Europe 2014

Paris, Part 2

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		After lunch near the Rodin Museum, we wandered towards the centre of Paris, admiring the understated decorations on the Grand Palais ... *
		and on the nearby Pont Alexandre III. †
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		Avenue Winston Churchill runs from Pont Alexandre III between the Grand and Petit Palaces. At one end of it is this statue of Churchill, striding purposefully towards his destiny. †
		At the other end is this statue of Charles de Gaulle, striding equally purposefully in the exact opposite direction to Churchill. Art imitating Life. †
		That evening, we went to a concert of Bach's Motets in Notre-Dame. By the time we arrived, there was already a queue to get in. *
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		Part of the rose window from inside. *
		The choir performing. *
		On Wednesday, we went first to the Petit Palace, where there was an exhibition on Paris in 1900. *
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		We had time for a quick look at some of the permanent collection, including this portrait of a very knowing young lady. One Mademoiselle de Lancey, aged 25 at the time. †
		After lunch as a nice café at the Petit Palace, we went across the road to the Grand Palace where there was an exhibition of works by the American photographer Mapplethorpe. There were some interesting works. *
		We popped into Galleries Lafayette for the sales and obligatory photo of the dome but nothing took our fancy so we went home. *
		On Thursday, we met our Paris Greeter, Catherine, who took us on a walk along Rue du Bac on the Left Bank, full of interesting shops. These were all the different kinds of chocolate at Chapon. You can see more of the shop displays here. *
		We visited the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal, a Catholic institution. *
		We had a quick visit to Le Procope restaurant (beautiful décor, poor food according to Catherine) ... *
		and upstairs, where we would not have thought of venturing, was Voltaire's writing table. *
		We went past the church of St-Germain-des-Prés and saw some foundations of the old monastic complex built into modern shops. *
		And finished by having lunch with Catherine in a branch of Paul's. *
		That evening, we had bookings to a performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons in Ste-Chapelle. It was magical being there with evening light streaming through the walls of stained glass. †
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		We were only four rows back from the musicians. *
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		After the concert, we walked upstream along the Left Bank, past Notre-Dame ... †
		ending up at L'Atelier Maître Albert, one of Guy Savoy's chain of restaurants. *
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		Having done over 20,000 steps on Thursday, we had a rest day on Friday and stayed in the apartment until evening, when we had dinner booked. On the way, we went past the President's Elysée Palace, guarded by police in fancy white uniforms with much gold braid. *
		The dinner was at Epicure, a *** restaurant in Le Bristol Hotel. It was refined in a rather old-fashioned way ... *
		with views into a garden courtyard. It was possibly the best meal we have ever had, and there are photos of the food here. *
		On Saturday, we set out to re-visit the Musée de Moyen Age in the Hôtel de Cluny, enjoying again its collection of religious sculptures. †
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		A very modern looking saint. *
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		However, our main reason for returning was to see again the extraordinary set of tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn. †
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		Detail from one of the tapestries. †
		There was also some old stained glass. *
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This page has gone on too long. Time for Part 3.