Sunday, 27 August. We slept late and, after breakfast at the US Army snack bar, we went to mass at Notre Dame. There was a memorial mass for the war dead, and it was mobbed. I had forgotten the camera and had to go back to the hotel for it. Afterwards, we walked over to the Left Bank, passing many sidewalk artists on the way. We browsed around the little stands and bought a watercolor of Notre Dame.
Recrossing the bridge over the Seine, we went to the Palace of Justice, then visited Sainte Chapelle (1246). The columns that support the roof are so thin it looks like the walls are almost solid stained glass windows from top to bottom, very tall and delicate, a marvel in its time. Next we visited the Louvre. Sharon didn't even want to go in, but we forced her. Among many others art treasures, we saw the famous statues, Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace) and Venus de Milo, (both from the 2d Century B.C.), and Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa. We then had a bite at the Louvre snack bar. Then Sharon went to wait at the car while we spent a couple more hours looking around.
After changing at our hotel, we met Colonel Shull and his family at the S.A.C. Officers' Club, where they took us to the buffet. It was very nice to visit with them again, even though they had only left Verona about two months before. After we left the Shull's, we took a drive around Paris. We found the Eiffel Tower, but it was not lit up. We drove to Montmartre and down Place Pigalle, now an almost continuous row of striptease joints. We went by Notre Dame and drove around the Latin Quarter, the student district. We stopped in the Tuileries Garden by the Louvre for an interesting visual effect in which the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde and the Arc of Triumph are framed in the smaller arch in the gardens.
Next we drove to the huge Place de la Concorde and walked around among the beautiful fountains. By this time we could see that the Eiffel Tower was now illuminated, so we drove over there. We were a little surprised to find that the tower was an unattractive "rustoleum "pink. Just up from the Tower we saw in front of the Palais de Chaillot a huge rectangular pool filled with dozens of illuminated fountains, so beautiful that they were breathtaking. It was really a fine climax for our tour of Paris by night and convinced us that Paris is probably the most beautiful city in the world. |
