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Not far from Notre Dame there's another Cathedral called Sainte Chapelle. It supposedly has the most beautiful stained glass window in all of Christendom. Unfortunately the two times I tried to get in to Sainte Chapelle it was closed. At least I have something to look forward to if I ever get back to Paris. There was another church near Notre Dame that I stumbled upon. The church looked like it was several hundred years old. In the back there was a smaller chapel called the "Chapel of the Holy Sacrament" which looked like it was the original ancient chapel that the church was built around. The church was built during the Middle Ages so the "Chapel of the Holy Sacrament" must have been around 1000 years old.
On top of a hill overlooking the city is one of the most beautiful churches in the world; Sacre Coeur. From the steps at Sacre Coeur you can see the entire city. Behind Sacre Coeur is an artist's park where you can buy paintings or get your portrait done. I found a great oil painting for Becky there.
There's apparently a trend in Europe for couples to put a pad lock on a bridge and then throw the key into the river. This bridge was completely covered in pad locks. There was no room and there were literally pad locks attached to other pad locks.
The Louvre was incredible! We only had about an hour and half when we went there. There is so much to see we could have spent 3 days going through the Louvre and still not have seen it all. It would be like trying to visit the Smithsonian in under 2 hours.
This is the "Madonna of the Rocks" by Da Vinci. I walked right by it on my way to the Mona Lisa. This is one of the paintings in the "Da Vinci Code". There is an entire room for the Mona Lisa. It's that small painting on the 1/2 wall in the center of the room.
One of the coolest things in Paris was the catacombs. During the 1700s Paris was growing and began to envelope all the smaller cities around it. And of course with those cities Paris was also enveloping their cemeteries. They decided to dig up all the bodies and put them in an old abandoned quarry under the city. For the next 80 years bones were removed from the cemeteries and relocated to the quarry.
My French isn't so great but the sign above the door roughly says:
"HERE IS THE EMPIRE OF THE DEAD!"
The piles of bones goes on for what seems like miles. It is unreal. A guy in my group hid around a corner to scare one of our friends. He waited in the dark for a few minutes and then jumped out and screamed and completely freaked out an Australian couple. He was so embarrassed - it was hilarious.
One of the last spots I visited was the Military Museum and Napoleons tomb. Napoleon is still revered as a national hero in France.
We were in Paris for only two days. And during those two days we had two business visits and a trip to the Paris temple construction site. Even though it was over fast, the time in Paris was incredible. Paris is definitely on my list of places that I need to take Becky to some day.
