A Great End To A Generally Great Trip

(Carol reads the headline, shakes her head "no."  Hmmm, I wonder if she's thinking about the first morning in Dubrovnik when I crashed the ATV off the path and it badly bruised her ribs, causing her pain for the whole trip.  Nah, that can't be why she's shaking her head "no.")

There are a bunch of "Hmmm" gifs.  I

went with the best one (in my book).

Anyhow, we capped it off with one of my favorite places to visit -- Sainte-Chapelle, the small royal Gothic chapel in Paris.

First, we had breakfast with Jim and Ellen from the Bordeaux trip.  The previous night, we had gotten to our room, and it showed I could airdrop to Jim.  I may be moderately tech unsavvy, but I knew enough to know that meant he was right near by.  So I texted him -- and they were three hotel rooms away.  So we set up breakfast.  

That lucky couple was staying in Paris for six more days.  We need to get back to Paris for a longer stay.

Anyhow, once I booked the flights with the 24 hour layover in Paris, and the free hotel room for a night, I went to the Sainte-Chapelle website and booked tickets for Monday morning (Labor Day in the US) at 9am when it opens.

We had visited Sainte-Chapelle in 2013 and it ranks number one on my list of most amazing stained glass I've ever seen.  My rankings:

1. Sainte-Chapelle
2. Sagrada Familia
3. Chartres Cathedral
4. Leon Cathedral

Carol's got the same four on her list, but she put Chartres first.  Carol wins most disagreement (I know -- that's your shocked face), but in this case, I'm right and Sainte-Chapelle is numero uno.

Our friend Joey helps out with

his example of a shocked face.

Because we wouldn't have a lot of time after visiting Saint-Chapelle, I surprisingly had a great idea.  Get a car and driver, pick us/our luggage up at the hotel, drive us to Saint-Chapelle, then wait nearby to take us/our luggage directly to the airport.

Construction on Saint-Chapelle started around 1239 and was consecrated in late April 1248.  It was commissioned by King Louis IX ("Louie, Louie" to his friends -- the Kingsman even did a song about him, which is why they are called the "Kingsman.")

According to Wikipedia, "Sainte-Chapelle is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture."  (I had no clue, but as my readers no doubt know, Rayonnant is considered the high point of French Gothic and appeared in the 13th century.)  Rayonnant means "radiant" in French.  It also started rose window craze in cathedrals, which is a wonderful thing.

Anyhow, Sainte-Chapelle housed the king's collection of relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the true cross. 

For some royal trivia, King Louis IX was later captured and ransomed in the Seventh Crusade.

I was once again blown away by the extensive collection of 13th century stained glass.

After wandering around in wonderment for a while, we What's App'd our driver, met him outside, and headed to Charles-de-Gaulle airport and home.  Sainte-Chapelle served as a dramatic and breathtaking coda to our trip.

Photos From Sainte-Chapelle

Warning -- there's a bunch.  There could be more, but I kept photos and captions to a minimum.  

Floor tiling.

There are angels among us.

The outside.

I believe there are

angels among us.

A Few Morning Photos From Our Paris Hotel Balcony

By the way, the balcony was very small, but that did not make it any less amazing.  Since these pics were all taken to the west of the hotel room, the sun makes the photos look even better.

Ya Gotta Louvre It!

Needs no introduction.

The Hotel des Invalides,

where Napoleon and a

few other French

luminaries are buried.

One last shot of the Olympic

flame balloon and the Eiffel

Tower.

Photos From Our Evening In Paris

Well, I screwed up and forgot to post the photos before posting the written post about a spectacular evening in Paris.  To read, just scroll down below this post, or click on the archives -- "An Evening of Joy. . ."

A Louvre statue right across

from our hotel balcony.

Also on the Louvre across

from our hotel balcony.

Joan of Arc right

outside our hotel.

The glowing thing under the

ball thing is the Olympic flame.

The "ball thing" is a "balloon."

A zoom in on the flame.

Part of the Louvre.

All three photos above were

taken from the same spot.

