The Beginning of Paris: Notre Dame

The boys waiting, like we did so often in Paris.

There are so many pictures from Paris that I had to break them up into lots of smaller posts, because otherwise it takes days to upload all of the pictures together.

Our first day in Paris began with a trip to the train station to buy a ticket for my journey back to Freiburg. In the train station we got lost, wandered around, asked a guy for help with ticket buying who explained everything to us but couldn't actually sell us the ticket, found the people who could sell us the ticket, waited in line forever, then waited some more while Dad bought museum passes. This trend continued for most of our Paris trip: long lines, confusion, bureaucracy, bad directions... (As an interesting side note: I'm currently writing a paper on the European Union, and found in my research that the EU's bureaucracy is based on the French bureaucracy. I am now a little concerned for the future of the EU.)

We did, however, manage to sucessfully navigate the subway system. As an added bonus, none of us had anything stolen. This doesn't mean we didn't lose anything - I dropped my camera's lens cap into the metro tracks within the first few minutes of being there. Chris threatened to go in and get it, but didn't (thankfully). We took our subway to the center of the city and started our Paris tour with Notre Dame. I had seen it before, but this time was certainly better. For one, Pat was there to explain some of the architectural features; Dad found the top of a prayer candle that fits my camera lens exactly, so I've now got a new lens cap; and this time we got to go to the top! Our museum passes, which 'supposedly' let you cut lines, did not save us from the hour long wait at Notre Dame. It was worth the wait, though!

Pat at Notre Dame

Chris

Look at the reflection in Pat's glasses

The center of Paris

Pat, explaining how the water system works

My new lens cap. It actually goes on the top of a prayer candle, but it fits exactly

This guy entertained us while we waited in line.

Crepes!

Chris got yelled at for touching the bell. Later he and Pat would set off an alarm at the Louvre for touching a painting. Oops.

Tiny door to the belltower. No wonder Quasimodo was a hunchback!

Driving

Driving is something we did a lot of on the trip. We have definitely made longer trips, but in a tiny Opel you feel every minute of it. The drive from Freiburg to Paris was supposedly 5 hours. We got a late start, then stopped in Colmar (which is barely over the border) for some lunch and scenery. Colmar is a cute little Elsässer town that is mostly intact from the 1500s - meaning it was not destroyed in the war.

The rest of the drive was long but simple. The only adventure was when Dad took the wrong exit on a roundabout, and it was because there was construction on the exit we were supposed to take. For the record, the French loooove roundabouts. You exit a roundabout only to enter another.

Returning the car was also an adventure, due to poor roadsigns and bad directions. We found it eventually, then jumped in the largest taxi we could find and headed to the hotel.

My french pizza....covered in blue cheese.

Buildings in Colmar. They have so much character!

Candles in the cathedral

Dad got so excited every time he saw a panama hat!

Kitty in the window

Our GPS thought we were off-roading

This is a toilet. And simultaneously the worst idea ever. You squat over a hole and pee into it, in the most ungraceful manner imaginable. I'm glad this phenomenon doesn't exist in the US or Germany.

You could see the Cathedral of Sacre Coeur from our hotel window!