Paris, day 2

We allowed ourselves an extra day in Paris, which is good, because at the end of our trip we want to be able to take things a little more slowly.  As it is, we're seeing a tiny fraction of what is here.

We had a slow morning before heading out to see things that are pretty close to where we're staying, relatively speaking.  Namely Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie.  Pro tip: buy tickets online in advance.  I don't think it costs anything extra, and it saved us waiting in a line that was at least an hour long (one huge line for security check and another to buy tickets).  Even if we paid double the entry fee (and I don't think we did) it would have been worth it to not wait there forever.

Anyway, we started at Sainte Chapelle.  We walked in on the ground floor and were like "well, this is nice.  Don't really get what all the fuss is about." 

Church.  Glad we didn't wait in line for an hour to see this.

But then we walked upstairs.  It's a small church, relatively speaking, but the stained glass was just amazing.  Really beautiful.

Really hard to tell how detailed these windows are from the pictures.

I would imagine a priest would feel pretty cool standing up here.

Next we went to the Conciergerie.  It it is very large gothic building that started as a palace and became a prison during the French Revolution.  I think that it is kind of overlooked, which was good for us because it wasn't too crowded and was very cool. 

Where soldiers hung out.

Stairs up to the kitchen

There was a really neat exhibition that showed during the French Revolution the names and ranks of people held in the prison, as well as what happened to them.

Depth of the plaque indicated rank, color of the plaque indicated whether or not they were executed.

It was also kind of satisfying to see that even though I am the farthest thing from an expert on the French Revolution, I have been doing a pretty ok job teaching it for the past 17 years.

We left there and head to get some lunch at a cute little creperie nearby.  We made it in _just_ before the skies opened up in a downpour.  Lunch was both yummy and long, which gave us time to sit out the rain before continuing on with our adventures.

First savory crepes...

then sweet.

Very close by was Maison Georges Larnicol, known for both their pastries and chocolates.  Kind of like the Musee d'Orsay, we would have been remiss to go to Paris and not stop there.  We left armed with some chocolates, macarons, and kouign amann, which I have wanted to try for about 2 years.  (I haven't tried one yet.  I hope I'm not too disappointed).

A tiny sliver of the possible choices.

The weather really cooperated for our last touristy stop of the day was the Luxembourg Gardens, which really are lovely.  We walked through, watched some people push some wooden sailboats around the fountain, and generally lamented the fact that we weren't born into royalty.

This afternoon found us hanging out at home before we went to a Chinese place for dinner that specializes in handmade long noodles.  We passed it walking home last night and we all agreed that we should go back.  It was a very tasty choice.

We saw, and heard, the noodles being made as we ate.  Delicious.

So now we're going to eat some macarons and get ready for tomorrow, which will find us at Versailles.  I'm very excited!