Team Beck's plan for Day 4 was like its predecessors (see the list of posts at the end of this article), full of promise of early beginnings and scads of tourism, and in execution a late start, still with scads of tourism.

Our first stop was the must-see Notre-Dame cathedral, followed by the Musée d'Orsay, then a trip to le Marais district, with the possibility of stopping in the Picasso Museum there.

Notre-Dame de Paris

This church is simply spectacular - an architectural masterpiece, a historical jewel which has survived several revolutions and associated stripping of its finery and a site where Catholics can continue to worship to this day.

We arrived to a bit of a lineup to get in that Sunday morning, but we didn't have a long wait. It gave us an opportunity to look at the marvelous facade and begin to appreciate the extensive carving and detailing there.

Inside

Besides the facade and entrance, our first impressions of Notre-Dame were formed inside the cathedral. A Sunday Mass was underway, so we were treated to some ethereal choral work and stirring organ accompaniments, along with some well-toned chanting.

There's an excellent scale model of the exterior which gives the visitor an excellent sense of how the interior and exterior relate to each other.

Here's an idea of how the parts of the church fit together into a cross shape.

Image source

Tourists were encouraged to keep quiet and walk outside the area where worshippers were concentrating on the Mass, but unfortunately not everyone was considerate.

The stained-glass windows, soaring arches, slender columns, statuary and artworks all contribute to a sense of awe. The church was denuded of nearly all its ornamentation by the first Republicans who felt such finery was representative of the aristocracy they had worked hard to overthrow, so it's surprisingly demure compared to other houses of Catholic worship.

As we were making our way around the apse to the south transept, the Mass finished and security cordoned off the passageway to the crossing and the nave to allow the priests to pass.

Somehow listening to the music of the service, seeing and smelling the clouds of incense and now seeing the church leaders (I think that's a bishop, but I'm really not sure; apparently a Cardinal was visiting but I didn't see him) up close was a reminder this building is first and foremost a house of worship for those in its congregation.

Outside

Out into the sunshine, with a plan to climb the bell tower to the top - Team Beck was on its game.

This plan got revised in short order once we realised there was an app for the queue (I couldn't make this up) which said we were two and a half hours down the list. We "stepped out" virtually from the queue so Emma could do a bit of souvenir shopping and we could get a closer look at the exterior.

The gargoyles need some urgent work. They're falling apart. Otherwise, this magnificent building still got ignorant and curious me asking herself just how they built such an edifice. Sure, I learned about flying buttresses in high school art class, but seeing them up close and realising they, along with those roof arches, make those high open spaces inside possible - and have done so over hundreds of years - is humbling.

Fascinating that the bells have names - the bells referred to in this photo were retired basically because they couldn't "sing" together or with the big bell, Emmanuel. They had quite elaborate names, even for bells, although I must say I'd never thought beyond "Ben" before seeing this sign.

The gardens

Like the gardens everywhere we had visited, these were thriving and lovely, without being too extravagant or manicured. Many birds were playing in the grass and in the flowers and longer grasses planted around the sides.

Farewell, Notre-Dame

As we took our leave from the Île de la Cité walking across what I think was the Pont de l'Archevêché, we looked back on this sight, so postcard perfect.

The Musée d'Orsay

We opted for a quick bus trip rather than a half hour walk so we would have time to linger at the Musée d'Orsay.

A fan of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art since high school, but not a particularly well-informed one, I was determined that on this visit to Paris I wouldn't miss the chance to see some of the most classic pieces of these period and improve my pitifully low knowledge level.

A beautiful converted train station...

So light and airy, the museum itself is a stately, regal artwork in its own right.

Under the exquisite clock tower, the bright red museum name poster and the current Cézanne exhibit poster flank one of the old station entrances.

The interior of the museum is a clear reminder it used to be a train station. Where train tracks used to run and steam engines ground to a noisy halt, now sculptures and entrances to more intimate galleries line the ground floor. That clock at the end of the grand hall...those light fixtures...the arched ceiling and walls that let in as much daylight as the space can hold....

...housing Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces

I'm embarrassed to admit that much of my early education about fine art was rooted in the art auction board game Masterpiece. Just for fun, if you'd like to know how the game works, check out this video by a fellow who has a mint-condition 1970s edition. Hey, I learned about Turner, Constable, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Seurat, Gauguin and many others from playing this game, so I won't knock it.

Oh my gosh, Auguste Renoir...

...then Claude Monet...

With some of his best known works from his time in Giverny, including the Waterlily pond, green harmony, as well as the Waterlily pond, pink harmony.

...the subject matter was so far from the classics...

I had only known Degas as a painter of dancers. What could be further from dancing than ironing, as he depicted so realistically in Women Ironing?

...and there were women painters too!

This work by Berthe Morisot and others by her on display were a genuine surprise to me - I had not realised there was a woman in the midst of the Impressionists. Caveat: I did say my level of ignorance on art bordered on embarrassing.

But finally, the Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin room

More high school required reading had piqued a lifelong interest into Vincent van Gogh - his letters to his brother Theo, published in the book "Dear Theo" (edited by Irving Stone), had captivated me and I'd even managed to wade through the Irving Stone tome "Lust for Life" just because it was about Vincent. Perhaps if I read it now I'd find it less tedious as I'd be able to relate to more of Vincent's experiences and works than when I was a pup in high school.

