The ‘Terror’ of the past

Tuesday 05 June 2012

Last day in Paris today. Our bags are considerably fuller now, not sure why, we didn’t buy that much in London and have bought nothing in Paris.

We headed off to L’Conciergerie and Sainte Chapelle today. L’Conciergerie was the ‘law’ courts of the Reign of Terror in Paris. In a few short years they beheaded thousands of people, including Marie-Anoinette. Also in the end they chopped the head of the bloke that set up and ran the courts. It pays to think about the what you’re getting into before taking on a new job. The building is stunning, but significant parts of it have been destroyed. In one of the rooms there is a guillotine blade hanging on the wall with the plaque stating that they believe it was the actual blade used during the Terror Wars. Interestingly the building was initially built as a palace by the first king of France in the 6th century.

Next stop, next door, Sainte Chapelle, the chapel of the palace. It is now within the ground of the Paris law courts, so you have to go through a full security and scanner check before being allowed in. For some reason we got directed to the short line stating ‘Public Entrance’, we’d been standing in the really long line that was ‘Sainte Chapelle’. A bloke came a long and said something which I couldn’t hear (maybe an hours delay?) so on asking him, he directed us to the short queue. We worked out later that they place was closed to public access between 1.00-2.15pm. We’d finished in an hour and were out just before 1.00pm. Hopefully that rude old French couple that barged in front of us and skipped the line got caught in the delay and had to wait until after 2.15pm.

The Sainte Chapelle is gorgeous. A two storey chapel. The ground floor is rather pretty, …

… but then you go upstairs and that is amazing. Fifteen huge stain glass windows.

Lunch was next, we found a nice little pizza place away from the main tourist strip with a carafe of house white.

We wandered slowly back to the our hotel along the Seine River to collect our luggage and head out to the airport. The train trip out to the airport took much less time than we thought. Unfortunately our plane has been delayed around 30 minutes. Terminal 3 at Charles de Gaulle airport isn’t the most exciting place, but we had a snack for dinner and are waiting for the flight.

I’m feeling really tired and blah. I’ve had hayfever all day, so have been sneezing and using a large number of tissues.