Into the Heart of Paris.

Île de la Cité is symbolically, and quite geographically, the heart of Paris. You might think you don’t know where this is but you do! It’s the little patch of earth that the amazing Notre Dame Cathedral resides on. The island is in the middle of the Seine River and doesn't take up too much space. Although it’s small, it contains some of the oldest memories of Paris. We took a day to tour the little island and discover some of its many treasures.

The only metro stop on the island is Cité (line 4). The exit to this stop is positioned at the entrance of the Marché aux Fleurs. This is a market that sells plants and garden ornaments. They sell plants and flowers for amazing prices and have countless handmade products to spice up any garden! The marketplace has a cute rule that forbids taking photos of the merchandise unless you say hello to the vendors. So we said our bonjours and took our photos before heading to the Palais de Justice.

So this area was always a bit confusing to me so I'll pass on a brief history lesson I learned on my little adventure. From the sixth century, the Palais de la Cité was where the French royalty lived. During the 14th century its purpose changed when Charles V moved out and the Palace then served as the judicial hub. And then again during the French Revolution it was repurposed to serve as a prison and courthouse. (Most famous prisoner: Marie-Antoinette.)

There’s a building known as the Palais de Justice which is currently used for the high court proceedings in Paris. It’s surprisingly open to the public as well. We walked in the front door and had the opportunity to walk around the courthouse even though there were court hearings going on throughout the building. We spent a while wandering around until we found a man who gave us a map and even pointed us toward an empty courtroom we could check out.

The building Palais de Justice is located inside a fenced in courtyard, which I believe is also called the Palais de justice. It’s a complicated place. But there’s more than just the courthouse located in here. The famous Sainte-Chappelle is here as well! This is famous for its stellar stained glass windows and “­­­­­­­­­­­gothic architecture”.

I’ve always wanted to see the inside of the Sainte-Chappelle on a bright day because stained glass is absolutely delightful but I had no idea just how cool of a place this was. It was built by the order of Louis IX to hold famous religious relics, which ended up costing more than the construction of the building itself. It's divided into an upper and lower chapel, the lower was used by the palace staff and the upper chapel was used by the king and his family. This is the pride and joy of the Sainte-Chappelle. The 15 massive stained glass windows depict the 1,1113 scenes from the bible-from Genesis to the resurrection of christ. Even those who aren't religious can admire the time and finesse that went into this magnificent work of art!

The lower chapel may not have the grand windows, but it is also a very beautiful place. I imagine it was a very spiritual place in its prime, with a statue of the virgin Mary at the end, but it's currently where the gift shop is located so that takes away from the spirituality of this place unfortunately.

*TOP TIP*

There are two lines to go through security into this courtyard: the Sainte-Chappelle entrance and the Palais de Justice entrance. The Palais de Justice line is practically empty while the Sainte-Chappelle line is 400m long (if you don't know meters it's okay because it's an outrageous hyperbole for how much longer this line is.) Use the Palais de Justice line and get in with practically no wait!

To get to the Conciergerie, we had to leave the courtyard and enter through a specific entrance. On our way we picked up a staple french street food: the humble croque Monsieur. Now I don't know if it was because of the new life we received from our lunch or the awe of the continuous gothic architecture, but when we walked into the Conciergerie we were truly amazed. We walked into a huge room with amazing style and strategic lighting.

There's a lot to see but there's also a lot to learn. There was a lot of information about the palace and the prison during the time of the Revolution.

On your way out make sure you don't miss the oldest clock in Paris. My photo isn't great but in reality it's actually really nice. There are two latin inscriptions on the clock: one above and one below. Translated they read:

"He who has already given two crowns will be given a third."

"This mechanism which divides time into perfectly equal twelve hours helps you to protect justice and defend the law."

Our final stop was to the notorious Notre Dame Cathedral. We decided to climb to the top and see this grand view that everyone raves about. We ended up waiting a mere 30 minutes (the guards told us this was a short wait). There are 422 steps to the top and I tried counting to verify that number but I lost count because my heart was threatening to beat out of my chest. So we'll have to trust it. Climbing up is a two part process because there's the "first stop" to admire the gargoyles and belfry and then the top of the tower for the million dollar view.