Lundi, Lundi. (Monday, Monday)

We started out the morning at the Place de la Concorde, an impossibly huge Rotary at the bottom of the Champs Elysee boulevard. The Musee Orangerie is there and we went for another small dose of art and artists. Picasso, Renoir, Monet, Rousseau and other notables,












plus two huge oval rooms only holding 40 foot sections of late in life murals of water lilies from a pond near Monet's house. At first I thought, so they are ok, next, please but as we sat and looked they really were quite special.





After a quick bite, we stood in a line at the church of Saint Chappelle for the entrance. Security is quite heavy at all sites and it is like entering an airport. Finally we got in to see the church that the king had had built about 1300 for 40,000 pounds to house what was thought to be the relic of Christ's Crown of Thorns that he had purchased for 100,000 pounds sterling.

The church has huge stained glass windows that line all sides and are covered with stories. Truly astonishing in detail and in effect. We sat for a long time admiring. The Crown relic is displayed once a year and is said to resemble a ring of straw.





The church also had some gargoyles that were quite interesting and used to scare away evil spirits and divert water from the church gutters and various carved critters and column dwellers.