Paris Friday 25, Day 2

Getting into the time zone, woke up at 6.30. After breakfast at the Hotel, we walked to Notre Dame Cathedral. A rainy morning but refreshing. Good to get to the Cathedral early as it was relatively quiet. We visited the Cathedral's Treasures which included a reliquary made to house Christ's umbilical cord, and another with the femur of St Vincent.  The bone had his name written on it in neat copperplate. When we returned to the main body of the church, it was packed with tourists, cameras flashing and people taking turns to have themselves photographed with the altar or the windows as a background. Must be very aggravating for the local congregation.

Outside, the tourist buses were rolling in and the crowds queuing up. We visited the archaeological crypt of Ile de la Cite, which had some interesting but rather motion sickness inducing 3D computer generated vistas of Note Dame and surrounding Paris at different stages from 1100's onwards.

Sainte Chapelle next, Romanesque rather than Gothic and featuring a beautiful blue starry ceiling vault.  Our lunch on Blvd. San Michel was half the price of yesterday, my goal is to reduce the price of lunch by 50% each day for the rest of our stay here. Next stop was the Musee National de Moyen Age, which was the hit of the day, beautifully curated, stunning collection of stuff. We will be going back there before we leave. It houses The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. We've never seen anything like them, and amazing that so little is known about them or their creator.

After the Lady and the Unicorn we retired back to our room for a siesta, then headed out for dinner and a nice half bottle of Le Puy wine - delicious! We slowly meandered back down the little streets around San Sulpice.