Yep! They don't have crazy parking in Paris like they do in Italy. It's a very different city than Rome. Currently around 12 million people live in Paris. But just like anywhere else in the world they have plenty of gypsies. It seems like they were more preventlant in Paris than anywhere else. It made me think of the Disney movie the Hunchback of Notre Dam. The female lead in that movie was indeed a gypsy. I've been wanting to watch the movie ever since I saw Notre Dam... which leads me to...
The actual Notre Dam. This is a view from the side. Notre Dam looks different from every direction. On this view you can't even see the flying buttresses in the back. I'm betting that Notre Dam has a similar story to the church that I showed you in Madrid. It took 200 years to build Notre Dam so obviously different architects and artists worked on various parts of it.
Like I said... completely different by which view you are looking. Here is the front of the Notre Dam. I tried to get a close up of it so that you could make out all of the details in the building.
This is the inside of Notre Dam. Churches in France are wonderful because they are free to everyone. All churches have their doors open to people, and they are a safe ground or sanctuary for people.
Here is the altar that you could see in a distance in the last picture.
Here you can see the altar, the stained glass windows, and the choirs chairs.
Notre Dam means Our Lady. So you see statues of Mary throughout it.
Here is one of the three marvelous Rose Windows.
This is a different one from the one that I showed you above. One is on each side of the church. They are considered to be a treasure of Notre Dam and Paris. During World War two they actually took the windows down because they were afraid that they would be destroyed.
Here I am. :)
Here I am again with the Rose Window in the background.
This section of Notre Dam is besides the altar and it was actually built onto the church to house the poor people that needed shelter back in the day. They added this part in so that the people had some privacy.
Here is a zoomed in verison. Gargoyles have two functions. 1. They were supposed to ward off evil spirits that wanted to come into the church. 2. They are drains. Gargoyles get their name, because of the gurgling sound water makes as it goes out of them.
Here are some of my favorite people on the trip in the gardens of Notre Dam!! Me, Bobby, Venessa, Pauline, Neil, George, and Nyree.
Here is the nice lady that had to take the above picture with 5 different cameras!! Her name is Margette and she was very nice. She sat in front of me on the bus, and we talked and sat with each other quite often.
Now moving away from the church... here is Napoleon's Arch. Napoleon wanted a great archway built that he could walk through after his victories. Sadly for Napoleon it wasn't built until after his death. But the inside of the arch is a monument of all of Napoleon's victories and accomplishments.
This is the building that Napoleon is built in. They say that he is buried in 7 coffins all made out of different precious material. Some say it was because of how cherished he was amongst his people.... others say they were trying to make sure he couldn't get out.
This is Princess Diana's Flame. This is just before the tunnel that she had her fatal crash in.
Here is the inside you can just make out the pillars on the inside that the car hit.
She crashed into the 13th pillar in the tunnel which was about halfway through the tunnel. I tried to get a picture of it.
Her car was going 94 mph when they crashed.
Here is the famous Louvre. This building is MASSIVE! The part that I'm showing you is only the entrance the building is actually 700 meters or 2,100 feet long!! It is the biggest museum in the world. And it is known for housing the Mona Lisa among many other famous artworks, and it was featured in the movie/book the Da Vinci Codes. I just got done reading the book before I came to France so I was extremely excited to see this building, and I wish that I would have been able to have had the time to go inside of it and walk around... and see SOME of the artwork inside. They say that if you looked at every piece of artwork inside of it for 3 seconds a piece it would take you 2 weeks to see everything inside of it. Alas I didn't have two weeks to spend inside the Louvre... I didn't even have an hour or so to just run in because I went to the Sun Palace instead of having free time to roam the city of Paris...
