Ste. Chapelle

We had a great day today. Made it to Ste Chapelle, and then to the crypts of Notre Dame. We lunched on baguette sandwiches at Place St Mich.
At St. Chapelle, We had a bit of a wait, as the first line is security and ticket purchasers and holders are all together. We stood with a lovely mother and son pair who where touring from Ohio, and the time passed quickly. Once inside, I learned that the mission for this light-filled stained glass house was to cradle the crown of thorns that a French Monarch had purchases for mucho dollares. More money than the building to house it, but this is why it is so special. The Crown is now in Notre Dame and only brought out for special occasions. I think I heard there is a thorn from th crown in the back spire of ND. I was able, with Rick Steves help, to pick out cain clubbing Able , and Adam and Eve, even found on my own the panel depicting their cast out from Eden. Behind the altar we found the panel with Jesus having the crown placed. And then you work your way 270 degree around this small rectangular building and end up facing the Rose window which is supposed to represent the last judgement, but it's so beautiful.
I had to muster all our strengths to drag us out. We had hoped to see the Notre Dame tower, I wanted to reference my emails with my schedule for today, and found that hadn't been down loaded. I asked at St Chapelle where I learned McD has free wifi, but as we crossed in that direction I asked at the Gilbert Jeune Store, the students store on the left bank, and he directed me to Cyber Cafe, but he has only access not WiFI so he directed me to Starbucks, I tried to log on and when it failed I learned you had to pay 2 euros to get access, so I did, after waiting in line, and it worked and I got an email from Phil and Tracy!
Not only were they here, we knew we had parallel trips, but they open for dinner, so we agreed to check in later.
Now down loaded and with my known freedom till 2 pm we headed to the Notre Dame line, we had our 2 day Museum passes, We tried to access the front, but oh right, this is the one place where that doesn't work. So given the Sun was HIGHNOON, we opted out and found take-out lunch and manged fountain side at Pl St Michele. Heat and fatigue led us to the St Mich Metro with its super Art Nouveau signs.
We caught the Mo to Invalides stop, where we journeyed to Rodin exhibit.  It was blisteringly hot. I headed for the interior and skipped the garden. It is only 1 euro when bought alone. I had to remember, I had 2pm schedule w Dr Cl, so I had an abbreviated tour, and hightailed it to Clinic B. I had google mapped Rodin to Clinic B, but the map was too small and enlarging the photo on the iphone only gave distortion, ugh! I ran across streets and bridges, and up to Clinic B, pretty accurately, I have to say, and all to Edith Piaf. I am late, I go for the iphone labeled entrance, but no, it is the main one I want, I circle around and I enter this totally foreign space in a totally different country and culture, but without a hitch, I was able to communicate my mission and get where I was going.  On the elevator to make it down I met a PT who was a lymphologist!  Oy vey! I am surely late. I find the locker room and the paper scrubs de rigeur, and make my way to the central desk, to announce, "Je suis Dr Gass, je travailler avec Dr. Clough aujord'hui?" You cannot imagine my angst as I say this, because I have such limited french I cannot explain that I am not working with him but here to observe him. But it doesn't matter, they are all so lovely. The woman in charge indicates I should retrieve a green plastic bag from the locker room for my purse to leave it in the office behind the door. It is too much for me, so I give the quizzical look and she then leads to where I need to find my bag and puts it all together form me.

The schedule was behind, which can sour anyone's mood, and has, but regardless I did have an incredible experience today and learned so much, all detailed in my hand written notes. I met his colleagues-in-training from Mexico, Lorena and Suzanne from Scotland, and again our Italian compadre, Stephano. I had the chance to come to the rescue when I had the camera when others were lacking. Of course after a slew of photos, my battery failed, ugh.  We all had fun discourse on different aspects of what we encountered, but I had to remember to silence appropriately...

I then made it home to 178 and down loaded the photos of the day. Mom mad dinner. Erin showed me her blog which puts mine to shame, and now we are looking forward to dinner tomorrow with the Rizuttos who likewise are here.