In preparation for our Paris trip we watched a few Paris movies, including Hunchback of Notre Dame. I think it made it a little more meaningful for Jonah to see Notre Dame and look for the gargoyles and Quasi Modo and his bells.
This is the only one of the rose windows in the Notre Dame has the original medieval glass in it.
We found one of Quasi’s friends up top.
This bell used to take 16 men to ring. Then they added a few pullies and it only took 8. Nowadays it’s all machine run, pretty amazing.
The climb to the bell tower was about 400 steps. The lady who we showed our tickets to asked me several times if I was sure I could/wanted to do it. I think she was worried I would go into labor. She seemed worried about Jonah too. But Jonah has proven after many bell tower climbs that he is the champion of the tiny winding staircase. We got to cut the line because of her concern for us though, she wanted us at the back of a wave of people being let in so she had us come to the front and hop in after the next group. Pregnancy does come with some perks.
The backside of Notre Dame (I like it better) and one of the many lock covered bridges. Don’t mind me looking huge…and the glasses I had to wear all week because of a terrible eye infection, good times.
Very famous bookstore that has supported many struggling authors (very famous authors but I can’t remember who) and still does. They have rooms they let struggling authors stay in above the shop for free. Nick is considering this his backup plan, lol.
Jonah with his head tied back (hey it’s better then letting it flop around!) in front of the Pantheon…originally meant to be a church but it became more a of a place to honor the heroes of France, lot’s of famous people buried in the crypt including Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Voltaire. Also the place where the rotation of the earth was discovered by Leon Foucalt using his Foucalt pendulum which still hangs from the ceiling.
Jonah and I went to a cute little French marionette show in the Luxembourg gardens, sorry no pictures but it was fun.
We decided to take a little scenic cruise on the Seine that evening. Beautiful. A bit chilly though, especially for Nick who forgot to pack a jacket (don’t worry, we resolved that the next day). Most of the people around us this whole trip were wearing winter jackets. Between Nick’s warm blood and me being pregnant, we were in T-shirts most the time and we got a lot of looks.
I’m catching up on all your posts after a long absence. And I just have to say! If you’d looked close, you would have found a lock on that fence behind Notre Dame that David and I put there last year. Yep, we totally bought into the touristy hype, aaaaand it was one of my favorite moments of the trip. Such a charming city, that Paris. Glad to see you’re still having such a good time out there!