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Day 14, October 18, 2007
The last day of the pilgrimage

Fall ambiance was coming to Paris.

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The Gallery of Paris features:

The Seine river along its banks and on the boat
Norte Dame de Paris
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and the Revelation of the French Revolution
Montmartre, 18th arrondissement . A historic area on the Butte, home to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. A home for artists, studios, cafes of many great artists.
Streets of Paris

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We got to Rome airport to catch the flight to Paris in the morning. We left Rome behind, we had a short time admiring the history and her magnificence, worthy of her name as the eternal city. The luggage was much heavy for each of us, everyone wanted to bring home some kind of souvenirs, most of the weight was the holy water in gallons brought from Fatima, mostly Lourdes. As the last day of the trip was coming to an end, so was our body which had sustained long, gruel time-crunching schedule with various diets, changing time zones, long bus rides, short visiting stops, and the bus life of compadre through the trip; all of these added up the challenges of pilgrimage spirit. The flight from Rome to Paris took more than an hour to reach its destination.

Upon landing in Paris, the bus took us along the Seine river in the morning to reach the chapel Rue du Bac 140, in Paris, known as the Daughter of Charity. This was the place St Catherine Laboure saw the vision of the Blessed Mother, and was given the request of making the Miraculous Medal. We had the morning Mass here, and felt very much welcome by the sisters, among whom many of them expanded the charity missions into southeast Asia many years past in our history.

We left the Chapel for the Norte Dame de Paris, located on an island of the Seine. The bus parked in front of the Paris city hall, we walked a short stop across the Seine river to the church. There was a long waiting line at the front entrance, yet the constant flow was swift to accommodate all visitors, among them were many Asians in large group numbers. We had some time to stroll through the church inside; the broad walkways along the side walls led visitors to the shrines along the corridors, encircling the center of the church. We exited the church after the stroll for less an hour, and met our people to walk back to the bus. On the way back we quickly stopped at several street vendors to look for souvenirs.

We were next to see Basilique du Sacre-Coeur, Basilica of Sacred Heart, up on the hill of Montmartre. The bus went through the streets of Paris, zigzagging corners and busy traffic of the city. Quite a few images were captured along the way through the bus window with streets and activities of this well known city. Yet buildings, streets, locations did not have any name attached with the images. Hopefully when scrolling in the galleries, the Parisians may recognize their city whereabouts through this gallery.

We parked the bus on the foothill of Montmartre, the bus had to leave us behind or to get a violation ticket. We walked uphill through a short alley, full of vending merchants, mostly from north Africa. We had a short walk through this area, and reached the hill of Montmartre towering on top appearing as the round, white steeples breaking the skyline of the hill top. There are hundreds of steps to get to the top, along the way there were aggressive street vendors who hassled tourists with their merchandise.

Once inside the church, there were hosts to greet visitors, and to signal everyone for not using recording media of any kind. My camera was folded in compliance for this only time. The church inside was well lit by natural lighting through windows, visitors walked in a round circle through the shrines. The interiors were well built with architectural splendors in cement grayish colors. The basement of the church was a catacomb requiring paid entry and containing relics of the saints. If one needed to go to a restroom, lunch time was a bad time, the restrooms were closed during the lunch hours. For our lunch hours, some of us quickly vacated the premise to find a restroom at the nearby merchant shops, with a paid fee, as most of EU sites. We had a long lunch break on the way back to the bus rendezvous, while some were doing a little shopping here through the alley of Montmartre. We found some decent Chinese foods by a small mom-and-pop shop with economy prices along the main avenue.

After lunch we headed to the see the Eiffel tower, from the hill advantage point of the city. We had a quick stop on this top hill to see the Eiffel from a distance, this was the picture moment with the tower with the sun in the back as many discovered that none of the pictures came out right. Coming out of this place, the bus population split with a choice whether to go on one’s own excursions of Paris, or to ride leisure boat on the Seine. Most of us took the boat ride, with an additional fee.

There went the leisure ride on the Seine for many of us, which turned out to be a quite pleasant experience as the scenery of the river open air unveiled its peace, elegance of he city in slow motion. From the boat ride along the river, one could learn through the earphone system so much about the history of buildings along the Seine, such as Norte Dame de Paris, House of Congress, victory bridge of Napoleon, Eiffel, etc. The slow pace of the boat, and the subtle ambiance of fall arriving in Paris could make the boat ride could not be more pleasant and memorable.

The remaining of a day staying in Paris gradually turned into twilight for us on the last day, as we prepared to pack up for the next day departure; we were all be glad to go home on the other side of distance ocean as we departed from the Paris airport.

Official Paris info
http://www.parisinfo.com/sortir-a-paris/expositions-1/les-musees-de-la-ville-de-paris/
Paris Sightseeing
http://www.paris-attractions.com/category/notre-dame-cathedral/


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