Paris trip report, 2015, day 1: Cluny museum, Luxembourg gardens, Montparnasse tower

June 20, 2015: Cluny museum, Luxembourg gardens, Montparnasse tower

Thought I’ll cover another stay in Paris here to have some continuity of sight seeing options for Paris

https://picasaweb.google.com/108910506663540711253/6272982759068429265#6274340449208550402

video covers Cluny museum, Luxembourg gardens, Montparnasse tower

CDG to Hotel Diana, Latin quarter

As part of a holiday mainly in Denmark, Norway we met up in Paris. June 20th afternoon we flew in, met up at the Sheraton lobby in CDG, took the RER B to St Michel-Notre Dame station. 

Took the exit marked Notre Dame because that’s the one having escalator and bought mobilis pass at the manned counter for 1 day 1-5 zones €16,60 to be used the next day for our day trip to Fontainebleau Chateau.

Walked to our hotel Diana, crossing the Petit Pont, straight onto Rue St Jacques, checked in.

Cluny museum 

1^st visit was to Cluny museum which is a stone's throw away from our hotel.

We loved the famous tapestries as well as the stained glass.

Tapestry

Reliquary

Stained glass

Ivory Powder horn

The Lady and the Unicorn (French: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs ("cartoons") drawn in Paris around 1500.

The tapestries are created in the style of mille-fleurs (meaning: "thousand flowers").

Five of the tapestries are commonly interpreted as depicting the five senses – taste, hearing, sight, smell, and touch. 

Touch

Taste

Smell

Sound/Music

Sight

Finale: "À mon seul désir"

The sixth displays the words "À mon seul désir". The tapestry's meaning is obscure, but has been interpreted as representing love or understanding. Each of the six tapestries depicts a noble lady with the unicorn on her left and a lion on her right; some include a monkey in the scene.

 Moved out when the museum closed and had our picnic meal of home made paratas/tortillas and tomato relish in the gardens.

Sorbonne university

Walked down the Rue des Ecoles and saw this statue of French Renaissance writer Michel de Montaigne (1533-92). His essays directly influenced Emerson, Nietzsche, Rousseau, Asimov and even Shakespeare.

Sorbonne students believe it brings good luck to touch his shoe before an exam... that's why it's so shiny!

We collected some good luck too!

Quotes by Michel de Montaigne:

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.

On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom

You can’t buy happiness; of course you can buy clothes and shoes and that’s one and the same thing!

Caught you napping, ha? Ha... ha..

Of course the last one is my stupid quote!

The Panthéon 

We then walked to Pantheon, enjoying these on the way.

Lovely paper art!

The Panthéon (Latin: Pantheon, from Greek Πάνθεον meaning "Every god") is a building in the Latin Quarter.

It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house her relics but, after many changes, now functions as a secular mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens. Among those buried in its necropolis are Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Louis Braille, Jean Jaurès and Soufflot, its architect.

Marie Curie was the first woman interred based on her own merits

It is an early example of neoclassicism, with a façade modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a dome

Jardin du Luxembourg

We walked on to Jardin du Luxembourg.

We had loved the Pitti palace in Florence on a recent trip and loved this garden and palace built on similar lines on the request of the Medici queen.

By 8.30 pm, we moved out of the garden and walked to Tour Montparnasse,

Tour Montparnasse

Tour Montparnasse is a 210-metre (689 ft) office skyscraper located in the Montparnasse area

We bought the tickets, went up by the lift and enjoyed the view of the city sprawling under…

We had planned to take bus 95…direction Porte des Montmartre… to station Pont du Carrousel/Quai Voltaire, Walk to Pont Neuf for a Seine cruise which we had bought advance online tickets. However, we had not brought our online tickets, so decided to do the cruise the next day. 

Took bus 63 back to our hotel and called it a day.

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/05/paris-trip-report-2015-day-2.html
covers our day trip to Fontainebleau

Here's the google map marked by me for this part of the trip, you can zoom in and see details