its paris again 1

A wet, windy Monday in Paris. We put the washing on and walked to the supermarche for food. We had a heavy shower on the way back so coats had to be hung to dry and umbrellas put in the bath. We had a slow day catching up with ourselves. It is easier to read the Herald in bed with the Eee Pc, than a broadsheet. Late morning we were surprised by the sound of a chainsaw nearby. The top of one of the small trees in the street had stripped off in the wind.

A walk across the river to Place Maubert to the Marché Maubert. The markets had beautiful displays of fruit and vegetables in cane baskets, eels creatively curled on ice, other fish also in cane baskets and a cheese van. Also hand tooled leather books of hand-made paper, magnifying glasses, jackets, hats, shoes and scarves, all set up for six hours.

Then, up the winding rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève in the Latin Quarter to St-Etienne-du-Mont. The church was the cleanest church we have seen, everything was shining. It has a most unusual pale stone pair of winding staircases and choir screen. The church was quite beautiful.

Since this is a student quarter we thought it appropriate to have lunch at Café Gardeamus.

We then walked along Boulevard Saint Germain to Saint Sulpice. We were quite startled to see that the interior stone was grey. Quite unexpected in this city of honey coloured stone. The church was very tall with quite short transcepts.

As usual there was a beggar sitting outside the church. When we came out this very large lady was stuffing hamburger into her mouth as fast as she could while a little girl held out a cup for money. Not good public relations.

Our visit to Musée de la Poste was great and surprisingly funny. There were lots of cartoons of the period about the setting up of a courier/postal service and the pictures for children to find information were very quirky. We spent several hours there.

Several people have expressed surprise, even astonishment that we haven't yet been to see the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Today was the day. We made our way early through wet, washed Paris with the commuters and across traffic jams. We watched two long barges making their way down the river laden with gravel . At the end of this year Notre Dame will have a year's celebration for it's 850th anniversary. Of course it was a lovely church. There was a 9am service and it was nice to hear the singing. The rose windows were beautiful.

Afterwards we went to the Crypte Archéologique. We weren't asked for proof of age – just charged the concession rate! This museum is another “it's amazing what you find when you dig for a car park” story. Most of the forecourt of Notre Dame was dug up in 1965 and they excavated for seven years. A car park did also go in. There are Celtic tribal houses, Roman baths and medieval buildings all layer upon layer. Building materials were recycled, new structures built atop the last one, or the rubble of the last one and so the island came to be two metres higher than the original land.

Notre Dame had wide carpet in the aisles and the Crypte Archéologique had rubber flooring. That was a nice change for our feet from constant hard surfaces.