Paris--need I write more?

Today was my day in Paris. A day free of going to the airport and standing by to no avail. I began with the usual routine of catching the shuttle bus to the airport and then taking the RER train into downtown. I got off at my usual stop: the Notre Dame-St. Michel stop. The RER is very deep underground, below the metro system, which is of course well below the surface. So wending one's way up from there can be challenging. But I did it and found the light of day. I then proceeded to one of my favorite places on this earth: the Sainte-Chapelle. Sainte-Chapelle was built in the 13th century by the king, Louis, I think it's the 6th. (He's the one who became St. Louis.) The joy of this building is hard to describe. They had figured out how to have stained glass in buildings by this point and, boy, did they ever use it here. Much of the wall space is stained glass, starting at about 10 feet. It so delicate and thin, yet colorful. One way to describe it would be to say it's like being in a brightly colored egg shell. The chapelle isn't very big. To get to it you have to climb up a winding staircase--up,up until the walls burst with their color. I spent about an hour there just sitting and walking around and looking. It remains one of my favorite places to visit. This was my 3rd time there. I then walked past the Louvre, I didn't go in as I didn't have enough time to give it any justice, to the Tuileries Garden, which extends from the Louvre along the Seine. Finally I arrived at the Orangerie, a museum of impressionistic art. The main attraction here is Monet's Waterlilies paintings. I've only seen snippets of them, I learned, because they are massive. They had two oval rooms devoted to them, each room had 4 paintings. Beautiful is all I can say. I wandered around the rest of their exhibits, taking in the Renoirs, Cézannes, and all the others. I skirted La Place de la Concorde and walked up to the Madeleine, an area surrounding a church of the same name. I had an overpriced lunch, and then went into the church. Some would find it beautiful though I thought it was a little drear. Maybe it's the contrast to the Sainte-Chapelle, but it felt grey and somewhat oppressive in there. I strolled along the Seine to return to the RER station that I had come to know so well. It was a fairly long walk, but it had warmed up a little by then (it felt terribly chilly when I was out earlier) so I didn't mind too much. After all the walking and standing, I was glad to get a seat on the train. Now it's time for dinner so I'll close this chapter. Adieu.