#rndtheworldn44 - DAY 43 - Notre Dame and Archaeological Crypt

Day 43.  January 2, 2018.  Bonne Anee!  This was our last day in Paris and, because it was expected to be cold and probably rainy (again), we looked for a little change of pace with lots of inside time.  Notre Dame Cathedral was still on our list, and we discovered the Archaeological Crypt nearby.  We decided those would be our focus.  One result of our adventure was this photo of ourselves as if we were pictured on an old French coin.  Coiny, I know, but, what the hey, it was fun.

More on that later.  Because this was our last day, we wanted our meals to be as memorable as the visit.  We started with a hot breakfast (and DOUBLE cappucinos - Kathy's was a mocha) before the sun even came up.  This was the first workday since New Year's, and, indeed, the first workday since we had arrived Friday, December 29.  We sipped our coffees and marvelled at the hustle and bustle on Boulevard Saint Germain - busier than we had seen it our entire stay:

We walked over, across the Seine, and got an early view of Notre Dame from the Petit Pont, which brought us across to the far end of the cathedral's plaza - Parvis Notre Dame Place Jean-Paul II:

The cathedral was not advertised to be open until 10:30, but we misinterpreted the information.  Formal tours did not start until then, but when we arrived just after 9am, there was a short line to get into the cathedral, and we were able to walk right in.  A Mass was being celebrated, so we and the other tourists were exceptionally quiet as we walked around the ambulatory, marvelling at the design and detailed work done on each of the many chapels, a priest was saying Mass in French to those worshippers who were in the sanctuary for non-tourist purposes.  Here are two of the chapels:

We paused at the transept, transfixed by the huge blue rose stained-glass windows on the north and south walls:

One large area in the ambulatory, near the Stations of the Cross, was devoted for the holiday season to a manger scene --

-- expanded in this case to be part of a larger model of a medieval French village:

We had toured the Cathedral when we were in Paris years ago with Matt and Katie, but it had been hard to appreciate it, due to the crowds at that time.  We recall having to shuffle, elbow-to-elbow, with other tourists, and not being able to get close enough to the chapels, altars or statues to appreciate their artistry.  This time, there were no crowds, mainly because we had arrived so early.

We had hoped to take the guided tour of the Towers, but we discovered that timed tickets had to be purchased in advance, and they were sold out, so we turned our steps across the plaza to the Archaeological Crypt. 

The Archaeological Crypt of the Paris Notre-Dame (La crypte archéologique du Parvis de Notre-Dame) was created in 1965 to protect a range of historical ruins discovered during construction work on a modern car park under the plaza in front of the cathedral.  The ruins span nearly the entire early history of Paris - from the earliest settlement to the modern day. They have been dug out and stabilized, and many parts of them are now open to the public.  The crypts contain a large exhibit, detailed models of the architecture of different time periods, and how they can be viewed within the ruins. The main feature still visible is the under-floor heating installed during the Roman occupation.

Here is the only remaining intact ruin of the original port of the city, exposed down to what would have been the level of the island at water's edge at that time:

The Gallo-Roman town of Lutetia began to develop on the left bank of the Seine in the reign of Augustus (27 BC to 14 AD). This site was occupied by the Gaulish tribe, the Parisii, whose name features on coins recovered from the river Seine, and after whom the city was finally named. In the first quarter of the first century AD, several small islands were joined together to form the current Île de la Cité.  From the middle of the third century right up until the fifth century AD, Lutetia which was threatened by the first Germanic invasions, was a strategic site for the defense of the Roman Empire against the barbarians. The Île de la Cité was fortified in 308, becoming the active center of the city and the settlement on the left bank was partially abandoned.  This section of the ruins exposes what is thought to be the basement area of a merchant's house, with storage areas to the left and stairs leading up to the ground floor on the right:

At the end of the tour, a photo booth was available to let you take your own photo and have it "emblazoned" into the form of a gold coin, as a souvenir of the Archaeological Crypt.  Of course we had to do that, and the result is the first photo posted above.

Having immersed ourselves in the archaeological history of the Ile de la Cite, we decided to walk out to the westernmost point of the island and see how Paris and the Seine look from that vantage:

Believe it or not, most of the day had passed!  We strolled back to our hotel and rested a bit before heading out to our last supper in Paris - and again we chose yet another restaurant along the blocks of Rue de Buci and Rue Gregoire de Tours on the block west of our little hotel.  We decided we liked French country cuisine, so we picked another modest restaurant with that fare.  As we waited for dinner, we thought back over our visit to Paris and judged that it had been everything we hoped for.  So we toasted the Bonne Annee and our trip home tomorrow!

Au revoir Paris!