The next morning we headed out to Notre Dame. It had snowed during the night and the tour of the bell tower was closed due to ice, but we only had a little time before we had to meet Jenny and Patrice at the Airport (our 4th trip). It was cold and early and that meant not very many crowds.
Most people miss the great statue of Charlemagne in the courtyard of Notre Dame. I had to get a picture. I even gazed up at the sword in the statue and it seemed to be similar to the one I had seen the day before.
There was a nice Christmas tree there too. It seemed a little out of place, a 900 year old church with a fresh Christmas tree, but what the heck. What we did not get pictures of were the armed guards around the courtyard. There were probably a dozen or so milling about with their machine guns. They were not there when we visited in September.
They had a simple creche on display beneath the wooden panels depicting the life of Jesus.
I thought this panel of the Romans killing the babies was unusually graphic.
A little side door was open that was not open last time we visited. It was access to the church’s treasures. Entrance to the church was free, but if we wanted to see the treasures we had to pay 3€ apiece. I guess they rotate what they show there. It was worth the 3€. Notre Dame was built in the 1100’s so they had some old stuff.
This was one of the main attractions of the treasury for the day. It was from the 12th century and is supposed to be one of the nails from the cross of Jesus. The belief in relics dates from the middle ages. If it is not an actual nail from the cross of Jesus it is a very old relic that people came to view at the church.
Along with the nail was a piece of the cross. There were empty things that would hold relics. From what I was able to gather the crown of thorns is on display only once a month. Whether it is the actual crown of thorns worn by Jesus or not it was though to be for several hundreds of years. The king of France in the 1200’s bargained for and got the relic and placed it in Notre Dame.
This statue was from the 12th century also. Saint Denis was the first bishop of Paris. He was sent to Gaul from Italy to convert the people. He was beheaded and supposedly carried his head away from the spot. He is often depicted carrying his head. He was so important that his church is where all the Kings of France are buried.
We couldn’t help but capture a goofy moment in the treasury. Everyone was out and Eric took this picture for us.
After Notre Dame we went looking for bread. We saw this cutely decorated restaurant.
We ran back to the airport. i was a little worried because I knew Jenny was getting in at 11:45 and we didn’t get to the gate until 12:15. But they didn’t come through the gates until nearly 1PM.
We grabbed the bags from Jenny which they appreciated because they were taking the train and took off for Versailles. Kim drove and the rest of us past out. When we got to Versailles it was cold but clear skies. When we got out of Versailles it was snowing hard. It cost 15€ each. 18 and under are free. That seems to be a pretty consistent theme. Versailles was ransacked during the French revolution. The French government has probably spent more to restore it than the original cost of the palace.
The Hall of Mirrors is still used for entertaining important foreign guests. At one point the King of Germany was crowned here as he conquered France.
The crowds were hard because they were in groups and moved in mass. It is nice that the tour groups have this system where all the people in their group wear headsets and the guide speaks softly into a microphone. They don’t need to crowd around the tour guide and the tour guide doesn’t need to shout to be heard. I can’t imagine this place in the summer.
The rooms had been laid bare and so a lot of the furnishings and decorations are either replicas or restorations. This is a replica of the King’s bed. King Louis the XIII started visiting Versailles but his son Louis XIV made it a palace and the central place of government.
We couldn’t tour the gardens because the weather was deteriorating quickly and it was just too cold. We will have to come back in the spring.
You can see behind Kendra and Eric that the garden extends for almost 2 miles.
We took one final picture at the gate before jumping in the car and heading out for Rennes. It was a very quick trip to Paris. Especially for Eric and Kendra who got to see as much as they could with as little time as they had.