Here is the altar that you could see in a distance in the last picture. Here you can see the altar, the stained glass windows, and the choirs chairs.Notre Dam means Our Lady. So you see statues of Mary throughout it.Here is one of the three marvelous Rose Windows.This is a different one from the one that I showed you above. One is on each side of the church. They are considered to be a treasure of Notre Dam and Paris. During World War two they actually took the windows down because they were afraid that they would be destroyed.Here I am. :)Here I am again with the Rose Window in the background.This section of Notre Dam is besides the altar and it was actually built onto the church to house the poor people that needed shelter back in the day. They added this part in so that the people had some privacy. Here is the outside of the church. You can see the famous gargoyles at the top.
Here is a zoomed in verison. Gargoyles have two functions. 1. They were supposed to ward off evil spirits that wanted to come into the church. 2. They are drains. Gargoyles get their name, because of the gurgling sound water makes as it goes out of them.Here are some of my favorite people on the trip in the gardens of Notre Dam!! Me, Bobby, Venessa, Pauline, Neil, George, and Nyree.Here is the nice lady that had to take the above picture with 5 different cameras!! Her name is Margette and she was very nice. She sat in front of me on the bus, and we talked and sat with each other quite often.
Now moving away from the church... here is Napoleon's Arch. Napoleon wanted a great archway built that he could walk through after his victories. Sadly for Napoleon it wasn't built until after his death. But the inside of the arch is a monument of all of Napoleon's victories and accomplishments.This is the building that Napoleon is built in. They say that he is buried in 7 coffins all made out of different precious material. Some say it was because of how cherished he was amongst his people.... others say they were trying to make sure he couldn't get out.This is Princess Diana's Flame. This is just before the tunnel that she had her fatal crash in.I'm sorry that these pictures won't be too high of quality, because we were zooming through the tunnel, and it was a VERY VERY small tunnel. It was probably one of the shortest that we went through in Paris. But here is the entrance to it.
Here is the inside you can just make out the pillars on the inside that the car hit.She crashed into the 13th pillar in the tunnel which was about halfway through the tunnel. I tried to get a picture of it. Her car was going 94 mph when they crashed.Here is the famous Louvre. This building is MASSIVE! The part that I'm showing you is only the entrance the building is actually 700 meters or 2,100 feet long!! It is the biggest museum in the world. And it is known for housing the Mona Lisa among many other famous artworks, and it was featured in the movie/book the Da Vinci Codes. I just got done reading the book before I came to France so I was extremely excited to see this building, and I wish that I would have been able to have had the time to go inside of it and walk around... and see SOME of the artwork inside. They say that if you looked at every piece of artwork inside of it for 3 seconds a piece it would take you 2 weeks to see everything inside of it. Alas I didn't have two weeks to spend inside the Louvre... I didn't even have an hour or so to just run in because I went to the Sun Palace instead of having free time to roam the city of Paris...Welcome to the Sun Palace! The Sun Palace was created by Louis the 14th because he was afraid that his noblemen were going to rebel against him in Paris. It took 49 years to build the Sun Palace and all of the nobles were required to live there under the kings watchful eye.
This is the main entrance into the building. Every room in the building has a different theme to the Greek Gods. This room is of Hercules coming home to the Gods triumph, and there is a feast going on.
You can see how richly decorated the room is. By the way that is not paint or wallpaper you see on the walls... that is marble and gold. There are 40 different types of marble throughout the palace. And the king and queen of the palace had completely separate wings, and only ever saw each other to meet for dinner once or twice a week. Marriages were arraigned then, and romance was usually not involved... it was all strictly politics.
Here you can see Helena's room or the Goddess of the Hunt. Can you see how the ceiling is elaborately decorated?
This room is dedicated to Mars, or the God of War. Can you make out the battle theme on the walls? The picture surrounded by the gold circle is probably the easiest to make out in this picture. Most of the rooms only had a limited amount of original furniture in them, because as France went into debt it was sold off by the people of France.
Here is Apollo's room, or the God of Power, Beauty, and Sun. You can probably tell that this room was really bright. I just wanted to show you a couple of rooms so that you could get the feel for how elaborately decorated and themed this building was.. there were more rooms to more Gods, but I think that I've shown enough of them for you to get the gist. Now while these rooms were all nice... this next one is spectacular.
