Lori & Todd » paris

Church in Paris

Lori — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:39:52 +0000

Today is exactly one week that I’ve been in Paris. We walked to the 6th district and visited 4 amazing churches. By amazing I mean absolutely draw dropping, take your breath away, stop in your tracks type of architecture and design. It left me wondering how humans could possible build these structures thousands of years ago. I took so many photos it was hard to choose…
First on the stop;
Notre Dame- A gothic masterpiece cathedral begun in 1163 and finished sometime in 1330.

Notre Dame

interior Notre Dame

St. Germain des Prés-oldest church in Paris (originating 542) Romanesque style with round—not pointed—arches over the aisles of the nave.

interior arches St. Germain

one of many interior stained glass St. Germain

St. Sulpice-started in 1646, it took more than a century to be built

St. Sulpice

Sainte Chapelle-home to the oldest stained-glass windows in Paris, originally built for Paris royalty and to house Christ’s Crown of Thorns

1st level of Sainte Chapelle

upstairs detail

15 stained glass windows soaring 50 ft to vaulted roof

Marché Raspail

Lori — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:33:40 +0000

DAY 2
Open Air Market in the 6th arrondissement (district)
This morning Lindsay and I walked to this district from our flat in the 2nd district.
Walking is a great way to see the buildings, people and style of the city.
We purchased food for the weekend, amazed by the colors, sights and selection I snapped a few photos…
see below to browse my slideshow

Paris

Lori — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:23:09 +0000

DAY 1
Plane, trains and automobiles… I arrived in Paris!
The only casualty was a bag missing at baggage claim upon arrival.
To my benefit this worked out well as the bag (the larger of the two pieces of my luggage) was delivered to the flat the next day (benefiting me by not having to lug it around the city). With jet lag starting to creep up I freshened up and Lindsay and I hit the city. First stop lunch at a Parisian cafe, then a quick walk to the Musée du Louvre and soaking in the amazing sites of the churches, buildings, gardens, pyramid ( designed by I.M Pei) and people.

The Louvre has about 35,000 pieces of art in its collection-more than 645,000 square feet of exhibition space. It started as a medieval fortress, then a royal residence before opening its doors as the Museum Central des Arts at the end of the 18th century. There is no way to see everything in one day… and we only previewed the outside. The three most popular and well known pieces of art on exhibit at the Louvre: Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory.

As we walked back to our flat (jet lag has fully hit me) we took the scenic street which runs along The Seine- which flows through the heart of Paris. This river divides the City of Lights into two banks, the Rive Droite (right bank) which is the side where we are staying. The left side is called Rive Gauche. The bridges and river boats are so charming against the backdrop of thousand year old buildings.
* reference info by Fodor’s Paris 2010
view photos by clicking on photo below: