelves offer the kind of choices in reading that are fast disappearing in our online world. Even though our luggage barely closes, we still bought four books ourselves as well as purchasing the quirky book sacks that I use to carry my books to school and to French class.
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| A lovely park across the road from Shakespeare And Company |
By the time we left Shakespeare And Company, it was almost 5:30. We hurried, by Metro of course, to the Eiffel Tower as I remembered that was where the Seine Boat Cruise began from. We had to figure out which Boat Cruise company was part of our Paris Pass so, by the time we arrived at the right quay we had missed the 6:30 one. However there was one that left at 7:00 p.m. so we had a quick sandwich at a nearby café and were lined up and ready to go at 6:55.
Another magical experience. We left as dusk settled and the lights along the river came on. We sat on top of the canal boat and tried to draw into ourselves all that makes Paris so special. We were quiet as we each made our own memories.
And, finally, l'Arc de Triomphe, where we first began our Paris journey.
Laurie and Mercy were off back to London and I had one more day in Paris. But being in Paris with my girls will be something I will never forget.
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