Here is another view of the room. This is the main dining room, and dancing hall. This is also the room that the treaty of Versailles was signed in. For those that don't know what the treaty of Versailles is... it is the treaty that was signed after World War 1 to signify the ending of the war. So it is a big deal, and the room was definitely grand enough to deserve to be a spot of that kind of historical significance.
Here is a close up of one of the many gorgeous chandeliers in the room.
This room is actually the room right before the Hall of Mirrors. It is the Queen's bedroom, and is famously known for housing Marie Antoinette.
You can see her bed in this picture.
Here is the statue of her in the room.
This by contrast is the kings bed room on the other side of the palace. Whenever the king and queen were going to produce an heir to the throne a servant man would take the kings pillow and lay it on the queen's bed for all to witness... so that in 9 months time when a child was born it would not be questioned as to who the father was.
This room is after Hall of Mirrors and was dedicated to Napolean. This specific tapestry shows Napolean taking the crown from the Pope, and placing it upon his own head. Therefore, crowning himself and showing that he was above all authority and could do what he wanted.
This is later on in the night at our fair well dinner. :( This is Bobby, George, and Venessa.
Here is a picture of our whole table. Roanne, Me, Ursela, Venessa, George, Neil, Pauline, Bobby, Nyree, and Mark.
Here I am with the plate to prove that I had it!! This picture was right before I tried to figure out how to eat them!!
I had my "Pretty Woman" moment and I almost lost a snail!! That picture is legitmate! Nyree caught me right as I about lost it! I was thinking that I'd wish that she would have ate the snail in the movie so that I would have had an idea on how to eat them. I knew to put them in the pincher, but I thought that I had to crack it like you do with most seafood... so there I am looking about all sneaky like to figure out what everyone else is doing, because to my horror the spoon was as tight as it would go... and whenever I tried to squeeze it to get it to crack the snail would fall out! Eventually Ursela took pity on me, and pointed at the little fork next to me. If you EVER are planning on eating escargo in your life pay attention to this next sentence it could save you someday!! You have to DIG the snails out with the fork! You pick them up with the little tongs, then you go to town with your fork and dig them out! It was really easy... after a little bit of wiggling around and talking nicely to it the snail comes right out.
Yep! Not too bad. It was a little bit chewy, but it wasn't horrible. I was able to eat the next 5 quite happily. There was also this DELICOUS onion soup on the table with bread. So we were all dunking the bread into the soup, and it was just the best creation ever. I loved it. It was thick and full of flavor... and the bread soaked it up perfectly. It was a very good dinner, and I enjoyed the duck as well. I didn't really eat too much of my dessert because I was extremely full!! And we were all dancing to the band that was playing that night. It was a great way to say goodbye to everyone. It was really sad. After three weeks you really make friendships with people. Traveling is the best way to get to know people. I think that 3 weeks of traveling with a person beats out 3 years of just being friends and hanging out at home. It's such a different experience, because you're in a new place and that person is the only thing that is familar... and you really rely on each other to find your way around the city, and to stay safe. I'm really going to miss most of the people on this tour, and I hope that they all get back safely. I know quite a few are trapped in London until the volcano passes. I'll be posting a blog on my overall thoughts of the trip in a little while.
This is the main entrance into the building. Every room in the building has a different theme to the Greek Gods. This room is of Hercules coming home to the Gods triumph, and there is a feast going on. You can see how richly decorated the room is. By the way that is not paint or wallpaper you see on the walls... that is marble and gold. There are 40 different types of marble throughout the palace. And the king and queen of the palace had completely separate wings, and only ever saw each other to meet for dinner once or twice a week. Marriages were arraigned then, and romance was usually not involved... it was all strictly politics. Here you can see Helena's room or the Goddess of the Hunt. Can you see how the ceiling is elaborately decorated?This room is dedicated to Mars, or the God of War. Can you make out the battle theme on the walls? The picture surrounded by the gold circle is probably the easiest to make out in this picture. Most of the rooms only had a limited amount of original furniture in them, because as France went into debt it was sold off by the people of France.