It's a great Zoom lens.  Note

the Olympic Flame balloon

through the arch.

The controversial I.M. Pei glass pyramid

that was completed in 1989.  I like it.

Others do not.

A wing of the Louvre.

Notre Dame bouncing back.

Part of the reviewing stand on

a bridge over the Seine River.

Selfie in front of the hotel.

Close-up of the flame

after take-off.

Selfie with the balloon/flame.

Plaza de la Concorde.

Arc d'triomphe.  The part of the

Champs de Elysee I was shooting

this from was closed for the Olympics. 

An Evening Of Joy -- Our Last Night Of The Trip? Paris

One modest annoyance with the cruise is that they told us really late when we would be back to the city of Bordeaux, so to be safe when setting up our flights to Croatia and then home from France is that we flew Sunday afternoon to Paris and then Monday early afternoon back to the U.S.

Well, it was, to paraphrase Monopoly, it  worked out to be an Inspirato error in favor.

Other than Monopoly, I've never had

a bank error in my favor.  Have you?

The best I could come up with was to land in Paris mid-afternoon, and then take a flight home less than 24 hours later on Labor Day.

Then I was able to book a free Inspirato hotel room.  Right after I did that months ago, I booked us a 9:00 am entry ticket to Saint-Chapelle, which I believe has the most beautiful stained glass in the world.  Carol prefers Chartres, which is impressive.

Glen's top four stained glass he's ever seen:

1.        Saint-Chapelle, Paris

2.        Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

3.        Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France

4.        Leon Cathedral, Leon, Spain

Anyhow, our flight to Paris was delayed, and traffic from the airport to the hotel was grim.  

Turns out our hotel room had a standing-room only balcony with a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Olympic flame/balloon (the Paralympics were still going on).  

View from our balcony.

The streets looked like a festival was going on.  With many streets closed for the Olympics, and stunning weather, the place felt like a party. 

I felt indescribable joy at being in Paris for the first time since 2013.  There are plenty of places we've been to that are great but we don't need to visit again.  However, cities like Barcelona, Sevilla, London, and Paris can never be overdone.

We set out with a goal to walk to the Eiffel Tower.  First we went by the Tuilieries Gardens to have a closer look at the Olympic flame.  Even with having watched a decent amount of the Olympics, I hadn't seen the flame.  Didn't know where it was (until we saw it from our room) and didn't realize it would rise into the sky at night.

Then we crossed a bridge to the Left Bank, taking in a view of the still closed Notre Dame.  Then we headed of to the Eiffel Tower, taking in the sights and sounds of Paris and the paralympic stadiums.  

We were still a long ways from the Tower (objects in your eye are further than they appear) when we realized if we kept going, we'd be late for dinner.  So we headed over towards the restaurant for our 8:30 pm reservation.  We took a couple of "short cuts" which ended up being closed to everyone, including pedestrians.

It allowed us a great view of the Arc d'Triomphe up the Champs d'Elysee, and we walked past the Plaza Concorde. 

I finished with a perfect dinner of Escargot and Oysters from Utah Beach.  They had multiple sites for the oysters, but I had to do my patriotic duty and slurp mine from a D-Day landing beach.  When I ordered, the waiter looked incredulous -- "oysters and escargot?  Nothing else?"  I said, "What else do I need?"  He nodded appreciatively.

I can't not include my favorite snail joke here:

A snail goes to buy a car. The salesman is surprised when the snail picks out a fast, expensive sports car. He’s even more surprised when the snail requires that a big red “S” be painted on both sides.

“Why would you want such a thing?” asked the salesman.

The snail replied, “I want people to say, ‘Look at that S car go!’”

(Editor: You cut and pasted that joke off the internet.  

Writer: Yeah, but I've been telling it since before the internet.

Editor: You also led into the joke with a double negative.

Writer: That wouldn't not be true!)

Watching the Olympic flame/balloon rise as we walked back to our hotel capped off a special evening.

Warning -- the next post will have a ton of photos because, well, it's Paris.  I have no choice!