The first order of business for the morning was taking my friend Layannah to try her first café crème and croissant. We popped in to a café since it was too chilly to sit outdoors and savored our delicious breakfast. We discussed our plans for the day, and I helped my friend figure out how to best make use of her short visit. After breakfast, we split up, she headed towards Sacre Couer while I made my way to St.Denis, with plans to meet for lunch in the Oberkampf area.
The train ride to St.Denis was a bit tedious, but I wisely used the time to read up on my destination. I had been anticipating this visit since learning about it in Art History during our study of French cathedrals. T
he story behind it is quite fascinating and so while I read about Abbot Suger, I arrived on the spot. For people worried about the location, it is not really bad at all. It is a different dynamic than central Paris, but really nothing to be alarmed by, and nothing to stand in your way from visiting a Beautiful cathedral.The exterior of St.Denis is not very impressive in my opinion. It only has one tower since Suger died before gathering the funds to complete the second tower, and no one could collect money like Suger did! The drab exterior did not worry me too much, because I knew the treasure waiting inside! And true enough, when you walk in the doors it is an amazing site. The height of the basilica is magnified by the beautiful windows and vaulted ceilings. Light poured in at all angles, highlighting the pink hues in the stonework. I wandered around looking at the various altars and scenes depicted on the windows. Once I reached the front barrier, I decided I would need to see more, so I went ahead and purchased the ticket for the front of the church and the tombs.
The ambulatory is itself worth the entry price! The stained glass is remarkable! And walking around, every you see the crypts/tombs? of the royal families. The styles vary, bu
t you still get the creepy feeling that the beautiful stone carvings house the remains of royalty. Even more creepy is the actual crypt, and I tried to stay there and look around but me being skittish and easily frightened, I ended up making a quick exit upon seeing the bars that could close you in a crypt! I did manage to take a look at what remains of the original architecture , a crumbly mess with some identifiable supports. Then it was back inside the main part of the basilica to look at the other crypts. The dates were quite remarkable, and seeing how young some of the royal children were was a bit sad. After a few parting snapshots, I went into the adjacent building where a wooden model showed what would have been the finished St.Denis if Abbot Suger’s plans were carried out. When I glanced at my watch, I realized I had been wandering far too long and needed to head back towards our lunch destination!When I arrived at the Oberkampf Metro stop, I realized once again I had not specified at which exit we would meet. I was really worried about my friend, since she was not as comfortable in Paris as I had started to become. I must have walked to all 3 or 4 of the exits 10 times, before I finally saw my friend emerge. She actually had been waiting underground since she hadn’t known what exit to use! Lesson learned, we proceeded to L'Estaminet, which had been our chosen restaurant for the day. The atmosphere was very casual and all the people inside were speaking French. I ordered the duck with some kind of potato based food on the side and found it marvelous! It was my first taste of duck and it was delicious. My friend had ordered the specialty of the day, some kind of steak, which looked good too and she enjoyed that. She was not very shy around the wine menu either, her father being in the wine making business on the West coast. After a great lunch we were stuffed but ready to continue on our adventure. Once again we split up, this time I headed towards Canal St.Martin, while she headed to Notre Dame.
Canal St.Martin was the leisurely part of my day, the time I needed to digest lunch. So once I got to the canal, I strolled around. I actually sat down for a bit to watch a man fishing in the canal with the longest fishing pole ever! After a bit of a struggle and 20 minutes later, he pulled out a fairly big fish to the applause of the crowd around him. He let the fish go once he had measured it, and started all over again! I am not sure how I feel about the process of exhausting fish just for sport, but I walked on. I spent some time watching the
lock system at work as a boat of tourists went by. It was pretty neat to see the water levels rise and fall to help the boat into the next section. It reminded me of a similar system in Chicago that allows boats onto Lake Michigan from the Chicago river. The area around the canal is very fun and filled with families at the park and the pretty day. I ended up walking for quite awhile before realizing that I was not going to have enough time to visit L’Orangerie that day as planned. I can’t say I was worried since I had enough space towards my last few days in the itinerary to fit it in. So I walked back towards the metro and eventually made it to the apartment, where I had a few obligatory phone calls to make. My roommate arrived not too long afterwards and we were both ready for food but nothing heavy after our great lunch. So we ended up making sandwiches and then going out to the Amorino on the corner for yummy gelato. By this point in the evening we had gotten ahold of my au pair friend, Sophie. She and a couple girls were meeting in one of their apartments before going out on the town and we were invited to join. So we freshened up, and headed out. It was already late at this point and past my bedtime at home, but I wanted to allow myself one night out (the previous night didn’t count since we were just strolling ! ). So we hopped on the metro, despite Sophie’s instructions to take the RER and arrived at the station where we were supposed to call Sophie so she could escort us to the apartment. The area is very close to the Eiffel Tower and quite pretty, but we had realized that neither of our phone cards would work. We had both failed to bring the correct Paris number that corresponded with the cards! Fortunately, I had set up my cell phone for such situations and I made a quick call for Sophie to pick us up. In no time, Sophie and Caitlin came and took us to the apartment, a mere 6 flight walk up!! After enjoying some snacks at the apartment (cheese, crackers, baguette, chocolate, and wine!) they told us the plan for the night. These Paris dwellers of several months had just learned of the Oberkampf area and wanted to check it out. I had to giggle a little at that point because research crazy Anna had read about it months ago!
So out the door we went again, catching one of the last metro trains (yes, that late!!) towards Oberkampf. We stopped in a very fun Brazilian bar with some of the best bartender/waiters ever! They spoke more English than French but were very entertaining! We had a lot of fun, and actually stayed till the bar closed (Sorry Mom & Dad!). The other girls still wanted to go out elsewhere, and for awhile we walked trying to find a place one of the girls had heard about it. Little did I know, she really didn’t have a good sense of direction and before we knew it we were closer to my apartment than her bar! At this point I begged off from further festivities since it really was too much, and my room mate and I headed home while the other girls hopped in a cab to continue their own adventure!
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