Early one morning, emphasis on EARLY, we hopped in a cab and went to St Pancras Train Station (Or St Pancreas according to Claire..snicker...)and got on the fabulous Eurostar to take our three night trip to Paris! St. Pancras is fabulous and new and there are no trashcans because of the threat of terrorists. We ate a yummy breakfast and I was tired and cranky.
Claire was tired too, as was evidenced by her immediate application of earplugs, face mask and travel pillow. Heh heh heh....
Upon our arrival in Paris, I was overwhelmed by the beauty.
We got off the Eurostar at the Gare Du Nord train station in Paris and the adventures began!!
We didn't make it very far before we had to start posing for pictures. We were more awake at this point.
We decided against taking the Metro or a cab to our apartment and walked instead. It wasn't too far and it was nice to be walking around after the long train ride! Jim used his super-human map reading ultra directionally inclined mind and got us to the apartment with no trouble! Here we are at 110 Rue de Turenne in le Marais, one of the arrondisements (sp?) of Paris.
We were way early, but the cleaning man let us drop our stuff off at the apartment anyway! Here's our cute apartment! It had a kitchen with a little table that we didn't realize folded out into a big table until the morning we returned to London. It also had four chairs that we didn't realize existed until the morning we returned to London. The fold out couch was our bed, and it was the second most comfortable fold out couch EVER - second to Claire and Jim's IKEA one. 
We had a great view out on to the street! I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the actual bedroom, but one did exist and had very dark curtains which turned the room into a bat cave -- perfect conditions for one certain sister of mine who was feeling very tired.
Here's the view out of our balcony to the left and right.
So, we dropped our stuff off at the apartment and then wandered on to get some lunch! Our waiter was very nice and patient with our broken French. I didn't do a good job of learning my phrases at all, but I can say I tried.
Where we were saying is a very Jewish/gay area, so there was lots of Jewish stuff around and about. Really good bakeries and lots of falafal...
We wandered to some building which was very beautiful and we thought we could enter. Turns out, we couldn't enter, so we turned right back around and wandered on elsewhere.
Next, we wandered to the Seine River! Notre Dame was in the background, so we all had great spires coming out of our heads. We took some awesome high school senior pictures.
Claire contemplated the cleanliness of the Seine as compared to that of the Thames.
Then, Claire and Jim left to go take a nap. Andy and I were on our own, so we went straight across the river to check out the Notre Dame.
Here it is from behind. There was a really nice little park on the grounds with tons of school children playing. Paris has a lot of great little parks all over the place! Green space! IMAGINE THAT!!!
When we got into Notre Dame, we over heard on the loudspeakers that there would be an English speaking tour of the place, so we jumped on the opportunity! I have to say that if you go traveling and you go to a place like Notre Dame, or the Natural History Museum, or as you'll find out soon, the Royal Gardens at Kew, anywhere really, and there are free tours offered, TAKE THEM. We really got a lot more out of our visits at these places because we took those tours. The guides are really knowledgeable and it was just a lot of fun.
OK back to the blog. Our tour guide was the scowling woman in the middle there. She's an American who moved over to live in Paris, and wasn't scowling the whole time. We learned a lot of the history of Paris and Notre Dame from our scowling tour guide. One thing I thought was interesting was that Notre Dame wasn't always open for the public to attend mass. The outside of the building is basically covered in "stories" so that the commoners could learn about religion.
This man was a missionary who was sent to get the people religion and was taken by the people and beheaded. He then walked back down the hill from where he was beheaded with his head in his hands.
Joan of Arc has a statue in the Notre Dame. After her death, her mother came to the head priests (I know I'm getting all my religious terms wrong) and had them clear her name. After that, she was Sainted!
There are four (I think) rose windows in Notre Dame, some of which are "originals". All of the stained glass there is really beautiful.
This man was standing in this spot when we began our tour and was still standing there when we finished, probably an hour later. Eccentric...
This wall on the outside of Notre Dame is showing the story of something like people who are in purgatory, people who are looking up to heaven because they know they're going, and people who are going with the demons to hell.
This is a "curtain" that was used long ago when the commoners weren't allowed in the masses. They were put up so only certain people could get into the choir for mass. There were also religious stories put up all along these curtains, so even though the commoners couldn't go to the actual masses, they could learn about religion.
Andy and I briefly considered standing in line to climb to the top of Notre Dame, but the line was too long and it was drizzling, so we headed back to meet up with Claire and Jim. That night, we went for a lovely French dinner and then to sleep! Maybe after some wine..the wine in Paris is SO GOOD and really affordable!!
