Day 3--Notre Dame



Before it became dark we were determined to get over to Notre Dame, Paris's most famous cathedral...and for good reason, it is really quite spectacular.

This is another building that is so large, you just can't comprehend it until you actually see it. What I found especially funny, though, was the fact that in the front courtyard there was still a Christmas tree up. I suppose that if you still have your Christmas decorations up at the beginning of February then you have no reason to feel bad, they are still up at Notre Dame! They even had a large and fancy nativity displayed inside.

Here is my friend and I out of the front courtyard. This picture was taken by some nice American tourists that we met...we heard them speaking English so we asked them if they wouldn't mind taking a quick photo for us.

This is a closer view of the front, so that you can see more of the detail. I just can't imagine the work that most have gone into the building's creation. Each and every indiviual carving is unique...it blows the mind away.

Here is a photo of a door archway. Isn't it amazing how intricate it is?

This close up shot shows the saints that are carved near the doorways on the front. Each one represents a particular saint and are of course each unique.

I quickly found my favorite saint, who has his head in his hands you might say. I found out later that it is St. Denis, who was beheaded (obviously).

We walked around the back side of the building to see the famous flying buttresses, they really are quite big. It was raining again so we were in a hurry to get inside.

This is an outside view of one of the larger stained glass windows. From the inside, it is mostly blue and looks like a giant flower. I thought it was really pretty. The only unfortunate thing is the scafolding in the way, parts of the outside were in states of renovation.

We went inside and it was so dark that most of my pictures did not turn out very well, so I can only describe it. This particular one turned out okay, and it is a picture of a statue of Joan of Arc. The inside was truly amazing, the roof is so high I became dizzy looking at it. There was a mass in progress so it was very quiet, but they were still allowing tourists in as long as you respected those attending mass. There were beautiful stained glass windows everywhere and more intricate stonework. Along the sides there were these little alcoves which all contained large paintings or statues. For such an old building it is in a very good state and well taken care of. I was sufficiently impressed.

On a street near the Notre Dame we encounted this stange sign. I have no idea what it is trying to tell people (hence the strange look on my face in the picture). If anyone wants to enlighten me on the meaning, please let me know. It looks as as they don't want you holding your child's hand to cross the street...but that's just weird!



We left Notre Dame and crossed a bridge to check out the view from a distance. I didn't take a photo because it was still raining, the light was bad, and the scafolding on the outside just didn't make for a very pleasing shot. Instead we checked out the riverside ventors who had little shops set up right along the sidewalk next to the Seine. There weren't many open because of the hour and weather, but I did find a cheap Eiffel Tower for my Nephew (two Euros, compared to the twenty the were asking at the actual Eiffel Tower...glad I waited!).



It was getting late, but we decided to try and find one more place to check out called the Palais du Luxembourg, which is suppose to be near a pretty park. However, we got lost, which isn't hard to do, and were too tired to try and figure out where we were so we just decided to call it a day and get some dinner.



We dined at the Hard Rock Cafe. We didn't really pick this in order to get American food, on the contrary I would have rather tried something French, but we were tired and hungry and knew exactly where to find the restaurant so it seemed the easy choice. I had never been to one before so it was kind of fun. We sat next to a large table filled with Scottish men. I knew they were Scottish because they were all wearing kilts. In fact, I saw many Scots while on this vacation and it made me wonder if all or most Scottish men where kilts while on vacation? Anyway, these guys were very friendly and it was a lot of fun. After dinner we returned to our hotel to rest and get some rest for another full day of sightseeing tomorrow.