Cruise of Dreams

We were sufficiently re-energized on Sunday to tackle a couple of the items on our Paris wish list. Our first stop of the day was at the "Church of Conspicuous Consumption", otherwise known as the flagship of the high-end French department store chain Galeries Lafayette. We'd wandered into the store on a previous trip to Paris, but at that time weren't aware that they had a rooftop terrace with views over the city--and I didn't even have to buy a 4000-euro purse to access it.

The interior of the store is pretty amazing--over-the-top Art Nouveau,
including an enormous glass and metal cupola at the top.

Four shopping floors of sculpted and decorated magnificence.

Us on the terrace of the Galleries Lafayette, the Palais Garnier
(Paris Opera) in the upper left, the Eiffel Tower a small
presence in the distance.

We had to peek between a gap in the roof 
structures to see this view of the Basilique
de Sacre Coeur on its hilltop in Montmartre.

After leaving the terrace we took the metro to the northern Paris suburb of Saint Denis. Having seen the Reims Cathedral, the coronation site of so many kings of France, I thought it only fitting to go full circle and visit the Saint Denis Basilica Cathedral, the burial site of most of the kings and queens of France from the 6th century onwards.

The current building dates from the 12th century, but it contains a crypt area underneath that dates from earlier centuries. It is put forward as a masterpiece of Gothic construction. The basilica cathedral stands on the site of what was a Gallo-Roman cemetery that contained the tomb of the martyred Saint Denis, thought to be the first Bishop of Paris, and around whom a cult developed that made this location a place of pilgrimage. Saint Denis had been decapitated on the hill of Montmartre, and as the story goes, he indicated where he wanted to be buried by carrying his head to the site of the current church.

For centuries, kings of France and their families were buried in Saint Denis Basilica Cathedral, with elaborate tombs and recumbent statues to mark the locations. Then came 1793, and the "great desecration" of many of the tombs and bodies of royals within the church. The accounts of what took place are pretty horrific, and in the end, the remains of 46 kings, 32 queens, and 63 other royals were thrown into two mass graves adjacent to the church and covered in quicklime. Some of the stone effigies and tombs were destroyed, but many were saved because of the efforts of an archeologist at the time who claimed that they were works of art that needed to be preserved. Napoleon I reopened the basilica, and when Louis XVIII became king he re-established Saint Denis as a royal necropolis. 

West facade of Saint Denis Basilica Cathedral (right), 
the City Hall of Saint Denis (left).

Interior of the church and some of the recumbent
royal funerary monuments.

Clovis I (upper), King of the Francs 481-511; Chilebert I (lower), King
of Paris 511-558. Neither statue was contemporaneous with the subject
it portrayed, but were 12th (Chilebert) and 13th (Clovis) century works.

                      

The tomb of Louis XII and his wife Anne.

The effigies and tombs that were saved by archeologist
Alexandre Lenoir are back in Saint Denis, mostly in their
original locations.

The Bourbon Grave in the crypt of the church, holding
the remains of Marie Antoinette (center left) and Louis XVI
(center right). The remains had been located in the Madelaine
cemetery in Paris after a search ordered by Louis XVIII.  

Markers for the royal ossuary, which contains the bones
exhumed from the mass graves created during the "great
desecration." The destruction of the remains was too
great to allow for subsequent identifications, so the
plaques now list the names of those whose remains
are contained within the ossuary.

Our friend Mecki arrived on Monday afternoon. She'd been to Paris before, but she said her last time here was probably sometime in the 1980's. So, she and I tried to do things that would give her a good sense of Paris, but without running ourselves ragged.

Mecki is a fan of Claude Monet, so what better place to go than Musee Marmottan Monet. It has the 
world's largest collection of Monet paintings, including many of the water lilies at his
 home in Giverny that so fascinated him during the last years of his life.

Mecki was not disappointed by the
water lilies.

Lunch followed museum, then a visit to the terrace of
the Galleries Lafayette, then a selfie on the steps
of the Paris Garnier Opera House after finishing
some delicious ice cream cones.

After walking by the Louvre and the Tuilleries Gardens we started walking back
toward the Arsenal along the Seine, and ran into this at Pont Neuf. We first thought
it was a movie or TV shoot, but it turned out to be the preparations for a Louis Vuitton
fashion show to be held that evening to celebrate Pharrell Williams
as the new creative director for the menswear line. If we turned around, we saw . . . 

. . . this. The Louis Vuitton corporate headquarters is to the
right in the photo. The area was teeming with scads of young
"men in black" (ushers? models?). The huge figure in the background
is that of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. The so-called "princess of
polka dots" is a fashion collaborator with Louis Vuitton. 

On Wednesday morning Mecki and I strolled around the nearby Marais district while Lon got the boat ready for a cruise on the Seine. The stroll through the Marais was lovely. As it was a weekday morning, the streets were fairly quiet. We went to the Place de Vosges and then just meandered, encountering some hidden courtyards and gardens, and a remnant of what had been a lively Jewish neighborhood prior to the Holocaust.

We went in search of the gardens at the National Archives complex
and found that the buildings and courtyard (and the view of 
the neighboring buildings) were pretty nice.

The garden was a little oasis, both for the half dozen or so people
in the park and for this duck family.

Wednesday afternoon we finally were able to do the thing that was an absolute must on our Paris bucket list: a cruise on the Seine to the Eiffel Tower and back. We've been on a Seine cruise before, and we've seen the sights along the river, but there was just something special about being able to do it on our own boat. And we think it was a highlight for Mecki as well.

When going downstream, we had to take the passage between the
Ile-St. Louis and the Ile de la Cite. Passage alternates between
upstream and downstream traffic and is controlled by traffic
lights. Downstream traffic is allowed to enter between 35 and 50
minutes past the hour. Here we are hovering behind three commercial
 barges, waiting for the light to change from red to green.

Making the turn into the passage, with the Notre Dame de Paris
Cathedral under scaffold to our left.

Mecki enjoys the cruise. Pont Alexandre III 
approaches and the Eiffel Tower becomes visible
in the distance.

Lon was doing most of the driving and had to keep his "head
on a swivel" to keep track of all the boat traffic, mostly tour boats.
We stayed to the right while a faster tour boat passed us at
the Pont Alexandre III bridge.

It was a fantastic day for a cruise.

It was exciting to approach the famous landmark.
(Thanks for the photo, Mecki!)

Mecki on CARIB III as we make our downstream
pass of the Eiffel Tower.

The spot where we could legally turn around--just past the tip
of the island bearing the replica of the Statue of Liberty.

The tower is very big when you're this close. 

The Seine has a "bevy of bridges."

The end of a great afternoon--and a somewhat delayed 
entry (due to commercial traffic) back into the Arsenal
lock.

We had an uneventful dockage (the best kind!) into the slip and then it was time to wind down from the adrenalin rush and relax. Because it was the first day of summer it was Fete de la Musique day in Paris and elsewhere in France. Not only were there numerous musical acts playing in public squares throughout the city, many restaurants had bands or DJs on site. Mecki took us out to dinner and then we sat on the back of CARIB, listing to a cacophony of competing musical sounds from the Place de la Bastille and neighborhood restaurants. The Place de Bastille, the surrounding restaurants, and the quay in the port were packed with people. Thank goodness for windows that could muffle the sound and make it possible to sleep.

Mecki left us this morning and, because it is a rather wet day, we cancelled plans for a day trip to Beauvais and are staying around the boat. We're quickly approaching the end of our time in Paris, so we need to pin down what we hope to do in our final few days here and think about our upcoming cruise to Auxerre.