Au Revoir Paris

First, some pictures of food:

Salad nicoise at a brasserie, slathered in a mustard dressing.

We loved the chicken sandwiches.  How is something so simple so tasty?

Sometimes it felt like there was mustard in everything. 

Smoked herring and cucumber on crostini

Standing room only at the tiny L'Avant Comptoir

Sardines

Amazing roasted pimento peppers

Sun-ripened strawberries - sooo sweet

Escargot

Tender white asparagus with cornichons and egg

Pan-fried whitefish with roasted vegetables and lemon butter sauce

On our last rainy morning in Paris, we woke up and leisurely ambled to the Île de la Cité to see the Saint-Chapelle, a royal medieval Gothic chapel built in the 13th century by King Louis IX.

I cannot help but marvel at buildings or structures built long ago still in existence today.  I try to picture the people who would have stepped into the same pews before me, walked the same stone paths, touched the same walls, lived and breathed and thought and hoped in the very same spot that I stand.  At those moments, I'm always overwhelmed by the enormity of space and time and our privilege to glimpse hundreds if not thousands of years of history.  It's amazing.

I kept thinking of the movie "Amelie" as we took the metro throughout Paris

This is the lower chapel:

And then you climb some steps to the upper chapel, which is famous for its 15 lengthy panels of delicate stained glass and the large rose window against the entire back wall:

The exterior is very cool too - you can see how long the windows are!

After we toured the Saint-Chapelle, we headed right next door to the Palais de Justice.  Not to sound like a total dork, but it was pretty amazing.  I guess we found it particularly interesting because we're lawyers, but I'd like to think that I would have been intrigued by this appeals court nonetheless.

It is built on the site of Louis IX's royal palace. Apparently Marie Antoinette was held in a prison within the compound (now no longer existing) before being guillotined.  I mean, does that give you goosebumps or what?

It was rainy and cold for pretty much our entire time in Paris, but we really enjoyed it nonetheless.  In particular I will most miss the brasseries.