Day 40- Sunday 17 July

DAY FORTY! WOW. Today was pretty laid-back, partially because the other American successfully turned the apartment into a brothel for viruses so I am freaking sick AGAIN, and partially just because it was laid-back. I first went to Sainte Chappelle, a small chapel built by Louis 9 solely to house 22 relics of the passion of Christ [now in Notre Dame, but holy cow, twenty-two relics] somewhere back in the thirteenth century, now a top tourist destination for its being crazy ornate and crazy old, with most of the stained glass dating from the time the chapel was built [intact eight hundred year-old glass, doesn't happen often]. Yep, so I spent a bit over an hour there, thought it took a while to get through the lines, in superficial appreciation, then journeyed to the Latin quarter for a bit of lunch, then was indecisive for a while, then read Zola for class tomorrow in front of the Tour Saint Jacques [which I forgot to take a photo of, but the important thing is that one cannot climb it], then it began to rain again, so I journeyed through the area to the Louvre, thinking I'd pick out works for an upcoming final paper, but got a bit turned around in Oceania and distracted by Greek and then French sculpture, long story short, it didn't happen and the museum closed, SO I book-shopped because I'm bad, then read more Zola in the food court of the Carousel, the underground mall around the pyramid entrance with the only food court I've seen over here, and when I left it was light but still raining and I felt bad, and also felt bad for just going back to the apartment, but there's nothing I can do about it. I don't know if its the me constantly finding out things like yesterday that the patriarch doesn't like it when I wear my towel around my shoulders when I go into the kitchen or the freakish weather [cold again today, but it was really sunny and hot for about ten minutes around one] or all of the lemon yoghurt I've been eating, but I just keep getting sick. I don't mean to complain; today was, of course, fantastic, because I'm in Paris :)

best view one can get of the chapel:

lower chapel and gift shop:

the ceiling was nice, gold stars all over:

rose window, done a bit later than the other stained glass:

typical tourist photo, the stained glass was interesting because the windows all had differently-shaped panels, rectangles, quatrefoils, ovals, and all of the capitals [decorated top bits of the columns] were different, and the statues, a lot to look at:

lunch, a chorizo panini:

yuuussss:

Italian bit in Denon of the Louvre:

stele of Hammurabi, very famous, I didn't realize that it has writing all on its sides and back, too:

another yuuuusss, three cheers for the plundering by the French empire. These guys came from an Assyrian palace, and are supposed to be scary guardians but, to the contemporary viewer, appear to be smiling in quite a friendly fashion, so I took a photo with them, too [though not of posting merit]:

inner courtyard, French sculpture: