Sunday in Paris

This is the front public area in front and it became MUCH more crowded later in the day!  Notice the large round stain glassed window....you'll see below from the inside.

The gargoyles that surround Notre Dame

Hubby goofing off, but it shows you just how large one of the bells was.....

Some of the famous steps up to the top!

The large round window from the inside!!! Spectacular!

On Sunday, the second full day we were in Paris, our plans took us to Notre Dame.....just the inside of the church itself is spectacular....but it also has stairs that lead up into the tower....OVER 400 of them.  I need a t-shirt that says I survived the climb!  There are stone steps that circle up around to the top of the tower....and you get there to discover a fabulous view of the city!  You can come face to face with the gargoyles that surround Notre Dame and get a bird's eye view of the bell as well, which is massive!  One interesting thing to note is that they allowed tourists to go in while the worship service was going on.  It was somewhat dark in the area that tourists could walk around, but I would have been so distracted if I were trying to worship there.  Anyway, magnificent architecture and such massive stain glass windows and artifacts... Amazing!

We left there and walked a few blocks over to Saint Chappelle.  The security was much stiffer here, so we had to stand in line for security.  It was a must see if you love stain glassed windows.  Apparently, the whole Bible is told in stain glass window form....massive windows, but a little difficult to tell which story each window portrays.

Looking to the front of Saint Chappelle

This massive window told the story of Genesis, but it was very difficult to tell what each square represented.....

After leaving this church, which only had 200 steps, we were on to the Arc de Triomphe.....which by the way also had 200+ steps......I got my workout in that day, so it didn't matter about that Pain au chocolat I had that morning with my coffee!!!  Whew!

When we were walking back over to catch the Metro, we also came across a large group of people rollerblading thru the city. There were people of every age, so it must have been some fundraiser or rollerblade-athon or some such thing... and a few blocks over from that, we saw some college aged young men, rollerblading much more elaborate moves, I suppose hoping to wow the crowd for a few coins in their boots!!!

Can you see him in the air? They would skate in and out of these yellow cups and do tricks to entertain the crowd; we did video them, but it wouldn't load to blogger, so you get to see the pic instead!

Well, this was our full day of step workout!! I'll be back with more sights and such of our trip to Paris in March 2011!  Au revoir, y'all!

Sunday in Paris

This is the front public area in front and it became MUCH more crowded later in the day!  Notice the large round stain glassed window....you'll see below from the inside.

The gargoyles that surround Notre Dame

Hubby goofing off, but it shows you just how large one of the bells was.....

Some of the famous steps up to the top!

The large round window from the inside!!! Spectacular!

On Sunday, the second full day we were in Paris, our plans took us to Notre Dame.....just the inside of the church itself is spectacular....but it also has stairs that lead up into the tower....OVER 400 of them.  I need a t-shirt that says I survived the climb!  There are stone steps that circle up around to the top of the tower....and you get there to discover a fabulous view of the city!  You can come face to face with the gargoyles that surround Notre Dame and get a bird's eye view of the bell as well, which is massive!  One interesting thing to note is that they allowed tourists to go in while the worship service was going on.  It was somewhat dark in the area that tourists could walk around, but I would have been so distracted if I were trying to worship there.  Anyway, magnificent architecture and such massive stain glass windows and artifacts... Amazing!

We left there and walked a few blocks over to Saint Chappelle.  The security was much stiffer here, so we had to stand in line for security.  It was a must see if you love stain glassed windows.  Apparently, the whole Bible is told in stain glass window form....massive windows, but a little difficult to tell which story each window portrays.

Looking to the front of Saint Chappelle

This massive window told the story of Genesis, but it was very difficult to tell what each square represented.....

After leaving this church, which only had 200 steps, we were on to the Arc de Triomphe.....which by the way also had 200+ steps......I got my workout in that day, so it didn't matter about that Pain au chocolat I had that morning with my coffee!!!  Whew!

When we were walking back over to catch the Metro, we also came across a large group of people rollerblading thru the city. There were people of every age, so it must have been some fundraiser or rollerblade-athon or some such thing... and a few blocks over from that, we saw some college aged young men, rollerblading much more elaborate moves, I suppose hoping to wow the crowd for a few coins in their boots!!!

Can you see him in the air? They would skate in and out of these yellow cups and do tricks to entertain the crowd; we did video them, but it wouldn't load to blogger, so you get to see the pic instead!

Well, this was our full day of step workout!! I'll be back with more sights and such of our trip to Paris in March 2011!  Au revoir, y'all!

Day 1 -Paris!

My sweet husband as we ate our first picnic in Paris!

City traffic around the Arc de Triomphe.....notice the buildings in the background...so typical of all of Paris!

