This morning we woke up after almost 12 hours of sleep. It felt soo good. We took a metro near many sites so that we could walk between them. We stumbled on St. Jacques Tower. The map that we have has stars on the places of interest. They seem to be hit and miss for us. Some of the stars we are really glad that we went to. Some we aren't really interested in. We liked this place though, but mainly because of the exhibition inside.


Inside was a man's photographic work who had taken the Way of St. James, a Christian pilgrimage route, and took a picture every 11 steps that he took. It was played on three separate large screens inside, and was really cool to see.


Then we went to the Hotel De Ville




Then we went to Notre Dame. We find it interesting that it really is only popular because of the legend of the Hunchback. Inside it was just a church. Not like St. Peters or Westminster. But it's iconic status is what makes it so popular. There were signs asking people not to take pictures. Many were, but I like to follow the rules :)




A little girl was feeding the birds by holding the food in her hands and letting them come to her. It was cute


They have "beaches" next to the Seine River. There's sand put there and chairs. There were professional sandcastles there that looked really cool. The first picture is supposed to give some perspective of how big they were. We're on top of a bridge over the river.




Mickey and Minnie lol


The river with some Parisian icons




The entrance to the Louvre. We were going to wander through today, but it's closed on Tuesdays. We were glad that today wasn't our last chance or anything. We'll go tomorrow instead.






We liked this view through the The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel with Cleopatra's Needle in the middle, and then the Arc de Triomphe at the end (official name being Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile)


We next decided to go back to the Opera Garnier. We were glad we did! It's so pretty in there! I loved all the detail in every room and every wall. Amazing! Of course, "Phantom of the Opera" music started playing in my head :)




Statue under the main staircase


Main foyer


Ceiling above the foyer


The stage






The beautiful ceiling above the house


The seats looked really comfortable!


In the foyer


I was having trouble with my camera since the lighting was awkward. If I had the flash on (or on auto), then the picture came out too dark. But if I turned it off, it was hard for the picture not to be blurry, and it looked brighter than it was. Doug played with the f-stop to help with the lighting problem. These are the closest we could get to how it looked in real life




We loved this room. Everything was covered in gold. It led to the balcony out front, so I'd guess it was just a milling room for the guests and show-goers.




View of the balcony


Face on the ceiling of the balcony. It's a mosaic. There was mosaic art everywhere, from the floor (different patterns on different floors), to the ceilings (also different pictures and patterns everywhere)


The foyer one more time with the f-stop adjustment


We walked on and found this church. Also gold starred, but this one was a miss. I mean, it's cool architecture, but it looked like all the other churches...


We started seeking out a cafe or a bistro, because I have a picture of Paris in my head that includes sitting at one and having coffee or something. And we were hungry. They were everywhere when we weren't looking for one, but we couldn't find one once we were looking. Plus we were farther away from the big tourist sites such as the Louvre or Notre Dame. We ended up back at the Moulin Rouge and walked those street for a little bit. We got Subway. I know, I know, but at least we had the Spicy Italian? haha we tried to find a cafe! Then we took a metro back and were surprised at 1) how late in the day it was (around 6, we forgot Doug's watch today) and 2) how less tired we were than yesterday! Our legs are getting used to this!

This is the village of Bercy, which is right across the street from where we're staying. There's restaurants and shops everywhere, along with our grocery store where we had to buy more cereal from today. It's really cool and kind of european quaint.


We walked to a nearby station to inquire about our rail tickets that we'll start using on Saturday. We saw this house that was really really crooked. So we had to take a picture



Doug's reading a student's guide to Europe that I got for free on my Kindle. It uses a lot of humor and truth and has been helpful about stuff to see, stuff to not bother with (like to see the real David instead of settling for the replica). He's reading about Paris to see if there's something else we need to see, and he laughed when he got to this line because we can really relate:
"The truth is, this city will charm you and bitch slap you with equal gusto, but don't get too tired..."

We were right though: this city has grown on us. I love the atmosphere...except for all of the smokers. It's surprising how many people don't speak english, and even more surprising which people do speak it. Our hostess and waitress at the pub we went to spoke little to none, yet a homeless man in a metro station was able to help us buy our tickets from a kiosk.

The metro is both nicer and more confusing than London's. And there are people asking for money everywhere. They get in your face which isn't cool.

But there's just something about this city!