Day 4!
Day 4 was an adventure around Paris's famous Montmartre neighborhood! After our adventure there, we headed down to the Cluny museum to see the famous Unicorn tapestries!
One of my favorite things about the walk was seeing all the art nuevo subway station entrances. I love the nature inspired look of Art Nuevo. I snapped the photo on the left during our walk as our tour guide, Rolinka told us about it!
The Montmartre neighborhood walk was a total delight. We got to see many of the famous hang-outs of impressionist painters.
One of my favorite highlights of the walk was seeing the view of the city from the steps of the church on the top of Montmartre.
I learned that the neighborhood got it's name from being the 'mountian of the martyr' or 'mount martyr' (montmartre), named for the Saint Denis, who was beheaded at montmartre more than a melena ago.
Inside of the church of Saint Denis at the top of Montmatre, you can find a lot of beautiful mosaics. The entire church was built in more modern times in a 'neo byzentine' style, echoing the beuatiful mosaics of the byzentine empire.
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We had an absolute blast walking around the famous mountmatre, where many impressionist painters lived and painted in the late 1800's. As someone who's studied a lot of art history, I was enamored with the street cafes, shops, and people selling their art in the neighborhood square.
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Something we both really enjoyed while exploring the neighborhood was drinking the local hot mulled wine. There were a couple of vendors selling it so we had to indulge. It was sweet and spicy.
Vin chaud was one of the best parts of visiting Paris in the winter!
When we were done with our adventure at mountmatre, we took the funicular down the hill and hopped on the metro for our next stop, the Cluny museum.
The funicular was fun, the car remains level as it moves down the hill. I'm a fan of cool modes of transportation like this.
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Next, we spent the afternoon at the Cluny museum, home to some of the most beautiful midevil art I've ever seen!
This was a travel must for me because I wanted to see the famous 'Lady and the unicorn' tapestries.
The tapestries explore all five senses - taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing.
The lady feeds seeds to her little bird friend - she touches the unicorn's horn - she plays her organ, she shows the unicorn it's own reflection in the mirror - and smells flowers. Every sense is explored.
The final tapestry has the lady enter into a tent with "À mon seul désir" on it - to my only desire.
The meaning is open to interpretation. Is she leaving something inside the box? Taking it out? Going into the tent or coming out?
It's up to the viewer to decide what this means.
For me, seeing these tapestries was absolutely worth the trip to Paris alone. They were incredibly beautiful.
