Paris:: Part two

Bonjour!

Day 2 - Tuesday

We wanted to leave a little early on this day to get to the Louvre, but because of all the walking the day before and how late we went to bed, we (I) didn't get out of bed until about 8:15, making it so we didn't leave until 9:30. 

Oops. 

Our plan for the day was to go to the Louvre and then go see the Catacombs.

We walked to the Louvre, which took about a half hour, and going through one of the worst intersections in Paris, and upon arriving there, Jake was starving. We stopped at a little Cafe that sits right outside the entrance of The Louvre. I had a crepe with jelly (mmm so good), and Jake had a sandwich and a chocolate crepe (not as good as a Nutella crepe). 

Cafe by The Louvre:: Star Rating:: 4.0

Review::

It was decent. It was priced good and the location was fun. It sat right off the walkway to go up to The Louvre, but also was in a garden section that had statues around. The crepe I had was good, but the crepe Jake had wasn't as good because the chocolate was too rich. He really enjoyed his sandwich. The service was alright. When we were finished eating we asked the waitress to bring us our check and she looked at us, nodded in reply, then sat down and finished eating before bringing us our check making us wait another 10 minutes. I don't know if she didn't understand us or was just really hungry herself. 

After eating, we started to walk up to The Louvre. You walk on a sandy walkway so Jake grabbed a rock and started drawing a heart with our initials and wedding date in the center. He is so cute. We got to the entrance of The Louvre, and started to take pictures. We were excited to go in. 

When we got to the entrance, no one was going in, so I went and asked the guy who was working there and by the entrance what was going on. Apparently, The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays for cleaning. 

Boo!!!

Well, since there wasn't anything we could do about that, we decided to do what we were planning to do on Wednesday and do Tuesday. 

So we walked to Notre-Dame.

Which is about 1 mile away. Maybe more. Maybe less.

While walking there we saw on the other side of the road some people selling stuff from green looking boxes. 

So, we decided to check it out. 

The whole side of the road was lined with people selling old books, paintings, keychains, locks, and much more. 

Come to find out, these little green boxes of the Bouquinistes on the banks of the Seine date back to the 16th century.  After the Revolution they peddled entire libraries that had been seized from noble families. 

We, of course, bought a painting. It's so beautiful and is black and white of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame with red trees. I'll post a picture once I get it framed. It's huge, and was so cheap. Only 30 euro!

We also bought a cute lock to put on the lock bridge. Only 3 euro!  

Location of little green boxes:: Along the Quai de Montebello on the banks of the Seine.

I HIGHLY recommend going here! Even if it's just for the experience. 

                                                    History of Notre-Dame::

Home to Victor Hugo's fictional hunchback, Quasimodo, Notre-Dame is over 800 years old and was finished in 1330. Built on the site of a Roman temple, it took over a century to complete and is covered with swooping buttresses and funny-faced gargoyles. During the revolution it was looted and used as a wine warehouse. The cathedral has witnessed many dramatic events in French history - such as when, in 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor here instead of waiting for the Pope to do it for him. 

It's covered in easily recognizable biblical characters, the facade was known as the "poor man's bible". When the cathedral was built, most Parisians were unable to read. 

Notre-Dame was really fun to walk around in. I've never been in a cathedral where they come over a speaker telling people to shhhh. They were pretty strict on how quiet we needed to be. On the inside of the cathedral they have a comic-book type strip of Jesus Christ's life because Parisians couldn't read back in the day and this is how they learned was from pictures. 

Jake has been reading the book The Hunchback of Notre-Dame so he wanted to go to the top. 

We waited in the line outside for 1 1/2 hours to be able to go to the top. They only allow about 20 people in at a time for crowd control. 

Price to go to the top: 14 euro

While waiting, I went to the shops right on the side of Notre-Dame. Hands down the cheapest souvenirs in the city and it was all the same stuff. I bought a couple postcards and a wooden plate (a tradition I'm starting for everywhere we visit). 

When it was our time to go to the top we climbed all 387 steps. 

387 people. On tiny steps that you have to sometimes walk on your toes to get on. 

