The City of Light

We had the most wonderful day today sightseeing. We woke up early and had croissants and fresh orange juice at a sidewalk cafe on the way to Norte Dame.

Notre Dame is so impressive. I've visited many times, but it always takes my breath away. The architecture historian in me just gets giddy at the ribbed arches and flying buttresses. Since we got there so early there wasn't a crowd yet and we got through security quickly. We decided not to go up to the bell tower, and now I wish we would have, but it was still a wonderful first stop.

Coral has a book called "Mission Paris." It's basically a scavenger hunt through the city where Coral got to be the spy and I was the case manager. For every item in the book she found she earned points and if she got to 100 points she would get a present. It was fun to search for Point Zero, Joan of Arc, and the King stepping on a head with her.

Our next stop was the Louvre. On the recommendation of a colleague, I signed us up for a kids tour called, "Gods, Kings, and Heroines." It was excellent! Our tour guide, Marie was amazing and kept Coral so interested and engaged for 3 hours. Mom and I thoroughly enjoyed it too. She taught all three of us how to "read" art by finding the symbols. We heard wonderful tails of Medusa, Napoleon, Mesopotamia, and Di Vinci. It was the best museum visit I've ever had!

From the Louvre we went to St. Chappelle. It's a lesser known church close to Notre Dame. It's nothing exciting on the outside, but the inside is breathtaking. The ribbed arches are painted and the stained glass is remarkable.

After that we went to the Arc du Triomphe. We tried to use our newly learned art reading skills to try and decipher the sides of the arch, but wished we still had Marie with us!

We had told Marie about how we missed our tickets for the Eiffel Tower and asked her if she knew how we could still get to the top. She suggested that we walk up. She said that it was the only way she had ever done it and that it wasn't that difficult so Coral and I went. Marie was right, it's not nearly as difficult as it seems. The line was only about 20 minutes, and the tickets only 10 € for the both of us. We walked up to the first level and walked around, then up to the next level and walked around some more. From there we bought tickets for the elevator to the summit, another 10€. I felt so triumphant as mom that I was able to get us to the top!