Here is Apollo's room, or the God of Power, Beauty, and Sun. You can probably tell that this room was really bright. I just wanted to show you a couple of rooms so that you could get the feel for how elaborately decorated and themed this building was.. there were more rooms to more Gods, but I think that I've shown enough of them for you to get the gist. Now while these rooms were all nice... this next one is spectacular.This is the Hall of Mirrors. There are 17 large mirrors and 17 large windows in the room. The light from the windows reflects off of the mirrors. And there are over 40 glass chandeliers up above that sparkle with the light. The room was really breath taking, and after some of the places I've seen on this trip that is an impressive statement.
Here is another view of the room. This is the main dining room, and dancing hall. This is also the room that the treaty of Versailles was signed in. For those that don't know what the treaty of Versailles is... it is the treaty that was signed after World War 1 to signify the ending of the war. So it is a big deal, and the room was definitely grand enough to deserve to be a spot of that kind of historical significance.
Here is a close up of one of the many gorgeous chandeliers in the room.
This room is actually the room right before the Hall of Mirrors. It is the Queen's bedroom, and is famously known for housing Marie Antoinette.
You can see her bed in this picture.
Here is the statue of her in the room.
This by contrast is the kings bed room on the other side of the palace. Whenever the king and queen were going to produce an heir to the throne a servant man would take the kings pillow and lay it on the queen's bed for all to witness... so that in 9 months time when a child was born it would not be questioned as to who the father was.
This room is after Hall of Mirrors and was dedicated to Napolean. This specific tapestry shows Napolean taking the crown from the Pope, and placing it upon his own head. Therefore, crowning himself and showing that he was above all authority and could do what he wanted.
This is later on in the night at our fair well dinner. :( This is Bobby, George, and Venessa.
Here is a picture of our whole table. Roanne, Me, Ursela, Venessa, George, Neil, Pauline, Bobby, Nyree, and Mark.I ate escargo aka snails and duck that night!! Yikes!
Here I am with the plate to prove that I had it!! This picture was right before I tried to figure out how to eat them!!I had my "Pretty Woman" moment and I almost lost a snail!! That picture is legitmate! Nyree caught me right as I about lost it! I was thinking that I'd wish that she would have ate the snail in the movie so that I would have had an idea on how to eat them. I knew to put them in the pincher, but I thought that I had to crack it like you do with most seafood... so there I am looking about all sneaky like to figure out what everyone else is doing, because to my horror the spoon was as tight as it would go... and whenever I tried to squeeze it to get it to crack the snail would fall out! Eventually Ursela took pity on me, and pointed at the little fork next to me. If you EVER are planning on eating escargo in your life pay attention to this next sentence it could save you someday!! You have to DIG the snails out with the fork! You pick them up with the little tongs, then you go to town with your fork and dig them out! It was really easy... after a little bit of wiggling around and talking nicely to it the snail comes right out.Victory! Now to actually try the snail...
Yep! Not too bad. It was a little bit chewy, but it wasn't horrible. I was able to eat the next 5 quite happily. There was also this DELICOUS onion soup on the table with bread. So we were all dunking the bread into the soup, and it was just the best creation ever. I loved it. It was thick and full of flavor... and the bread soaked it up perfectly. It was a very good dinner, and I enjoyed the duck as well. I didn't really eat too much of my dessert because I was extremely full!! And we were all dancing to the band that was playing that night. It was a great way to say goodbye to everyone. It was really sad. After three weeks you really make friendships with people. Traveling is the best way to get to know people. I think that 3 weeks of traveling with a person beats out 3 years of just being friends and hanging out at home. It's such a different experience, because you're in a new place and that person is the only thing that is familar... and you really rely on each other to find your way around the city, and to stay safe. I'm really going to miss most of the people on this tour, and I hope that they all get back safely. I know quite a few are trapped in London until the volcano passes. I'll be posting a blog on my overall thoughts of the trip in a little while. 
