Point Zero and Notre Dame

Kalen and I decided that today we would hit it hard and get as many of our "must see" list completed. We used my buddy Rick's "Historic Paris" walking tour to get us started.

We started with a French Breakfast at one of our favorite corner Brasseries. We had orange juice, bagette with yummy jam, and a croissant. I had espresso, since I'm into this new scene with plenty of gusto. Kalen had hot chocolate. We discussed the days agenda. I told Kalen that I was interested in climbing the stairs in Notre Dame to see the gargoyles and all of Paris. I thought that since I've been walking heavy for a week that I'd be able to do this with minimal effort. It was only 200 steps. He explained that this was about 16-18 flights of stairs. Obviously, he was trying to get out of doing it, so I gracefully let him out of it and said that we would do something else more fun.

We caught that "get you everywhere" bus #69 at a stop other than the beginning stop (which made us feel like we were figuring the transporation thing out) and rode to the Hotel de Ville stop. This let us off on the far side of the Louvre and we crossed the Seine River to Ile de la Cite on rue Notre Dame (clever name for a street, don't you agree?). This took us right in front of Notre Dame. We turned on our iPods to start the walking tour.

Point Zero - this is the center of all of France, the "point from which all distances are measured." [Rick Steves] It used to be the center of Paris also but urban sprawl has changed that. We took a few photos and turned our attention to the outside of Notre Dame.

Amazing. Gargoyles (and a bored gargoyle). Mary in a rose window. 28 kings of Judah. We studied the outside and found all of the interesting things about the statues (keys in the hand, devils laughing, etc.) Then we entered, free of charge. The inside was all that you would imagine with high, high ceilings and dramatic sweeping buttresses and stained glass windows. We walked the length of the cathedral, snapped some shots of the stained glass and lit a candle for all of the travelers and their safe return.

We exited and walked to our left. There we were able to see the exterior with the flying buttresses and statues. One statue is of the renovation architect. While all others are looking down at the crowd, the architect is looking up at a spire and admiring his work.

Many photo opportunities, and too many to post here. We worked our way to the back and entered the Deportation Museum, honoring those 200,000 French victims of Nazi deporation. We waited for a while, as it was 10AM and the memorial was to open at 10AM. It didn't look like any one was working, so we moved on.