Wednesday in Paris

The weather was not as nice today, but still pleasant and no snow like the people back home have. We have not had rain at all while we have been here so none of our trips have been hampered by that.

We started our day with tours of Sainte Chapelle and the Concierge and we walked to them. Our apartment is really well situated for seeing Paris. We have a metro stop right outside our apartment building and we can actually walk to the island where Notre Dame and today's sights are located. Sainte Chapelle is a beautiful small chapel built by one of the kings whose name I can't remember at this moment. He built it to display two relics that he acquired-part of the cross of Jesus and part of his crown of thorns. It is a two level chapel-the lower level for ordinary people to use and the upper level for the king and his groups. The upper chapel has 15 huge stained glass windows, each depicting something from the bible starting with genesis. It is really beautiful and you can see pictures when Rosie gets her Flickr pictures uploaded. http://www.flickr.com/photos/12473770@N03/page3

The Concierge was a prision and court. Offenders were taken there and put through the court system and sentenced. It looked like conditions were miserable. Marie Antoninette was held and tried there as were many others during the French Revolution.

After this, Lynne went off to class and Rosie and I had lunch (schwarma at a sidewalk cafe) and then rushed off to catch a boat tour. It was cold and windy but a good view from a different direction of some of the attractions we had seen. For instance, the back of the Louvre looked extremely long! I sat next to a man who had come on the train from England-an American air force soldier (officer?) from North Carolina. I really enjoyed talking to him and he also said it was nice to see someone from back home. He pointed out a gold flame we saw on our tour which marks the tunnel where Princess Diana died. We were talking about how European countries see Americans (they mostly dislike us), but he said that they really like Barack Obama. He had gone to London when Obama was coming along with many other famous people. He said the big crowd of people watched Obama come and then left (so they had come to see Obama).

After the boat tour, we walked home to get more clothes because we were on our way to the Eiffel Tower. The guide book we had advised us to get off the Metro a stop early for a good view of the tower and it was so right. We were in a square just near the tower and the view was breathtaking. We got pictures there and then went dow to stand in line to go up. It was a long line, of course, but people watching was interesting. There was a teenage boy and his mother behind us (they were not from Paris but they were French) His English was very good and we chatted with him as we waited. I asked about the armed soldiers patrolling the area and he said there was a terrorist alert. I asked him if that made him afraid and he said no, so I decided I would not worry about it either! We bought tickets to the top. The first elevator took us to the second level where we walked around all sides and took pictures--a magnificent view. Then we took the next elevator to the top (well 900 feet out of 1000) and that was a bit freaky for me. You could see out of the elevator all the bolts and beams of the tower and the ground getting farther and farther away. Looking up through the top of the elevator, I could see that we had much farther to so to get to the top.

Once we were at the top, the first level was enclosed so not windy. We walked all around the top and then went up one more level on the stairs. There it was windy and I was glad for the extra clothes. The tower itself seemed very solid and did not feel like it was moving at all. (not that it is supposed to--it was just my impression)We walked all around and took pictures and then caught the elevator down to the first level. Going down did not bother me as much as going up! The first level was actually the most windy and the coldest. We couldn't wait to get down. It was dark by this time so the views we saw were just amazing. We walked back to the square, took more pictures, and then back on the metro to get home. By this time it was 9pm and we had a small happy hour before going out to eat. It was Rosie's birthday and I had arranged for co-workers to connect to us with Skype. I had the connection open and we heard our co-workers calling us and so Rosie had a face-to-face talk with them (and they sang happy birthday too-good job Mary and Darlene!) Then we found a wonderful Thai restaurant for dinner. We were back by 11:30pm and I was off to bed soon after that--exhausted. (12068 steps on the pedometer)
Bon jour all