There are car dealerships in buildings along the Champs Elysees...this is a Toyota dealership....with all kinds of fancy cars inside!  Notice the tiny one on the wall and the lady posing for a pic as if she is holding it up!

When I flew into Paris, it was pretty early in the morning.......I think we arrived at 7:25 or so. The Charles De Gaulle airport is very interesting!  By the time I got to the bus ( I had decided to ride the Air France Bus into town so that I wouldn't have to deal with my bags on the train with my healing shoulder, which is doing well so far).  I took the bus into town, about a 45 minute ride into Paris.  I took some time to sit in a cafe (costs less to stand at the small bar inside and drink your drink than to sit at a table; felt like I was paying rent at the table!) and drink a "limonade" because I had to wait to meet the guy that was going to let me into our apartment.  My husband had to travel separately since he had already flown ahead for business...I was just a tad nervous about getting to town before him in a place where I barely spoke the language!!!!  It really all worked out fine, and I have to thank God for answering all the prayers for my safety, peace and smooth travel!  So I found everything I needed to find, and made my way to the apt.  My husband didn't arrive until about 2 hours later.  It would have been good for me to take a nap but I was so excited, I couldn't!! 
Once my husband arrived, we decided to take a walk and find a bite to eat.  We wandered over by a grocery store, went in and bought some sandwiches and fruit and ate our lunch out on a bench.  The weather was beautiful!!!  We walked down the Champs Elysees and watched all the cars and scooters/motorcycles buzzing around town.  I wore out pretty quickly and we headed back to the apt where I finally showered and unwound a little and hubby went out to the grocery store and picked up a few things for us.  Bedtime came pretty quickly that night....um, I might have checked Facebook before I went to bed!! HA!  The computer (which we were glad to have) because the tv in the apt only got American news.......we did get to watch Jay Leno two nights by staying up until midnight.  I wish I had remembered to pack some DVD movies to play on my computer!  NOTE to self for the future...take some DVD movies!
I'll show you a couple of pics we took that day, and then show you more tomorrow.

Keep in mind, I've had very little sleep in this picture!! Ha! This is taken in front of the Arc de Triomphe.

Taken from afar, for perspective, so you can see how large it is!!This is the Arc de Triomphe, built so that troops returning home could march through it. It sits in the middle of a large traffic circle, so that whatever street the troops marched into town on, they would march through it.

Day 1 -Paris!

My sweet husband as we ate our first picnic in Paris!

City traffic around the Arc de Triomphe.....notice the buildings in the background...so typical of all of Paris!

There are car dealerships in buildings along the Champs Elysees...this is a Toyota dealership....with all kinds of fancy cars inside!  Notice the tiny one on the wall and the lady posing for a pic as if she is holding it up!

When I flew into Paris, it was pretty early in the morning.......I think we arrived at 7:25 or so. The Charles De Gaulle airport is very interesting!  By the time I got to the bus ( I had decided to ride the Air France Bus into town so that I wouldn't have to deal with my bags on the train with my healing shoulder, which is doing well so far).  I took the bus into town, about a 45 minute ride into Paris.  I took some time to sit in a cafe (costs less to stand at the small bar inside and drink your drink than to sit at a table; felt like I was paying rent at the table!) and drink a "limonade" because I had to wait to meet the guy that was going to let me into our apartment.  My husband had to travel separately since he had already flown ahead for business...I was just a tad nervous about getting to town before him in a place where I barely spoke the language!!!!  It really all worked out fine, and I have to thank God for answering all the prayers for my safety, peace and smooth travel!  So I found everything I needed to find, and made my way to the apt.  My husband didn't arrive until about 2 hours later.  It would have been good for me to take a nap but I was so excited, I couldn't!! 
Once my husband arrived, we decided to take a walk and find a bite to eat.  We wandered over by a grocery store, went in and bought some sandwiches and fruit and ate our lunch out on a bench.  The weather was beautiful!!!  We walked down the Champs Elysees and watched all the cars and scooters/motorcycles buzzing around town.  I wore out pretty quickly and we headed back to the apt where I finally showered and unwound a little and hubby went out to the grocery store and picked up a few things for us.  Bedtime came pretty quickly that night....um, I might have checked Facebook before I went to bed!! HA!  The computer (which we were glad to have) because the tv in the apt only got American news.......we did get to watch Jay Leno two nights by staying up until midnight.  I wish I had remembered to pack some DVD movies to play on my computer!  NOTE to self for the future...take some DVD movies!
I'll show you a couple of pics we took that day, and then show you more tomorrow.

Keep in mind, I've had very little sleep in this picture!! Ha! This is taken in front of the Arc de Triomphe.

Taken from afar, for perspective, so you can see how large it is!!This is the Arc de Triomphe, built so that troops returning home could march through it. It sits in the middle of a large traffic circle, so that whatever street the troops marched into town on, they would march through it.