Paris

(Julie balancing outside of Notre Dame.)

After 20 hours of travel time, we triumphantly arrived in Paris.  Remarkably, everyone was able to get some sleep on the plane, so we decided to take the metro to the hotel.  I had originally planned on taking a taxi, so I was which trains to take once we arrived in Central Paris...a rookie mistake.  No matter, we would use Marion's favorite method, "just wing it".  

Once on the train, I asked the nearest passenger with a smart phone if he spoke English.  He replied "Yes" without any accent.  He explained he spent a year at University of West Virginia, and proceeded to look up our hotel on his smart phone and give us directions to the hotel.  We continued a nice conversation for the next 15 minutes.  He was originally the Grenoble, the Alps, and thought we should cross the Pyrenees since the are so small in comparison to the Alps.

We easily found the hotel and proceeded to walk around the city for a couple of hours.  Back at the hotel, we had our first try at washing our "fast dry" clothes.  Unfortunately, the clothes were still damp the following morning.  

We left the clothes drying, and walked to the metro for our first attraction, Norte Dame.  At 8:30 in the morning, the church was almost empty other than a small group attending morning mass.  We sat in the center of the church taking in the grandeur of the structure, the differences in the types and colors of the stained glass windows.  Our Lady of Paris was in the spotlight as was the altar with Jesus down from the cross in the arms of his mother.  The church is celebrating her 850th birthday and seems as though it was built for eternity.  We marveled at the fact that the original builders, architects and developers started such a project knowing that it wouldn't be completed during their lifetime. 

From Notre Dame, we continued on to the Arc de Triumph and the Champs de Ellyes.  One unforeseen benefit of caring all of our possessionson our backs is that the girls don't want to buy anything!  It doesn't stop them from some shopping, but with no opportunity to buy anything, the time in the stores is expontionally reduced. 

A few train rides, and we make it back to the hotel.  More fun to come tomorrow!