All Over Paris

We started the day with crepes near Notre Dame before exploring inside and joining a tour. I learned quite a bit about the outside architecture, and how in a world where most people were illiterate, the statutes and architecutre of the church's were used to explain the biblical teachings. One of the most interesting things I learned was that during the French Revolution, they tore down the statues of the saints (since they were upset at the religious kings that opressed them) and what you see today are actually re-creations. But they actually found some of the heads in someone's basement in the 1970's, so they're on display in the Middle Ages museum now.

We then headed a few streets over to St Chapelle, which is famous for its stained glass windows. Even in the fading sunlight it was a spectacular sight and I was surprised I'd hadn't heard of it before reading through my Rick Steve's Paris guidebook.

Next up was the Eiffel Tower, which we climbed up the stairs (all 650 of them) as dusk was settling in. It's much more enjoyable now having been to all the famous monuments now, so I can pinpoint more clearly what I'm actually looking at. And I was surprised to see that St. Sulpice is so easy to spot, which is near our flat so it makes for an easy landmark to figure out where we live. It was an absolutely gorgeous night with a full moon and clear skies.

After a quick dinner of some panni's, we went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to see a great view of the Champs-Élysées and all the crazy traffic around the arc. It's the only traffic circle in Paris where cars have to yield to incoming traffic, and due to the mass confusion (as there are no lanes around it) if you get in a traffic accident there, it's automatically split 50/50. You couldn't pay me enough money to try to navigate that clustermess.

After exploring the Christmas market along the Champs-Élysées, we headed towards Notre Dame to meet up with Catherine's friend again, and got some drinks at a cafe near Notre Dame. The surprise though was it included a sparkler in the drink, which I suppose made up for the ridiculously high cost. All in all a very good night, and they had live music (piano and singer... all in English) which made it quite entertaining.