selenak

Monday it rained, which meant a museum day for me (of which Paris has plenty, some of which are even open on Monday, like the Louvre), and I made some pictures there as well, though you will see them at a later point. It's impossible to start a pic spam of Paris not with outdoor beauties, which I had ample time to photograph on Tuesday, as the sun returned. It's my fifth or so visit to Paris, and each time I love it.

It cracks me up each time that my hometown Bamberg is named among the cities engraved in the Arc de Triomphe, because I don't recall any major battle taking place there. We did, however, adopt the croissant and put a unique regional spin on it (the "Bamberger Hörnla", if you're ever in the area)... or who knows, maybe we invented it and that was what got conquered?

The Chatelet. I started Tuesday morning with a visit to the Ile de La Cite and the most famous church of the country.

You know, I was planning to climb up the tower, because the view is great, and so are the gargoyles, but alas there was a long queue early in the morning already, and I had better things to do. So it was just outside and inside for Notre Dame. Mind you, inside-wise, the most beautiful church in the area isn't Notre Dame but the much smaller Sainte Chapelle which is part of ministry of justice building. Instead of arguing the point, I shall demonstrate:

Just to give you a detail from the windows:

and a last look:

The weather being nice, I went through the Quartier de Latin next, was told you could enter the Sorbonne only as a student or professor for the security reasons, and ended up in the Jardins de Luxembourg. The palace there, build by one of the two Medici queens of France, Maria de' Medici (aka the not so bright one who ended up dying in Cologne, in exile, not to be confused with Caterina) echoes the Palazzo Pitti in Florence somewhat and today is used by the French Senate.

The Jardins de Luxembourg are very pretty to walk through, though unlike Rilke, I was not inspired to an existential poem about a tiger. I was greeted by more peaceful sights.

For the Americans: here's the model:

Back to the Seine it was. Here's a sight for Highlander fans: some of the many houseboats:

Also, the Louvre in a way that cunningly avoids the glass pyramd. Although after 20 years of intermittent visiting, I guess I'm finally getting used to the glass pyramid...

This time, I didn't visit the Pere Lachaise - aka the most famous cemetery of Paris, with tombs from Abelard & Heloise via Oscar Wilde to Jim Morrison - but the Cimitiere Montmartre, because one of my favourite poets ended up there, Heinrich Heine. Also, I wanted to climb up Montmartre anyway. The cemetery, like the old French cemeteries tend to be, is haunting:

Sorry, I couldn't resist capturing the raven. Poe would have loved it. On to Heine's tomb:

The flowers there looked pretty fresh. As opposed to the ones on the tomb of Alexandre Dumas Fils (aka the one with the lady of the camelias, not the one with the musketeers):

And here's a tomb I photographed for

amenirdis, because clearly, that one was build by a companion:

After thus paying my respects to the dead, I climbed up to the top and checked whether the painter who was there the last four times I visited still was around (he was the only one drawing cubist portraits at the painter's place, and thus is easy to spot, but he wasn't. Still:

Say what you want about Sacre Coeur - yes, it's pure candy - but instantly recognizable:

Also, great view of Paris:

My last stop of the day was the Place des Vosges near the Bastille. That is, where the Bastille used to be (with a column commemorating the start of the French Revolution), and where now the biggest opera house from Paris stands. Not the prettiest. We'll get to that one in a moment: