Allegra's Journey: Blue skies at last

It was still gray and wet when we drank our morning coffee and prepared to head out for church. We left our sunglasses at home, and even decided to take the subway instead of walk. The two methods would each have taken about a half hour, but we opted for the drier one. The quai was deserted and the cars nearly empty. Paris is always empty on Sunday morning.

We arrived early at Saint Sulplice because there was organ music both before and after the service. The organ is excellent and the acoustics are outstanding. The organist. Daniel Roth, is outstanding too and did a particularly good job with improvisation. He played works by Boely, Vierne and Mendelsohn.

After the service we inspected the astronomical instrument built into the church by the 17th century astronomers at the time of construction. There is a lense in one of the upper windows which focuses the sun's rays on the line at noon on a sunny day. As the year progresses the spot on the line changes as the earth tilts in relation to the sun. See the explanation in this Wikipedia article.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomon_of_Saint-Sulpice

We left the church and made our way to the Navigator restaurant (see the post on our meal). When we finished eating the rain seemed to be gone but the clouds were still lingering. But not for long. As they blew away, and blue sky appeared, we headed west. It turned into a glorious afternoon.

We walked to the Pont Neuf along the Seine and ended up at the tip of the Ile Saint Louis where we sat on a bench and watched the world go by.

We finally decided to head back. This time we walked along the Right Bank, passing the bouquinistes, the Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame. The Grand Bourdon Emmanuel pealed above the traffic noises to announce six o'clock.