Notre Dame, St. Chapelle

So we decided that after several tried and failed attempts to see Notre Dame, today was going to be successful. Once we got there, we immediately went into the cathedral. It is really huge and incredibly tall, 10 stories (which in gothic times was quite a feat). We walked all around seeing the altar and the many sculpted scenes from the Bible. There is a lenghth of the wall that tells the story of Jesus's life including some of the miracles he performed like turning water into wine. After, we went outside. The facade is absolutely beautiful, the detail is really incredible. While we were going through, we were listening to Rick Steves commentary about it. He pointed out that the disciples statues were holding something that would allow us to identify them. Mom thinks we identified Peter with the key and Judus with the money pouch. All in all, the church is really magnificent especially when you think about the fact that the work was done mostly by unpaid peasants over a time period of 200 years and it is still standing beautiful in the heart of Paris.

Next we went to a little cafe to have a fabulous lunch. From there, we tried to continue Rick Steves podcast about Historic Paris (which is what we were listening to about Notre Dame), but couldn't follow the directions as to which street we were on. So we had to bail on that plan. Instead, we went to St. Chappelle, a cathedral famous for its stained glass windows. The windows were really amazing and you could see the Bible stories told on it from Genesis all the way to judgement day. The St. Chappelle was built in order to house the suppossed crown of thorns that Louis IX had purchased from Constantinople in 1239. The Crown of Thorns is now housed in Notre Dame's treaury and only brought out a few times a year for public viewing. The entire chapel's walls were covered in the stained glass windows and the effect of the sun shining in was absolutely stunning!

After that, we got onto the Metro and went back to Champs-Eglise and did some more shopping (window shopping really because all those stores are really fun to look through but Dad would not be too pleased with us wanting to buy anything...) and eating. We had a great dinner and after, we went to Haagen-Daz and had some really good ice cream. Now we are back at the apartment enjoying some reading time before our last day in Paris! Louvre Tomorrow!