I think I overdid it.

So part of this trip was my goal to walk the city as much as possible and not rely on the subway unless it was too far. Let's just say my Fitbit is now at 25,611 steps and 10.65 miles. Oh, and 29 flights of stairs. 

So I got a decent start this morning and took the métro all the way to the northern outskirts of the city to finally visit the Basilica of Saint-Denis. It was the final resting place for all of the kings of France since the beginning. I say "was" because the French Revolution changed all of that. They were so against anything having to do with royalty, kings or queens, that they destroyed as much as they could. That included digging them all up, putting them in a mass grave and pouring Lyme on them to destroy the bodies quicker. So now, the church still has all the sepulchres but most of the bodies aren't there which in my opinion, is such a shame for history's sake. 

Then after my visit,  I took the métro back into town to visit the Cluny Museum which houses things from the Middle Ages. Its big piece (or pieces) are tapestries depicting the Lady and the Unicorn. I thought there was just one but there's six, I think. The first five depict one of the five senses. 

Touch:

Sight:

And I just liked this unicorn because he looked quite sassy: 

After Cluny, I walked across the river to Berthillon for my daily taste-test. Today was cherry and strawberry because she was out of peach. Then (get a map and follow along if you would like), I walked from Ile-Saint-Louis all the way to the other end of Ile-de-la-Cité to Square du Vert Galant, crossed across Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris) and down to the Louvre. Then, after a brief rest and a map check, I continued up to the opera house and went to the nearby Fragonard perfume museum. There was some info added that I hadn't heard in going to the factories in Provence but some of it was repeat. So I skipped the sales pitch and just walked back over to the opera house  because I was exhausted. That's also where I was supposed to meet Mario for a little bit. I was perfectly happy to sit for an hour. His group was running later than expected so that only gave us less than 30 minutes together. More than enough time to take another selfie.  

His group headed to dinner and I walked over to the Madeleine church, a place that I've been by tons of times, but never have gone inside. 

 

As you can gather from the name, the church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene and it was just really weird to see her as a focal point instead of Jesus. 

Altar with statue of Mary Magdalene with three angels: 

Then this where all my sanity went out the window and I decided to walk over to the peace wall at the far end of Champ de Mars opposite of the Eiffel Tower. So I grabbed grocery store dinner and ate it in the Champ de Mars. my view from dinner tonight: 

Then down to the peace wall which was all fenced in and inaccessible probably because of leftovers from the EuroCup fanzone that was here a few weeks ago. 

So then I had to walk all the way up to Trocadéro to catch the subway home. Luckily, the exit for the subway is just outside my building so I didn't have much farther to walk. My legs are screaming. :) 

I'm thinking of getting out of town tomorrow. We'll see what happens!