Life Among the Savages: Paris!!!

We stayed in the Paris airport hotel and woke up early the next day to head for the city. I absolutely froze in Sweden so this time I was going to be prepared. I wore a jacket and a trench coat. It looked like rain, so we just planned on getting wet. The traffic was congested and it took us nearly an hour to get to the heart of the city.

Miraculously when we arrived the rain stopped! Yay! I also learned that Paris is way warmer than Sweden and I was going to be stuck with two jackets all day. Oh well. We were in Paris! We headed straight for Notre Dame.

Cathedral of Notre Dame

The cathedral was awe inspiring. The size was gigantic and the architecture amazing.

It made me think of all the people who built this amazing structure, the monks who have passed through it's doors and of course, Victor Hugo's, the Hunchback of Notre Dame. No Quasimodo sightings though.

We were excited when a choir gathered to sing and perform for us in the cathedral. The acoustics were incredible. We asked someone who looked like they were in charge where the choir was from. Ohio. Oh.

This was a sculpture of one of their monk leaders who had his head lopped off. The legend was that he just picked it up and continued leading the people with angels by his side.

Jesus and the twelve disciples surround one of the entrances.

This is the backside view of the cathedral.

St. Chapelle

Afterwards we headed for St. Chapelle. The stain glass was breathtaking and undescribable. It was originally built to house the crown of thorns thought to be worn by the Savior at the crucifixion, which is now in the treasury of Notre Dame and one of the Kings paid a ransom for.

The original post for Crown of Thorns

The crown was watched over by St. Peter

Concierge

Next we went to the Concierge, where they imprisoned thousands (including Marie Antoinette whom I'm currently reading about so it made it all the more interesting) before their beheading.

A Marie Antoinette sighting!

We stopped for lunch at an outside bistro, which was some of the most amazing food ever. The fish, chocolate cake and creme' brulee was fan-tas-tic! We then headed for the Louvre.

Stroll along the Seine

The Louvre Museum

It is soooo biiiiiiggggg!

This modern day pyramid (I think it was added in the 80's) seemed out of place, but cool. It brought back memories of the scene in the Da Vinci Code.

Where to go?!?! What to see??? We grabbed a map and headed out to the Richelieu Wing to view the sculptures, Dutch and French paintings.

We then headed for Napoleon Bonaparte's private apartment in the Louvre. Wow. Gaudy, yet beautiful.

The Crown Jewels of France

We talked about seeing the Mona Lisa and decided we were all the way here and shouldn't miss it. She's tiny. Behind glass and...

surrounded by a sea of Asians.

Hey, I'd seen these vegetable people in magazines. I didn't know they were real! Very cool.

We then walked along the Seine River and headed for the Eiffel Tower. We took pictures and ate treats we had bought along the way.

We looked at this building and thought it looked important. We wanted to go but wouldn't have time to visit the Eiffel before dark if we did both. Someone later told us it's Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb. That guy was into ornate.