Category: Paris

Along with Notre Dame, St Germain-des-Pres, and St Sulpice, St Eustache, near the markets of Les Halles, is considered one of the great churches of Paris. These churches are also famous for their organists — Vierne, Dupre, Durufle, Langlais, Alain…. Oddly, I heard not a note of organ music in any of these churches, their…

Just north of Paris, Saint Denis is the burial place of scores of kings and queens beginning with Clovis (died 511). Louis XVIII ordered scattered royal remains and funeral monuments brought to Saint Denis in the early 19th century. Loose bones were deposited in an ossuary in the crypt and funeral monuments abound in the…

One of three posts today; others are Saint Denis and Saint Eustache

This splendid house museum predates the Marmottan (previous page) by a couple generations and gives one an idea of what I imagine Proust might have encountered. The house and its furnishings are as I once heard someone say, “the best of their kind.” On the walls are Dutch masters, including Rembrandt, Fragonard, Boucher, the Italian…

On my wish list — along with Notre Dame — was touring three small museums: the Marmottan, the Jacquemart-André and the Nissim de Camondo (closed for a two year renovation). Today I visited the Marmottan and the Jacquemart Andre. The Marmottan is in the western section of the city on the edge of the Bois…

Across the Seine today to visit St Sulpice, Paris’ largest church, and St Germain-des-Pres, one of the city’s oldest dating back to the 8th century. Both churches are justly famous for their pipe organs. St Germain-des-Pres is a riot of stenciling and polychrome. We happened upon an almost perfect bistro across from a clothing store…

One of the things I most wanted to do on this visit was explore these two islands in the Seine. Notre Dame is on Ile de la Cite, along with Sainte Chapelle. Ile de St Louis is much quieter, a place of grand town houses. It was a splendid day for exploring.

Today Janet’s friends the Bonanos managed to get no waiting in line tickets for us to visit the newly rebuilt and cleaned Notre Dame. It was breathtaking — the limestone gleamed, the stained glass sparkled,, works of art once darkened by soot were vibrant…and, most extraordinary, even though the building was crowded with people, no…

Comfortable flights, but the travel seemed long. We arrived in Dublin before dawn and our flight to Paris left with the rising sun. At Charles de Gaulle we had some trouble finding the RER B into Paris, but once we found the correct train it was only a few minutes to Gare du Nord and…