Day 19, 20 & Eiffel Tower

We left Beaune fairly early this morning to head for Paris.  It was drizzling rain so we had to haul our luggage through the rain to the bus.  It rained for most of our 4 hour bus ride but by the time we got to Paris, it was sunny and cool.

We checked into our hotel, Hotel Beaugency, then we were on our own for lunch so we walked down to the pedestrian street close to our hotel, found a place that sold already made sandwiches and had some lunch sitting out at a table on the sidewalk.  The place also sold all kinds of pastries so we tried a couple of those also.

The group met back at the hotel and we all walked to the closest Metro station to go to Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame.  Sainte-Chapelle had two floors.  The common people worshiped on the lower floor and the nobility on the upper floor.  You enter the church on the lower floor and you really aren’t very impressed, although the ceilings are a work of art.  You then climb a circular stone stairway up to the main part of the church and as you emerge you are stunned with the stained glass windows - another WOW moment!!  

Every window in the church is brilliant stained glass and the windows are extremely tall.  There are statues of the different apostles ringing the sanctuary and a gorgeous gold altar that was under renovation when we got there so we really didn’t get to see it very well – bought the postcard!!

We hopped back on the Metro to get over to Notre Dame.  When we came up from the Metro station, we saw a huge area of sand.  Once a year they haul in tons of sand and set up a beach area in the middle of Paris.  The locals were out there playing volleyball and football.  This is supposed to encourage the Parisians to get outside and to be content with city life.  

We walked over to Notre Dame and Jennifer talked to us about the exterior of the church and what we would see on the inside when we were set free to explore on our own.  They were holding a church service while we were there but we were still allowed to enter.  That is typical of this church although most others we have visited are closed to tourists while services are being held.  There is a certain area that you aren’t allowed to go into unless you are joining in the service.  We walked around to see the different little chapels ringing the church. 

We joined the group again to travel back to our hotel.  We were on our own for dinner and joined up with Barbara, Bruce and Jeff and went to a little restaurant, Leo le Lion, just a couple of doors down from our hotel.  One of the big things that they do in Paris is sell you dinner by "plat".  This means they have a set price and you can either choose your three courses from a special menu or the menu is already set for you.  You have to ask for the carte rather than the menu if you want to buy your food item by item.

After a delicious, but expensive, dinner we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night.  When we got there not only was it lit up but it was sparkling which was just beautiful.  As we watched and took pictures, it stopped sparkling and we discovered that it only sparkles for 10 minutes at the top of each hour.

Back to the hotel after a wonderful first day in Paris.