Paris part two

As I have said before I love Paris and I also love Cliff. I am saying this because on Saturday Cliff asked me to marry him and I said yes. What a day we had with a wonderful visit to Montmartre. We visited Sacre Coeur, the artist square where lines of artists create wonderful paintings and many will draw your portrait. In the evening we dined in a lovely restaurant and Cliff proposed to me. We walked back to our apartment feeling very happy with the world. 

Sunday we took ourselves to the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise which is the cemetery where many famous people have been buried including Jim Morrison, Marcel Marceau, Chopin, Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf. We spent a few hours walking around the cemetery which was peaceful even with many tourists. In the evening we travelled to the Arc de Triomphe and Pont Alexandre III to take photos and enjoy the city as it got dark. 

Another day we visited Notre Dame and its Treasury which contained sacred parts of the crown of thorns and the cross. We took the opportunity (it was raining) to also visit the Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle. The Conciergerie was the residence of the Kings of France and later became a prison for prisoners of State and in the French Revolution it was used as a Tribunal and prison. We saw Marie Antoinette's dungeon where she was guarded by two gendarmes at all times. She also has a chapel built in 1815 located on the exact spot where her prison cell stood. We saw the list of prisoners kept in the building during the revolution referred to as the Reign of Terror. 

The Sainte-Chapelle built in 1248 was seen as the second capital of Christianity as it held the relics of the Passion of Christ including the Crown of Thorns. When purchased from the emperors of Constantinople they cost more than the building costs of the Chapel. The ceiling and walls are painted in a beautiful blue and it stained glass windows are breath taking.

After all this culture we had to have a day of shopping just to get a balance. We wandered the streets around Place des Vosges looking at the bohemian shops and art shops. Just loved the artistic way they decorate their shops.

On the last day in Paris we spent in the Musee d Orsay which has been fully renovated and houses works of art from 1840 to 1914. The building used to be a former train station and you can still see signs of that as you move from floor to floor. There are a lot of Impressionist art works including works from Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley and Degas. Also post-Impressionist  works from Cezanne, Van Gogh and Matisse. It was good to see some art nouveau furniture. I found I liked the Pissarro paintings so might learn more about him in future. 

Sadly all good things must end and we headed on foot to the Gare Lyon to catch the fast train to Annecy our next stop. Goodbye Paris for now.