Our last full day in Paris, we left as a catch up day. So that ended up being the Musee de Cluny in the morning. I’d initially planned it in our Tuesday wander through the Latin Quarter, and we know how well the timing on that day ended up. Anyway, this museum is housed in a medieval abbot’s house that was built onto a Roman bathhouse. They recently remodeled the museum, so everything is housed beautifully. The only bummer is the back garden wasn’t open.
The most famous items in the museum are probably the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, but there was a wide variety of other medieval items on display as well. Again, if you’re a history buff, it’s worth a visit.
We also visited the Crypte Archéologique de l’İle de la Cité, which is under the square in front of Notre Dame. No pictures, because it’s really just a rock pile, but it’s a really interesting rock pile. There are Roman ruins and footings of later buildings in the area. They actually have the old Roman era bank of the Seine marked out at one point – which is quite a bit inland on the island today.
There’s also displays around the time of Victor Hugo and the push to save Notre Dame that he spearheaded. There’s some really interesting history to see, and it’s on the museum pass, so definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area. (The entrance is under the grand stand in the square that looks like it’s been built to allow more people to take pictures of the church – happy double use there.)
And finally, this is the view from our hotel room to the Gare de l’Est, at 10:00 PM on our final night there. Between Paris being 5 degrees further north in latitude than we are at home, and them being on the opposite side of their time zone, compared to us, it stayed light out until what seemed like a ridiculously late hour.
So that was Paris. We had a wonderful time. I definitely feel like I had to learn to travel again – I was so tired by the time we came home, but it was totally worth it. I do want to go back – there’s a still a bunch of things I want to see. I need to work on winning the lottery so I can travel more…