Last day in Paris

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Yesterday was another big day, and we were so tired that we didn't put up a blog. We started the day heading to Montmatre and the Basilica of Sacre Coeur. Whilst walking, we came across the shopping centre of Les Halles, which was modern Eighties in design, but all of the floors were below street level. Next to it was the church of St Eustache. One thing about it is that they made their churches (not catherdrals) big here. We then continued walking to Sacre Coeur with its magnificent domes. This time around, we chose the funicular instead of the steps. Our next 'logical' stop was the Moulin Rogue. We decided not to go in, but to just see it from the outside. It is in the Red Light District after all, and it seems to be seedy 24/7. Taking the Metro, we travelled to Napoleon's Tomb. Unlike the man, everything about his tomb is big. On our way home, we dropped by a couple more churches, including St Suplice (of Da Vinci Code fame) to see the brass meridian marker (aka the rose line). We were disappointed in the interiors of a number of the churches in Paris, but we have since found out that their austerity is due to the French Revolution, where much of the ornamentation was removed.

Today was a little more sedate. We caught the train to Chartres to see the cathedral of Notre Dame and the old village. The building itself was maginficent, and they are in the process of restoring the cathedral inside and out. The unfortunate thing about this was that the sanctuary was completely filled with scaffolding. We were able to see a number of the stained glass windows with the famous "Chartres blue" glass. The old village was quaint, with many 15th century houses that looked like they came from a Shakespearean play.

This may be the last blog for a little while. It just depends on whether we can access the internet once we are in Spain.

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Photos

Sacre Coeur
An amazing place.

Notre Dame de Chartres
Rivals its name sake in Paris.

The old village
An example of some the architecture.

The Centre Pompidou
Modern architecture has a lot to answer. We see the top from our apartment. It is up there with the Gardena fountain.