Paris - Monday (Bobbi)

Monday - Paris (Bobbi)

Its 12:40 and we just got back to our hotel!

So this morning, Grant and I got up and went to Notre Dame. The line looked really long, but moved quite quickly, so we probably stood in line for all of 10 minutes before we got inside. There was a mass going on. It was very odd to have mass going on in the middle, and hundreds of tourists wandering around. Of course, it was quite odd to see this fantastic architecture and beautiful stain glass accompanied by a penny smashing machine. The stain glass was quite pretty, and the little (naves") set up for the saints were interesting, but all in all I found the church to be very dark and not appealing. Not my favorite European church. I like the bright ones with the bright paintings. Although, I did think the outside of Notre Dame was awesome.

We thought about going up to the top, but the line for that was an hour and a half long, so we passed on that.

Next, we went to St. Sulpice, where we met up with Gary. St. Sulpice was a famous site in the DaVinci Code. It is the church where Silas (the monk) believes the Priory of Sion hid their final clue, but turns out the location was a decoy. In it, there is a meridian line that runs at an odd angle across the middle of a church, and straight up and obelisk. There is also a pair of stain glass windows with the letters PS inside, which the book claims reference the Priory of Sion.

The church denies (via posters posted near the obelisk) much of what Dan Brown describes in the book regarding the church history. It claims that the line is just a meridian line, not THE "rose line" that runs through the center of Paris. It also states that the church was not built upon an old pagan temple. Finally, it states that the "PS" stands for Saints Peter and Sulpice, the patrons of the church. In addition, the church posted a Q and A article claiming the the Danger of "The Da Vinci Code" is that it raises doubt about the Catholic Faith. All of this information was posted in English, French, and a few other languages.

The church itself I liked better then Notre Dame on the inside. Although it's Stain Glass was not as brilliant, the church was much brighter, the naves just as interesting, and there was a beautiful chapel in the back honoring Mary. Most importantly, there were only a hand full of people inside - no more than probably 40 or 50 at its most "crowded."

We left St. Sulpice and headed towards the Lourve. We had lunch at the food court upstairs (I love the French and what they can do with their cheese!) Next we headed inside. Grant and I rented audio guides (the regular one, not the Da Vinci Code guide.) Of course, we went straingt to the Mona Lisa first - passing through the Grand Gallery on the Way, past the "Madonna of the Rocks" painting. The Mona Lisa was everything I expected - much smaller than expected, crowded, and although neat to see, really, the lingering question remains of "why is this picture so popular?" I mean, we saw some amazing pieces of work, simple and complex - you have to wonder why the Mona Lisa has drawn so much fascination - even before The DaVinci Code.

Probably the painting that stood out to me most, actually a pair of paintings, was by Paninni - Gary had described them from a previous visit, and I thought that they were awesome. It was a painting of an open air art gallery, and each painting depicted a scene from Rome. In one, all of the paintings were of ancient landmarks of Rome. In the other, the paintings of were "modern" (1700's) landmarks. It was really neat.

After that, we wondered about the Ancient Egyptian section - oh yeah, and we saw the Venus De Milo. I was afraid we wouldn't have enough time. Of course, we didn't have enough time to see even half of the place, but after two hours, we were just exhausted! We went back to the hotel for a rest, after a stop at a grocery store for some bread and cheese.

After a rest at the hotel, we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We waited about an hour to buy our tickets. (Right before we got to Security, a bird pooped on the arm of Grant's jacket. Nasty! We cleaned it up as best we could, but still...)

Then, on the second platform, we waited about an hour and 15 minutes to go to the top, which was quite terrifying, as I was pressed against the door by hoards of people and there was no shaft - just, nothing, outside of that glass.

The view from the top was spectacular! It was a clear night - you could see any landmark you wanted, and it was just beautiful. The tower "sparkle" thing happened once when we were on the ground, once when we were on the second platform, and once when we were on the very top. (The tower "sparkels" every hour on the hour for about 8 minutes.)

On the way down, on our very last elevator, we got to the bottom and the doors wouldn't open. We got stuck and had to ride back up and then down again. It made a long evening feel SO much longer, even though it really wasn't. Maybe just 10 extra minutes. But with all those crowds and waiting all that time, we were ready to get off.

Since our adventures at the tower took longer than anticipated, we went back to the hotel (arriving at about 12:30.) We said our good bye's to Gary, as he was off to Bruges, and we would be heading out to Marne-La Vallee - Disney;and Paris!