Notre Dame

Christmas day was supposed to be our day off. We slept in and had a breakfast/lunch at 12:00 noon. Santa showed up with some small things: DS games, watches, mittens, and Celtic Football Club winter hats for everyone in the family. Celtic FC happens to have the same colors as the Hornets, so it was an easy choice. After we ate, Janna and I took a cat nap, intending to keep things slow. But at 3:30 we were already all out the door. We are in Paris, for goodness sake! What are we doing inside our apartment all day?! Let's go to Notre Dame.

We are getting fairly comfortable with the Metro. And three trains later, we made our way off the Cite stop and onto the island that is home to two of the most beautiful works of architecture in Christiandom. One of them, of course is Notre Dame (the other is San Chapelle - which we hope to hit later in the week).

Notre Dame is overwhelming. It is so old, and big, and eerie, and ornate, and detailed, and did I say old? Construction started in the late 1100's and took 170 years! We entered by way of a Disney-like line that moved quickly. We knew that there was a free organ concert that started at 4:30. We got in at probably 4:45 and the music made it even cooler! Most people walk slowly and quietly around the perimeter of the inside. It is dark, and light shines thru the blue stained glass. The gothic music coming from the organ, and all the people quietly milling around, lighting candles for saints, and saying prayers - all of it was very intense. Gillian even got a picture with her hero (and mine) Joan d' Arc.

When we got out about an hour later, we were without a concrete plan. So we walked to a small restaurant on the island. Janna got a coffee and the girls enjoyed a hot chocolate. Fortunately, there were bathrooms there, too, since we almost had an accident. After the warming house/eatery decided to hop back on the Metro for the Eiffel Tower. We plan on going to the Tower later in the week during the daylight, but we thought it would be fun to go there on Christmas night when it is all lit up (lighted up? not sure).

The Metro kicked us out near the lawn of the Tower. We approached it with anticipation. It was beautiful. We snapped pictures and walked right under it. It was shining bright and on the hour it would sparkle for 5 minutes. The kids could not have been more thrilled. We didn't stop, we just continued north. On the other side of the River Seine is the Palais de Chaillot. In the mall of the Palais was a seasonal "Village de Noel" (go ahead, see if you can translate it), which was made up of pop up tents similar to the tents on the Champs (or the tents at the Edina Art Fair). There was Christmas music, lights, ice skating, street foods, and various products for sale. Just what we were looking for.

Keep in mind, it was only about 23 degrees here today, so we looked for opportunities to warm up. But in the end, we all just needed to tough it out. And did we ever. We walked a lot as the temperature continued to drop during the evening hours. The kids did great. In fact, Janna and I have complained more than the kids. They have been troopers.

We ended up up walking from there all the way to a place called Alma-Marceau. Doesn't look like much on the map, but we were probably outside for about 1.5 hours at this point. We ducked into a nicer restaurant called Chez Francis. The food was good, not great. Most of us got Sirloin steak with mashed potatoes. Janna also got a Pumpkin and Tomato Soup. You could see the Eiffel Tower from our seats. We figured that this place, because of its proximity to the Tower and to the Champs, along with the fact that they had an English menu handy, probably fed a lot of tourists. Not to mention the fact that it was open on Christmas night.

But in the end, we were happy. Good food, good walking. Another good outing.

We headed home via the Metro. Once in our apartment, we indulged in a Christmas dessert, called a Buche de Noel, that we had gotten yesterday at a bakery. That rocked.

Showers and a forced bed time and we should all be ready for another great day in Paris. -- Jeff