November 7th

After a lovely, long night's sleep, I got up and decided to walk
around Ilse de Cite and the Latin Quarters for a day. I first walked
through Ilse de Cite and across the Siene to the National Museum of
the Middle Ages. It is in a beautiful old buliding that mixes
remnants of Medieval architecture with varing modern areas. Inside
there are rooms and rooms of sculptures, wooden carvings, paintings,
and tapestries. There was one tapestry that I particularly liked that
was called "The Grape Harvest" (or something along those lines) and
was of people harvesting and crushing grapes. The Museum's claim to
fame, however, is the series of six tapestries called "The Lady and
the Unicorn" about which several books have been written. They are
very different than most others, containing only one person and two
large animals (the unicorn and a lion) on bright red backgrounds.
Five of the series represenst senses, often times with a small cheeky
monkey giving the clue to which one. This sixth is "To My One
Desire."

I also did a tour of the Notre Dame, climbing the towers to view the
gargoils and the extensive city scape. Thankfully, the weather had
cleared to make this a beautiful view. And, of course, I saw "the
bell", which I don't think actually rings anymore. For the rest of
the afternoon I wandered around a bit, ending up in a Roman
ampitheater that is now a beautiful little park where kids play soccer
in the center. And, running out of internet time - more later.