I was a bit behind on my homework so I spent most of the day pretending to be studious. By about 3:00 I was all antsy and needing to go outside (I'm addicted to walking) so I did. That's the best part about this semester, usually if I'm in a real semester with a full class load and work I would only have taken a ten minute thinking-food break and then gone back to responsibility.
I decided to keep up with the sudden desire to do school stuff and directed my walking desires to a walk that I had to do for class (man, I hope I can find a class next semester that gives me credit for going on walks...you know, all the monumental stuff in Provo).
The walk directed me to the
Crypte Archéologique du Parvis which is right in front of Notre Dame de Paris. I was really excited to re-discover it because I had vague memories of it from when I was last in Paris (4-5 years ago?) but had no idea what I was remembering. It's right there and I must have walked past it maybe five times since I've been here! I'm obviously super observant.
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| Who'd of thought? |
The
crypt is really interesting because it's a bunch of rubble from when the Romans were occupying Paris (or back then Lutece). I just peeked in because I didn't have a lot of time...but you've got to love Roman rubble/ruins.
Then I went by the
Palais de Justice where justice things happen. One of the girls in the SAG got almost pickpocketed and had to come here to testify in court--exciting huh? (I know more about it than that, I'm just feeling lazy so please don't judge my intelligence based on this--or any--of my blogs).
The walk ended at the
Musée Cluny which is a marvelous, perfectly sized museum about the middle ages. By perfectly sized I mean that it's big enough that you're satisfied at the end, but not so big that it's overwhelming. Plus, they have the best collection ever. They have the perfect proportion of paintings:statues:armor:relics:tapestries--no really--they do!
Look how pretty!
The museum was closing in 45 minutes from when I arrived so I had to speed through, a good excuse to come back again!
My favorite things:
La Dame à la licorne tapestries! There was no flash allowed and the room was very dark, and my camera hates dimly lit things. Consequently, I didn't get very good pictures of the tapestries--but they were incredible in real-life!
I want a t-shirt with this groovin' unicorn so badly! Definitely going to be making one upon my return to Utah--is that legal? Will I end up getting sued for copying this cool logo? It may be worth it.
And voila: the Holy Grail! I had
this scene playing in my head after seeing some of the old catholic ceremonial items.
Ok get ready for this, I stumbled across something that may have been even better than the unicorn tapestries...are you ready? It's super exciting, so exciting that I almost squealed with delight at the museum!
A REAL HONEST-TO-GOODNESS NARWHALE HORN!
I had totally forgotten about
narwhales! They are probably the coolest animals ever that actually exist--the closest thing to a unicorn--who knows maybe after the unicorns missed getting onto Noah's ark they just had to adapt quickly and became whales (this is a very well thought out scientific theory).
Can I have one?
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| This man has been gored by a unicorn? |
There were all sorts of lovely old books--I can't imagine how much time must have gone into illustrating (illuminating) the entire thing by hand.
This carving of John the Baptists head is significant because the last time I came to Paris I took a picture of it, so here's another one.
Also, the Cluny Museum is built over some Roman baths, so that makes the museum that much cooler.
I love the Cluny Museum, and so should you! If you're ever in Paris I highly recommend seeing it (even if it only is to see the narwhale horn).
Huzzah walking class!
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