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  Paris, Île-de-France, France
Thursday, July 9, 2009

If you ever come to Paris in July, or any other busy month, a word of advice: When you go to Notre Dame, go first thing in the morning and do the towers first. If you wait until you have gone into the cathedral, the line gets pretty long.

We ate a quick breakfast and hopped on the Metro for Notre Dame. This Gothic beauty was first started in 1163 and not finished until almost 200 years later. It would be the largest cathedral ever built, until surpassed by those at Amiens and Rheims. It was damaged during the Revolution and it was Victor Hugo, author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, who was, in part, instrumental in starting a campaign to restore Notre Dame. Today it stands as the symbol of medieval Paris.

The whole is a sum of its parts, from the flying buttresses and gargoyles on the outside, to the rose windows and Pieta on the inside

Notre Dame Facade

. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We then stood in line for the tower.  We climbed into the North Tower, then the Chimera Gallery 46 meters above the ground. Here, gross mythical monsters stare out at Paris. From here, we went into the South Tower Belfry, to look at the Emmanuel Bell. This is the largest bell, weighing in at 13 tons. It is only rung on major Catholic feast days.  From the top of the South Tower, you have Paris spread out before you.  When we had finished, we had climbed up and down 387 steps.

We then went to the Left Bank and Latin Quarter. We grabbed a sandwich in a little sandwich shop. We took a walking tour of the area, then went back to the Pont Neuf bridge (the "new" bridge is actually the oldest) and took a one hour boat ride on the Seine.  Touristy, yes, but it does give you an excellent overview of the city and where the major sites are and some interesting facts about each site. Afterward, we went to Saint-Chappelle . Saint-Chapelle was built between 1242 and 1270 to house the relics that Louis IX acquired, among which is supposedly the Crown of Thorns that Jesus wore. (The relics are now in Notre Dame—we didn't pay to see them)  The church stands within the confines of the Palace of Justice. What makes this church worth visiting is the upper chamber where, on 15 stained glass windows, 1113 scenes are depicted from the Bible, starting at Genesis and going through Christ’s resurrection. The last window depicts the Apocalypse. 

From Saint-Chapelle, we got an ice cream cone and took the Metro over to the Eiffel Tower. It was built for the 1889 Exposition and was the subject of great controversy

Nave

. It was saved from demolition in 1910 and has over 6 million visitors a year. It needs repainting every 7 years. You can wait in line and take the elevator to the second landing, then transfer to another elevator that goes to the top, or you can take the cheaper and quicker option—climbing 669 stairs to the same landing. We opted for the latter and climbed.  We had to wait in line for the elevator to the top, but once there, the view is spectacular. You have Paris laid out in all directions. Once done, we took the elevator back down to the second landing and walked down the rest of the way, as we thought it would be quicker. It was now 9:00 and we hadn’t eaten. People eat late here and it doesn’t get dark until about 10 PM. We just picked a café at random and ate. Elizabeth and I shared a chocolate crepe for dessert. When we were through, we walked back to the Tower and got a spectacular view of the Tower all lit up. It was well worth the late dinner to show Elizabeth the Tower at night.

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South Window	North Window	View from Cimera Gallery	Side view
Notre Dame-rear	Saint Chapelle windows	From the Eiffel Tower	Arc de Triomphe from E Tower
Eiffel Tower

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