Sunday, October 3. Because we had signed up for so many optional tours, today would be our only free time in Paris. We slept until 8:00 and didn't leave the hotel until 10:00. We took the bus that went to the Ile de la Cite. It was a beautiful sunny day. We got off the bus almost directly in front of Sainte Chapelle. It was a couple blocks walk to Notre Dame. We had not been inside the Cathedral since 1961, so we wanted to see it again. A Mass was underway and the whole area in and around the church was very crowded.

Hotel-de-Ville

Sainte Chapelle

Notre Dame seen from Left Bank

After seeing the church, we crossed the bridge to the Left Bank and examined the wares of some of the books stalls. Our plan was to take the subway to the Musee d'Orsay, which we had never been in. As we descended into the subway station, a woman told us that the Orsay station was closed due to a bomb threat. She suggested we take the bus that ran along the Seine. We walked to the bus stop and saw that it did not run on Sunday. Reluctantly, we began to walk toward the Orsay, trying all the while to flag down a taxi. In the end, we wound up walking all the way there, arriving about 12:30.

The museum is housed in the former Gare (railroad station) d'Orsay, built in 1900 to blend with the architectural style of the Louvre and other nearby buildings. By 1940 the station was already obsolete. The building was used for various other purposes and, at one point, was considered for demolition. The idea of using it as a museum took root in 1975 and the present museum finally opened in 1986. It features art from the second half of the 19th century, sculptures as well as paintings. The Orsay is said to have the world's best collection of Impressionists, but their contemporaries are also well represented.

Admission to Paris museums is free the first Sunday of each month, and there was a substantial line to get in. It moved fairly fast, however, and we were inside in half an hour. We headed straight for the cafeteria and had lunch. Afterward we walked out onto the roof of Orsay for some fine views of the city.

The Orsey Museum

Jane on the roof of the Orsey

View of Sacre Coeur from the roof of the Orsey

We then toured the galleries, working down from the upper level. The last exhibit we visited, on the ground floor, was a cut-away scale model of the Opera Garnier. By coincidence, the Opera was our next destination. We wanted to take a tour of the interior.

Monet's bridge in Giverny

Monet's Woman with Umbrella

Sculpture display & the clock

 

Grand staircase in the Opera House

 

We caught a taxi outside the Orsay about 3:45 and drove to Place del'Opera. The front doors of the Opera were open and we got into the lobby, but there were no tours and we could not get past the Grand Staircase to see the auditorium. Moving on to plan B, we took the subway to the Anvers station to see the Sacre Coeur church in Montmartre, arriving about 4:30.

The narrow streets below the church were swarming with Sunday strollers, but that only added to the ambience. We took the funicular up as far as it went, trying to save a few steps, but it still was a long climb to the church, very rough on Jane's ailing knee.

The funicular at Montmarte

Inside Sacre Coeur

Sacre Coeur

We had visited Sacre Coeur twice before, the last time in 1986. This time, though, we found a scale model of the church that we must have missed on our earlier visits. Exiting the church, we walked around most of the exterior before heading back for the funicular. We took a leisurely walk through the narrow streets, then caught the subway back to our hotel. We arrived about 6:00.

We had done a lot of walking, so we rested a while before going to dinner at 7:45. Although it was our anniversary, we had celebrated it at the Moulin Rouge the night before and, after our tiring day, we were not up to going out on the town. We went back to the Villa St. Jacques where we had eaten on Friday evening and had an excellent meal. We got back to the hotel about 9:00 and packed for our morning departure.