Prisons to Aquariums

Tuesday we had only 1 official stop to make: Musée D’Orsay. D’orsay used to be a train station, but was converted into an impressionist and modern art museum. It was my favorite art museum on the last trip, but now that title goes to L’Orangerie.

After D’Orsay, Becky, Laura, Meghan, Caroline and I headed over to L’Île de la Cité to visit some of the lesser visited sights: La Conciergie (palace turned prison and a last stop for many people before they are guillotined during the French Revolution, one of whom was Marie Antoinette, and a possible relative of mine? There’s a list of all 2658 people who were executed, someone with my grandfather’s name was listed….). It was interesting to learn that at this time in history, even prisons had different levels of living before being beheaded. The poor were cramped in tiny rooms with no furniture; the rich could purchase a single room with a cot and a desk to continue working.

After visiting la Conciergerie (and taken advantage of their free bathroom) we went to visit La Sainte Chapelle. We tried to visit it 3 years ago but the line was insanely long. Today it wasn’t too bad, only 45 minutes wait. And it was definitely worth the wait. Basically the entire chapel is stained glass windows from floor to ceiling depicting 10 different stories from the bible. Beautiful.
The rest of the afternoon took a different twist: AQUARIUM TIME! I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the group I was with (minus Caroline) wanted to go check out the aquarium, so we did. As the Fishes Curator at New England Aquarium told me, aquariums in France are generally small, but very well done. And this one was no exception. They had a very nice variety of fresh and saltwater (including an African Lungfish!!  ) . After the aquarium we went back to the hostel, changed into our “fancy clothes” for the trip to meet to have a nice dinner with the class, treated to icecream, and went to Les Halles for the evening.

Bon soirée!
Lisa