Paris Day 5

Day 5 Highlights: Running Errands - Notre Dame - Luxemborg Gardens - Laundry

Still having trouble waking up in the mornings. I didn't sleep well last night because my knees were killing me. I haven't mentioned how many stairs are all over Paris. Not to mention that we climb 6 flights of stairs every time we return to our hotel. We scaled over 400 stairs on the Eiffel Tower, and today, we scaled 422 to the top of Notre Dame. And what an experience that was!

But before walking 2.5 miles to Notre Dame, we had to run errands. We had to reserve our seats for the train to Switzerland. That was actually pretty easy - there is a special office that helps with the reservation process. From there, we went to the post office to mail post cards, and get a box to mail some things home (like the Rick Steve's Paris Guide - we love the info, but it weighs a ton!) Then we went to the store. Eric needed some lotion and I was trying to find face wash. It was so funny trying to figure out what the different products were. We laughed and laughed and hopefully ended up with the right things! :-)

We also stopped by a fruit stand and a boulangerie to pick up sandwiches to take with us. And then it was off on our adventure.

We enjoyed a beautiful, although very hot walk along the Seine. I was scared by a homeless guy who yelled at us because we didn't give him money. But that was the only incident on an otherwise incredible walk. It continues to amaze us how many beautiful buildings there are in this city - it seems like at every turn.

We arrived at Notre Dame, and I was overwhelmed by the beauty of it. It's amazing to know that it took over 200 years to build, and that meant that many of the builders never saw the completed church. It was built stone by single stone, and the people had to bend over and pull a rope to lift the stone (that's why many of them became hunched over.......Ah - now I get the idea behind The Hunchback of Notre Dame!)

I'm also amazed by all of the history behind the different carvings and icons on the outside of the church as well as the inside. Not enough time to go into details. Bummer! But there is a funny statue of the architect who helped repair the church in the 1800s on the roof.

Anyway, the highlight was climbing to the top of the bell tower. The views were incredible! Again, Paris is such a large city! I am always amazed by these views. And I especially enjoyed all of the different gargoyles. There's the "bored" gargoyle, who's leaning on his hands, sticking his tongue out. We have some great photos, but too many to post.

We spent several hours at the church and then wandered over to Luxemborg gardens, which reminded me of Central Park in New York. Tons of people enjoying a beautiful day!

After a long walk home, we tackled our first try at doing laundry. It went well, thankfully there were some helpful people to explain exactly what to do (quite different from back home!) We felt accomplished, and will head to Switzerland with clean clothes. As you know, we are trying to travel light, and only brought 5 outfits with us. So we will need to do laundry every so often. It was fun!