Paris: The Birthday Trip - Day 4 (part 2)

left: Courtyard, Hôtel-Dieu de Paris
right: Denise takes a break in one of the gardens of the The Museum of the History of Paris (The Hôtel Carnavalet).

left: Side altar in the Church of Saint Paul-Saint Louis.
right: Hôtel de Ville. Sculpture depicting 'Art'.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

We left Notre Dame and were walking along Pl. Jean-Paul II when we found ourselves at the entrance to the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, the oldest hospital in the city (est. in the 7th century). I'm not very fond of hospitals but Denise's curiosity would not be denied and she marched right in for a look.

It's a good thing she did for we found ourselves in the courtyard seen in the photo at the top-left of this page. I could never have imagined a hospital looking like this. The architecture seen here dates from 1877.

From here we walked to the Hôtel de Ville where the city's administration has been situated since 1357. Only the shell survived a fire set by Communards in 1871. Reconstruction (1873-1892) included the current facade's sculptures of 338 famous Parisians, as well as lions and other decorations, which were commissioned from more than 230 artists.

Our next stop was the Picasso Museum. Unfortunately it was closed for renovation so we moved on to the Museum of the History of Paris where we wandered through rooms showing a level of luxury few Parisians would ever have seen. Bring on the revolution(s)!

Denise found the car she wants in the Place des Vosges.

The sky had been getting darker and carried the threat of rain as we set out for Victor hugo's house in the Place des Vosges.

We spent quite a bit of time in the home of this remarkable man, reading newspaper articles and pamphlets about him and the social and political issues he was involved in.

The photo below-right is of a desk designed by Madame Hugo for a raffle to raise money for the poor children of the island. On it you can see the inkstands and pens of Lamartine, George Sand, Alexandre Dumas, and of Victor Hugo himself. The little drawer under each inkstand contains a letter from each author, sent with the articles at the request of Madame Hugo, to prove that the items had been used by them. The raffle was successful and raised a large sum of money. The winner, recognizing the kind intent of Madame Hugo, returned it to her as most deserving of it.

right: The entrance to Victor Hugo's house in the Place des Vosges.
right: The desk designed by Madame Hugo for a charity raffle.

Next, we found ourselves at the Church of St. Paul - St. Louis (consecrated 1641) on the Rue Saint-Antoine in the Marais district. In 1843, Léopoldine Hugo, the eldest daughter of Victor Hugo, was secretly married to Charles Vacquerie here. Victor Hugo gave the church two clam-shell Holy Water holders to mark the occasion. The shells can still be seen in the church.
NOTE: Victor Hugo used this church as the setting for Cosette and Marius’s wedding in Les Misérables.

Now we were done for the day. Exhausted and happy, and with the sky teasing us with the possibility of rain we headed for the Metro to be carried away to the comfort of our hotel room for a cosy evening and a very good night's sleep.

Another great day. In Paris :-)

Previously: Day 1, Day 2 (part 1), Day 2 (part 2), Day 2 (part 3), Day 3 (part 1) Day 3 (part 2), Day 4 (part 1)

Next: Day 5 (part 1)