A Couple Snafus, But The Crown of Thorns

Today is the best I've felt in several days.  Like Trump starting my recovery (hard, though, it is to say his name!) several posts ago, this time it was the Crown of Thorns at Notre Dame, But, more on that later.  I thought, given my recent listlessness, that our agenda today was a bit aggressive with 3 stops:  Musee L'Orangerie, The Legion of Honor Museum, and Notre Dame for the Friday veneration of the Crown of Thorns.  Today marked the halfway point of our month in Paris so I decided I needed to suck it up!  (After all, we're Ghostbusters!)

Off we started about 11:00 a.m. with an Uber ride to "L'Orangerie" (a faux pas on my part as it turned out).  As we're driving to this famous museum, I just had the feeling like we weren't in the right place and that was confirmed when the driver pulled up in front of a nondistinct office building on a nondescript street.  I showed him MUSEE L'Orangerie on my phone and his response was "shit".  He asked us if we still wanted to go and that made me think it'd be a double charge.  A full one hour from when we left the apartment, he dumped us out at the Place de la Concorde, within eyesight of the Musee L'Orangerie - and all for the original amount (25 Euros).  He got a nice tip.

The Musee L'Orangerie is known for its giant Monet watercolor panels.  There are other artists there, of course, but the star of the museum are these panels - three each in two rooms, each panel about 90 feet long and perhaps 15 feet high.  They were interesting but I'm more partial to the beautiful watercolors from Giverny, and we'll be visiting there with Aaron, Melissa, and Chloe in a couple weeks.  We spent about an hour there, got some beautiful gifts from their boutique, and marched toward the Legion of Honor Museum across the Seine adjacent to the Musee d'Orsay.

We arrived hungry so a quick lunch at a cafe near it included an uber-cheesy onion soup (me) while Cheryl enjoyed cold herring salad.  A Coke Zero to wash it down (as it is a big drink here in France) and off we went into the free - no charge - museum.  I had been looking forward to the Museum of Honor Museum as we were told on the last trip here that there's only one Nazi in there - Dietrich von Scholtitz - the German general who was in charge of Paris when the Nazis decided in 1944 to vamoose.  

He ignored a direct order from Hitler to burn Paris to the ground - imagine that.  Turns out there's nothing there about him but it is an interesting museum.  Created in 1925, it displays France's honors, medals, decorations, and chivalric orders from Louis XVI to the present, including Napoleonic souvenirs of his military era.  There are also beaucoup Americans in it, including Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas McCarthur, Kirk Douglas, and the West Point Military Academy. 

At the conclusion of our time there (about 45 minutes), we set off for Notre Dame as, every Friday during Lent, they have a veneration honoring the Crown of Thorns.  We had walked about 1/3 of the 30 minutes toward Notre Dame when, on this beautiful but warm spring day, we decided to take a pedi-taxi the rest of the way.  Of course, had I known what Jeff told me later - that NY'ers use them when they're drunk because it makes it easier to charge outrageous fees - I would've kept walking.  It was pleasant but when we pulled up, I expected a charge of 20 Euros.  The young "driver" said "70 Euros".  My response was "You gotta' be shitting me!"  He pulled out his phone and showed me some kind of schedule and then said, "That's for one.  Another 25 for two".   95 Euros.  It was nearing 3 p.m. and the time of the veneration start so, rather than arguing, we tossed the money at him and beat it into Notre Dame.

Again, there were two lines - one short one for reservations and one long one for no reservations.  I walked to the front of the short one and asked the employee which line was for the Crown of Thorns, and she said "This one!".  Hooray, shortest line.  Got right in.  There was a billion people in various places inside Notre Dame, so a nice lady guided us to the center section and we found a seat.  Three minutes later, in marched a procession (which we couldn't see very well but everyone rose to their feet).

Since around 400 AD, a relic has been venerated as the Crown of Thorns. In 1238, the Latin Emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople yielded the relic to French King Louis IX.  It was kept in Notre Dame Cathedral until April 15 2019, when it was rescued from a fire and moved to the Louvre.  On December 12, 2024 a ceremony marking its return to Notre Dame Cathedral was held.  Is it the Crown of Thorns?  Who knows.  I'll tell you this.  I felt exalted to be in its presence and cried.  For me, it is. 

Physically, this is the best I've felt in a week!  We adjourned back to the apartment and are sharing our last night with Jeff and Leigh who leave at 6:00 a.m. to return to their lives in Garrison, NY.   

Ray and Brenda are staying until Monday.  Jenny, Dave, Ava, and Niamh arrive on Sunday afternoon.  We're enjoying our last meal of this, Week 2, at a place around the corner named "Clementine's" that Airbnb recommended.  It was delicious as has been virtually every piece of food that has gone into my mouth since arrival.  Charmingly, the owner had a picture of him on the wall with Henry Winkler in the restaurant in 1998.

Bon soir!