Thanks for the Memories: Day Two Paris

With only two days in Paris, we had to pack them full. With a quick stop for an umbrella to shield ourselves from the spring rain, we were off to visit two stops...Notre Dame and the Lourve.

Construction began on the cathedral in 1163 during the reign of Louis VII. It amazes me to see such history when the US is so young in comparison to the history of Europe.

Here I am standing at point zero or Kilometre Zero of French national highways, located in Paris on the square facing the main entrance of Notre Dame cathedral, and considered the official centre of the city of Paris.

We stood in line in the rain waiting for our turn to climb a narrow set of 387 steps at the top of several spiral staircases to visit one of the towers.

Although standing in the rain wasn't too much fun, it did give us a first hand experience of seeing he gargoyle spouts in action. About 5 minutes after the rain began, the gargoyles started spewing the run off. It was quite impressive.

The gargoyles were so interesting to us. They were freakish and mesmerizing at the same time.

Notre Dame was one of the first cathedrals to use the architectural technique of the flying buttress.

I had to take this picture for my coin collecting son Evan. He would love to see that people had put their coins in the spouts of the gargoyles.

We saw postcards of this view all over town. But, we didn't need to buy a postcard when we captured it ourselves. Can you see the Eiffel Tower there in the distance?

Scary, right?

This gargoyle I found to be the most disturbing. I could barely look at him. But it is said that the gargoyles represent that all creatures are the work of God and are deserving of his love and salvation.

A view of Paris from Notre Dame tower.

The eastern façade of Notre Dame cathedral.

Upon leaving Notre Dame, we crossed a nearby bridge and were delighted to find it covered in locks.

The Pont des Art or also known as the love lock bridge was constructed in 1802 under Napolean I and was the first metal bridge built in Paris.

No one really knows when the locks began to be placed. At first it was done in secret at night, but now it is done openly and in broad daylight and usually recorded or photographed.

One night about two years ago, someone cut through the wires and removed all the locks on one of the bridges. But in just a few months, locks of all sizes and colors reappeared, more conspicuous than ever.

Supposedly the locks represent everlasting love. We didn't add a lock to the bridge. There are practically no spaces left. Here is a link to a youtube video of someone who added a lock the same day that we visited. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIoBt21fvAY

Our next stop was the Lourve. We didn't buy a city museum pass since we were only spending two days in Paris, so we had to stand in line in the rain to wait our turn to get in. It didn't take us too long though.

The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in with more than 652,000 sq ft dedicated to the permanent collection. The Louvre has sculptures, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. It is the world's most visited museum, averaging 15,000 visitors per day, 65 percent of whom are foreign tourists.

Some of our favorite sightings: Venus de Milo created sometime between 100 and 130 AD.

We also enjoyed the ancient Egyptian section of the museum.

This section contain over 50,000 pieces ranging from 4,000 BC to the 4th century.

Directly across from the Mona Lisa is this painting called the Wedding at Cana. It is the largest painting at the Lourve.

The Mona Lisa on the other hand is shockingly small. It has been on display at the Lourve since 1797. The nice thing about the Lourve is that they allow you to take photographs as long as you don't use a flash. The Mona Lisa is roped off and you cant get very close and there are always so many people surrounding it, but still a cool experience to see it.