Europe Day 3: Exploring Paris

Saturday, April 16, we got up late and used "tickets" from our hotel for breakfast at a bakery down the street.  Note to all - breakfast in Paris (actually, in most of Europe) means coffee or tea, orange juice, and croissants.  Quite lovely, but rather protein-less.  Unless you carry around almonds and protein bars like I do, then you're set : )  The bakery was super cute though...small - shops here are smaller, for the most part - with enticing smells.  And quite busy.  Apparently everyone in Paris buys fresh bread every day.  And stops (briefly) for an expresso. 

Anywho, we took the metro across town to the Latin Quarter, and then took our time ooohing and ahhhing over the neat old buildings as we walked to Notre Dame.  A little slower pace, a lot quainter architecture...we loved the ambiance of Paris. 

Notre Dame was impressive.  It took 200 years to build (compared to Extreme Home Makeover's one-week-house-build), and like in Brussels, had impressively high, arched ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows.  The intricacy amazed me.  It's no wonder it took 200 years to build - the wood carvings and painting and even the pillars abound with tiny details.

And that's just the outside...now for the inside (no flash allowed, so not stellar quality)!!



Unfinished vs. finished ceiling





Model of Nortre Dame


Next we wandered outside to check out the gargoyles on the side of the cathedral, then to the garden behind Notre Dame.



Notice the gargoyles at the top



Ugly things...



Across the street was the Deportation Memorial, honoring the Parisian Jews who were herded up and shipped to concentration camps during the Holocaust.

We were getting hungry by that point, so we crossed a bridge to the cute little Isle St. Louis with it's charming shops and interesting scooters for lunch.



We saw these around town - the guy drives under the covered part, and the poor girl sits on the back



After lunch we headed back to the mainland and wandered around the Latin Quarter for a bit, looking at the stalls set up along the Seine and deciding to come back later to get a painting.

Next we headed to Sainte Chapelle, a small chapel lined with beautiful stained glass windows.   



The stained glass didn't look like much from outside...



...but the inside was pretty amazing.





Even the floor was neat

 After thoroughly enjoying the chapel, we bought tickets for a concert there that evening and then hung out in the courtyard of the Concierge until it started.  This also gave us time to hide the pocketknife in Bryan's backpack along a fence (we saw there were metal detectors to get in)...and it was still there when we got out! 

The concert was amazing - a string quartet plus violin soloist David Braccini playing Pachelbel's Cannon and Vivaldi's Four Seasons with candlelight glowing off the all the stained glass...umm, yes - definitely a cool Paris experience!



Feeling uplifted, we headed back across the Seine and found a cafe for dinner, where I was amused to hear the guy sitting next to us very sincerely tell his wife "I am extremely pleased with the number of carrot shreds on my salad.  Quite superb."

Then, having seen a sparkle in the distance down the Seine, we hurried back to our room to get coats and then went to view the Eiffel Tower at night.  Since the Millenium, it lights up with sparkles for a few minutes every hour.  Glorious!

Wanting some hot water, we ordered tea at a cafe...and $15 later we headed to bed.  And that, my friends, was one heck of a day!