December Part 2 (Dec. 18)

Our second day in Paris, Friday, was very busy. It was extremely cold again, and still snowy. The first place we went was Notre Dame, which was the thing I was looking forward to seeing the most while we were in Paris. Jenny and I had watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame (the Disney one) recently, since we knew we would be seeing the real thing, and it was pretty amazing, although to be honest, it wasn't quite as tall as I had expected.

The towers of Notre Dame

Sadly, we were once again thwarted by the cold weather, and were unable to go up into the towers due to ice. But both the inside and the outside of the Cathedral were magnificent. After taking some pictures out front, we headed inside. There is some amazing stained glass, and the little alcoves to the sides with statues of saints were very cool to see. Also, there was a nativity scene set up and there was an empty manger, since Christmas hadn't come yet, which I though was kind of cool. And it's astonishing how high and well-constructed the ceilings in there are.

The statue of Notre Dame, "Our Lady"

I was kind of surprised that photography was allowed inside (just no flashes), and I actually would have preferred if it hadn't been. It seemed a bit less solemn and a little more touristy than Sacre Coeur (which we hadn't been to yet on this trip, but I'd been to on our earlier day trip with Liliane and Francois), where no photography of any kind is allowed. I think some places are just better to be experienced in person and remembered, rather than photographed, and this was one of them, at least for me.

A view of the Cathedral from behind

After spending a good amount of time exploring the inside, we headed outside, which was just as amazing. I took my time walking the whole way around the outside. It's mind-blowing to think how much time and work was put into building Notre Dame. People simply don't make buildings like it anymore.

The famous gargoyles of Notre Dame

After we were all finished exploring both the inside and outside of Notre Dame, we decided to take a journey down into the Crypt, which is right across the square from the Cathedral. It turns out that the Crypt sounds a lot cooler than it is - I think we were all expecting something more like the Catacombs (which have been closed indefinitely since September, sadly), full of bones and graves, but the Crypt is actually just some sections of preserved ancient architecture like columns and doorways. We didn't linger there too long, and headed to a nearby cafe for some lunch.

Inside Sainte-Chapelle

After lunch, we headed over to Sainte-Chapelle, another cathedral which is famous for its stained glass, which was close by. There really is an amazing amount of stained glass in there, and my mom was very excited because if you follow along on the windows, they tell different Bible stories, although it was harder to make them out than we had thought it would be.

A few of the windows of Sainte-Chapelle

We spent a decent amount of time inside Sainte-Chapelle, looking at the stained glass, before heading back out into the cold! Before getting back on the metro, we walked back over to Notre Dame to check and make sure that we wouldn't be able to go up in the towers before leaving the area. Unfortunately, they were still closed, so we soldiered on.

The Centre Pompidou

Our next stop was the Centre Pompidou, which is home to (I think) the world's second-largest collection of modern art, behind the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Mom, Dad, and Bonnie Jo were not that interested in going to another art museum, and none of them is particularly interested in modern art anyway, so they went and drank coffee and arranged to meet Jenny, Robin, and I when we were done seeing the museum.

Rob experiencing modern art

I was really glad that the three of us did go to the museum, even though everybody wasn't interested, because we all really enjoyed it, and it turned out to be one of my favorite things we did in Paris. There were two main floors of the museum - one with more current, less famous art, and one with more well-known modern art like Picasso, Dali, and Matisse.

A Picasso painting

Both floors were very cool. I actually liked the Centre Pompidou more than the Louvre, but I guess that makes sense, since I'm much more interested in modern than classical art. One of the reasons that I really enjoy modern art is that there's more to it than technical skill - I've always had a difficult time appreciating art that is simply a portrait of some rich guy who paid to have his portrait painted. Modern art is more about the meaning behind the image than the construction of it, and I find it much easier to be interested in modern pieces for this reason. And even if you have no idea what the meaning is supposed to be, at least modern art tends to be visually exciting.

The Eiffel Tower (as if you didn't know)

Finally, after the Centre Pompidou, we ate a quick dinner at a Kebab place, and headed over to the Eiffel Tower! At this point, it was extremely cold, and we decided to go up in it the next day, when it would be lighter and warmer. But we took some pictures, and since it was almost ten o'clock, we waited a little to see the sparkly lights which they do all over the tower every hour on the hour.

Sparkle time!

To our surprise, once the sparkling stopped, a light show began! There was music playing, and the whole tower lit up in different colors that flashed, changed, and moved around. I didn't get any pictures of it, but it was pretty cool. We stayed for the whole thing, which lasted about thirty minutes. It reminded me of the Carol of the Trees, which is a light show at Dollywood which my family always watches at the end of the night when we go there at Christmas. After the light show was over, we headed home for bed.

That's Day 2! To be continued....