After we all locked our locks on Pont des Arts, we started walking to the Notre Dame Cathedral.
We walked along the Seine under some beautiful trees.
These shops with books, prints and postcards were everywhere along the Seine.
Our first view of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Stephen, Michael, and Cameron decided to walk down and walk right by the river.
Ok, these next three pictures are pretty much the same, but I loved all of them and couldn't decide. So you get all three.
The line to go inside the Cathedral was really long so we decided not to wait. I am bummed we didn't get to go in, but we had limited time to see everything. Something else to add to the list of things we have to go back and see.
I wanted to walk around the Cathedral to see it from all sides. Mary and Gary came with us while the others stayed back.
It's a shame they didn't come with us because it was even prettier from the other side.
We walked to the Pont de Archeveche bridge to get this view of the Cathedral. Pont des Archeveche is another famous lock bridge. This bridge is where you put a lock for your lover.
The outside of the Cathedral was simply amazing. In the middle of the picture below you see statues of Kings. There are 28 total ( I didn't get them all in this picture) and they are the Kings of Judah and of Israel, the ancestors of Christ.
Here is more about the statues surrounding the door below:
The Portal of the Last Judgement is in the centre of the façade. Jesus is represented welcoming us while Mary and Saint John pray for men. Below is a depiction of the Resurrection, and the middle portion shows the weighing of the souls, where the chosen people are taken to heaven by angels, and the others, who did not choose to love God and their fellow man, are taken to hell by demons. On each side, the largest statues represent the twelve apostles framing Christ, who stands between the two doors on a central pillar called the trumeau.
Source
I took these with my cell phone and even though they are similar to ones I posted above, I wanted to include them.
After we were done at the Notre Dame Cathedral we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower. We had a Paris Pass which includes free rides on a hop on hop off bus. We named this "the big red bus". We realized early on, while even planning this trip, that Stephen and I were very different travelers than the rest of the family. Part of their plan for Paris was to utilize the big red bus as much as possible. Stephen and I's plans involved never getting on the big red bus. At this point in the day everyone was complaining about walking so while Stephen and I would have taken the subway to the Eiffel Tower, we decided to get on the big red bus with everyone else so we could all stay together.
Here are the boys waiting for the bus:
The bus finally came and we got great seats on the top deck.
We got on the bus right at the Notre Dame Cathedral and drove right past the Pont des Arts bridge. You can see the Louvre behind it.
The chilly morning had turned into a hot, but beautiful afternoon.
You can see the Louvre again here across the Seine.
I don't know what this is. I thought it was the Pantheon of Paris, but I just looked at a map and it is not located where we were when this picture was taken, so I don't know.
Place de la Concorde. This is where we walked to the first night after dinner. The trees you see on the right start the Tuileries Garden that I talked about in my Louvre post.
This is our hotel. Hotel de Vendome. It is a boutique hotel and was so nice and charming. I will do a whole post on it with some pictures I took of our room.
This was the street right next to our hotel.
Back to the Place de la Concorde to head up Champs Elysees.
You can see the Arc de Triomphe in the far background.
Take note of all of the traffic on this street. That will come in to play on Paris Day 3, but I just wanted to point it out now so you will have some reference when we get to that point.
We were finally getting closer to the Eiffel Tower. We were getting ansy at this point. It had been a long bus ride with lots of traffic.
The Louis Vuitton flagship store on Champs Elysees.
After a two hour bus ride we finally made it to the Eiffel Tower. Stephen and I along with Taylor got off the bus at the end of the Eiffel Tower, but everyone else stayed on and got off at the base so they wouldn't have to walk anymore.
This was the perfect spot to get some great pictures of the Eiffel Tower and I was so happy we decided to get off here even though everyone else did not.
There were lots of people here though so getting a good picture was going to be hard. I was up for the challenge though and ended up getting some great pictures!
Stay tuned as Paris Day 2 continues!
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