@tim-beck and I had a chance to visit the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam in 2012 and the experience of seeing the works Vincent had written about in his letters was moving - and I'm no Vincent scholar, just a person who believes he was one of the most unique artists to visit this world.

Fun fact for South Africans: many of us have heard of two of the Van Gogh siblings (Vincent and Theo), but there was a third, Cornelis, who moved to South Africa to work as an engineer on the gold mines and the railways.

I simply love this painting.

Vincent painted this of Arles at night, looking over the Rhône River.

Years ago, a dear friend and I decided during a holiday in Provence to go to Arles, expecting somewhat misguidedly to see the landscapes of Vincent's paintings from that area, and to "see" his paintings in them. While the experience was not as intense as I had expected, one can still feel Vincent's legacy throughout the area, and he has captured the light and shapes of Provence through his paintings.

The Van Gogh and Gauguin room (how extraordinary is it that, with a tempestuous friendship in life, and both barely tolerated if not outright snubbed by the traditional art world at the time, they are now roommates in one of the most hallowed of museum rooms?) had disappointingly few works of these artists on show, in fact, almost none of Gauguin's. We understood this is because some of the works are on temporary loan to other museums while many sit in private collections. Nevertheless, the room could still be considered one of the most precious rooms in the world.

This is one of his best known paintings, "Vincent's Bedroom in Arles".

Vincent painted many self-portraits. According to the museum commentary, one of the reasons he probably did this was because he did not have enough money to pay models.

Back to this century

Followed by a quick tour of the current exhibition, Portraits de Cézanne

Unfortunately photography wasn't allowed in this exhibit, but it was an interesting exposure to his portraiture style - which, especially when applied to his wife, could best be characterised as unforgiving. Here's an example from the cover of the exhibition brochure.

Off to Le Marais

Change of pace!

This neighbourhood, now straddling the 3^rd and 4^th arrondissements, could be considered the "genuine" Paris, with its multi-cultural feel, cool bars and restaurants, literary history and non-homogeneous architecture, in contrast to the other areas redesigned by Haussmann. They look beautiful, yes, as I've raved about to some extent now, but variety is indeed the spice of life and this quartier with its narrow, windy cobblestoned in some places streets was just what the doctor ordered for this Montreal girl.

Plus there was the prospect of some of the best chocolatiers in the world.

Quick background reading on le Marais

To get a really good feel for the Marais and what to do there, check out this fun blog and this insider perspective.

Fun fact: in English, un marais is a swamp. Here's a decent explanation of why it got its name.

Lunch

We didn't do any of what they recommended, but we enjoyed ourselves poking around the shops and restaurants until we found a disturbingly touristy place to have a late lunch.

Yup, a restorative burger for Emma to replace all those museuming calories, a Caesar salad for me and something meaty for Tim. We were in tourist territory now.

Just outside that window behind Emma, we watched a group of over-the-top fit young men dressed like a casual sports team set up drums and start an impressive routine of gymnastic dancing. They packed up after one number as nobody would pay them. Just a Marais moment, I suppose.

Now to the important stuff - chocolate

Madame Google was once again our good friend as we consulted her on "best chocolatier" within 500m. She didn't disappoint.

Free advertising on Steemit! This shop was lovely.

There's always a South African connection if you dig a bit

One of the young ladies I chatted to behind the counter had lived in Johannesburg for a while, but she said the black people there were antagonistic towards her for having a black boyfriend, and used to be particularly rude to her on the trains. We apologised to her on South Africa's behalf and invited her to come back soon since our racial tensions could do with a bit more stirring - I mean, balancing out through actual human-human interaction rather than bot-human interaction.

And a cool bar to chill in while Emma shopped for souvenirs

We decided that chilling was the better part of valour, and since Emma had a hankering for some souvenir therapy we picked the first appealing candidate for a place to sit and watch Paris go by and have a quiet drink.

I would recommend this place in a heartbeat.

That blur behind the bar was the friendliest, most efficient, coolest person to have within a 20m radius. She was so calm, warm and welcoming while moving fast, carrying lots of drinks and conversations at the same time. We started to realise this place was something like a Parisian version of Cheers, "where everyone knows your name". There were regulars and visitors, and all were treated as old friends. I asked her what the story was with the bar, and she said simply that it had been owned by the same person for the last forty years and he insisted on keeping it low-key and personal. Good enough for me!

Those are regulars out there on the sidewalk.

Our omnipresent bartender supremess holding court with some of the patrons.

And the bar comes complete with tapas menu:

Here's a plug for it:

And that was our fourth day in Paris!

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Images by @kiligirl, @tim-beck and Emma Beck except where otherwise credited.

Other posts to date on our trip:

https://steemit.com/travel/@kiligirl/day-2-in-paris-for-team-beck-boat-cruise-down-the-seine
https://steemit.com/travel/@kiligirl/day-2-in-paris-for-team-beck-a-visit-to-the-louvre
https://steemit.com/travel/@kiligirl/two-weeks-ago-yesterday-we-were-wandering-around-the-centre-pompidou-in-paris
https://steemit.com/travel/@kiligirl/paris-day-1-part-2-of-several-posts-on-our-trip-to-paris-pas-de-calais-bruges-and-amsterdam
https://steemit.com/travel/@kiligirl/whirlwind-tour-of-paris-pas-de-calais-bruges-and-amsterdam