The Cluny Museum

Right down the street from our hotel in Paris is this amazing place that I have never been before, the Cluny Museum. Yes, you can read about all the cool art inside, the unicorns, the tapestries, etc, etc, but just look at that building! Why do you need art when the building looks like this?

It's one of the oldest buildings in Paris, a 15th century house for the Cluny Abbot built over an ancient Roman bath. Does it even get any more historical than that? Ewww I can't wait. This is just one of the many places that is on my MUST DO list for Paris. I am going try and spend lots of time exploring the left-bank of Paris, especially  St Germain and the Latin Quarter, an area I never even stepped foot into on my first visit.

I want to feel all of the really old parts of Paris. I'm not too worried about the big sites; the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Champs Elysees. I'm not worried about eating fancy and drinking wine. That's not my thing, but I do want to feel the history and to walk in the midst of history. I want that far away feeling that tries to transport you and makes you feel like you are part of something bigger that IS history. I don't often get that feeling here in Flagstaff.

Visiting the Grand Canyon last weekend, which is way older than Paris, that feeling just isn't the same. There is only a geologic sense of history, but not the human sense of history. Here we have nature and a lot of man vs. nature, but in cities the feeling is different.

I remember the last time I went on a big sight seeing trip to Boston I was overwhelmed with walking in history on the Freedom Trail. You can see the grave stones of Paul Revere and John Hancock. You can see the bell tower where the lanterns were hung to signal that the British were coming. It is overwhelming. Any one who has any kind of love of history and humanity will feel the immensity of standing in these historic places.

It just gives my goosebumps.