Paris: Day 38 - our last day in Paris!

Tomorrow is officially our last day in Paris, but we are heading to the airport at 10:00 am, so today was our last full day to do things in the city before we head home. We tried to do as much as possible and see things that we either had not seen or wanted to see one more time! We visited the Pompidou Center in the morning. It is a modern art museum, and the building itself is modern. It was built with the inside "stuff" on the outside. Thus, it looks quite different from the buildings around it.

Allison & Luke by the Pompidou Center














the escalator to the top














The fifth floor is the modern art from 1905-1960, with Picasso, Matisse, and others. We both enjoyed this floor, but Luke was not a fan. He was pretty fussy - I think he just wanted to move around. The fourth floor had the more recent works of art, and I was not much of a fan of these works of "art" - I think that I, Allison, and maybe even Luke could have done some of those pieces! Luke fell asleep while we were walking around, which helped with the noise. He was laughing and grunting quite a bit through the museum!





























Alli in front of a Matisse painting
















































From the Pompidou Center we went to Saint-Chapelle, a gothic cathedral located near Notre Dame and inside the Palais du Justice. We went through security at the Palais du Justice in order to get to the cathedral. The outside was nothing special, especially being so close to Notre Dame. However, the inside had amazing stained glass windows! This cathedral was originally built to house the crown of thorns that Jesus wore while on the cross. It is said that French crusaders rescued the crown from a church that had been burned/destroyed. The crown of thorns is now held at Notre Dame, and it is brought out on the first Friday of the month and on Easter. Unfortunately we did not know about this and so we missed seeing it!
























































We got crepes - our last crepes in Paris! - near Notre Dame. We both got the butter and sugar crepes. As you can see, they put a little sugar on it!















Alli with her crepe by Notre Dame




















We rode the metro out to the end of the 1 line at La Defense to see the Grand Arch. Apparently, around 30 years ago the government decided that the modern office buildings should not be in the middle of Paris in order to keep the city's historical and cultural feel. Because of this, the modern office buildings are on the outskirt of the city. La Defense has quite a few of these modern office buildings with a large paved courtyard in the middle and a gigantic arch. The square arch is tall enough to fit the Notre Dame cathedral under it! It was neat because it was obviously planned the way it is for a purpose - the Grand Arch is straight in line with the Arc de Triomphe and the Obelisk and the Louvre. It reminds me of the mall in D.C. where the monuments are in a line.

Allison & Luke by the Grand Arch

































On the way back to the apartment from La Defense we stopped on Champs-Elysees one last time to walk around. We saw the Arc de Triomphe again and walked down to the Place de la Concorde (where the Obelisk is and the Jardin de Tuilieries begin) and got on the metro. We grabbed dinner from our favorite place - a Greek sandwich with fries and a ham & mushroom pizza! We are almost done packing, so our Paris trip is officially coming to a close. We leave at 2:00 pm Paris time tomorrow and arrive in Detroit at 5:00 pm. We should be to Indy by 8:30, and Allison's mom is picking us up. Tomorrow Luke will finally get to sleep in a bed instead of his pea pod!