At the top we were able to take some awesome pictures of the gargoyles. I was secretly hoping they would come alive, like in the Disney movie of Hunchback. :)

When I thought we were going down, we actually went up even more. To the very top of the cathedral.  It was an awesome view. I really liked it, but Jake loves the cathedral and really liked seeing it from the Arc de Triomphe so it wasn't his favorite view.

                                                    

After we came down from Notre-Dame, we decided it was time to go do the Lock Bridge of Love. 

I think this was one of my most favorite things to do. 

Location:: Pont de I'Archveche on the eastern tip of the Ile de la Cite. 

We didn't bring a lock because I was told we could buy one there. And they were right. We bought a cute little lock for 3 euro that had a heart on it with Paris written in the middle. The lady who sold it to us also had a permanent marker so I could write on it our names, anniversary date, and the year we have made it to! 

It was so fun trying to even find a place to put the lock because the bridge is PACKED with locks. Locks are locked on other locks that are locked on other locks that are finally locked on the bridge. We did find a place to put ours that was on the actual bridge.

After Jake attached it to the bridge, and we both made a wish for our marriage, I threw the key as hard as I could into the Seine and we watched it go plop. 

We then took lots of pictures, and kissed a ton (because it's a love bridge), and then looked at all the other cool locks that were there. People can get really creative when it comes to locks. 

I was impressed!

After the bridge, we decided to just walk around and see what we could find. 

This lasted about 15 minutes before I needed to sit down because my feet were screaming at me. 

We walked down some steps and sat on a ledge next to the Seine. 

While sitting there we were able to laugh, and talk about our adventures, and people watch. 

All of a sudden, this Frenchman got Jake's attention and ushered him over to him and his wife. He gave Jake some cheese and told us to enjoy it. 

By the way it tasted we both could tell it was very expensive cheese. 

I'm telling you, French people are nice. 

After we sat there for 20 minutes, we decided to keep walking and looking around. 

We crossed another bridge and saw the same green boxes we had seen earlier. 

They were beginning to close (around 7:00 PM).

We got interested in the ones that were still open and started looking at the books. 

Jake kept asking if any of them had Victor Hugo books, and more specifically, Les Miserables or The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. 

One guy did. They were from 1880 and were over 180 euro for one set or 800 euro for the other set. 

Well, we are cheap. 

But, I wanted Jake to get an old book because he LOVES to read and books are his thing and it would be awesome to get a book from 1880 that was written by one of his favorite authors from a vendor in Paris, France. 

So we bought another Victor Hugo book that the guy had that has 3 short stories in it from 1880 for 40 euro. Then because the guy could tell how much Jake liked Victor Hugo, he through in another Victor Hugo book from 1880 for free. 

I'm telling you, French people are nice. 

We were starting to get hungry after we looked at all the books, and I knew there was a Hard Rock Cafe in Paris, so we decided to eat there. I know it's not French food, but hey when you live in Germany, you tend to start craving American food. 

Plus, I collect the Hurricane glasses, so we HAD to go. :)

The location of the restaurant was about 2 miles away. 

So we began to walk and walk and walk...again. 

(Don't get me wrong, I think walking the city is the best option because you see more and can do more things, I just wore the wrong shoes and my feet were killing me because of it) 

Hard Rock Cafe:: Star Rating:: 5.5

Rating::

Best Hard Rock Cafe I have EVER eaten at and I've eaten at Hard Rock all over the world! I could not get over how well the food tasted and how great the drink was. Plus our waitress was hilarious. This little blonde hair, blue eyes, beautiful girl from SPAIN! It was so fun trying to guess where she was from. And she spoke 6 different languages so it was way easy to speak to her and have her understand. I would go back to this restaurant in a heart beat because the food was so good and I miss American food a lot. I had a pulled pork sandwich and Jake had ribs.

                                                                                           
Location:: BLVD Montmartre 

Once we were done eating we were stuffed! 

It was time to go back to the room and recoup after a long day and watch our show. 

We've been watching the HBO TV show Band of Brothers lately. I highly recommend that show to anyone interested in WW2. I've learned a lot from watching it and it's so interesting and heart wrenching. My favorite part of the show is that there are real WW2 veterans before each episode giving their real life account about what is about to happen in that episode. 

It does swear and have bloody images (nothing worse than The Walking Dead), but it's history. 

And that is the end of Day 2

Day 3 and 4 to be continued...

Au Revoir