Day 5: Mosying along the Champs-Elysees

First stop: Sacre Coeur Cathedral (translated Sacred Heart Cathedral)

This is up in the northern part of the city. I was told by a friend that this was a beautiful place and it was. We had to hike up some stairs to get to it as it is on a hill giving it a lovely view of Paris. Well it would have been lovely if there wasn't so much smog that day. Inside the church it is very quaint and simple. Smaller than you would think from the outside. Lots of little chapels and alters surround the main alter. And just as we were beginning to walk around a group of nuns came and started to sing. Oh it was so beautiful and and looking at the mosaics and stained glass windows of the stories of Christ really touched me. It was probably one of the most perfect moments of my life. We ambled around the area for a little bit and made our way down to the metro. I stopped in a little convenience store for some water and then we found an internet cafe. I think Jason was going to check on something about his credit card. But I decided to get on too and that is where you get this lovely blog post .


Second stop: Moulin Rouge

Funny that would we go from a church to a striptease. Well, it was on the route. We didn't stay too long. Just long enough to get some pictures in front of the windmill and look at some of the pictures that are outside the doors. Be careful they are holograms and if you move a certain way you just might get an eyeful. Scandalous! But they had some interesting information too. Lots of stars came to the Moulin Rouge (can't recall any right now). I guess it's always been a famous place even before the movie.


Third Stop: Arc de Triomphe

Wow, this was amazing. So big with beautiful carvings. The Arc is in the center of several roads converging into one large roundabout. There are no marked lanes, cars just drive where ever they want and change lanes with reckless abandon. I watched the cars for the slightest hope of an accident. (I know I'm evil, just a small one, nothing fatal or anything.) So the Arc stands on its own little island of concrete, not having to compete with any other structure for attention to its grandeur. Poetic huh? I took lots of pictures and then we took the underground pedestrian walkway to get a closer look. We decided to wait to go to the top until the next day once we had our museum pass. So we just took in everything underneath. It's kind of hard to describe it. You all will just have to go there and see for yourself.

Fourth (well we didn't really stop, its a road you walk down it): Champs-Elysees

One of the roads that stops at the Arc de Triomphe is the Champs-Elysees. This is the most famous street in Paris mainly for its shopping. It has all the amazing stores. You got money to burn this is where you do it. Louis Vouitton and more. We just walked down and drooled because we knew none of it could be ours. On our way down we decided to stop and eat at the French version of a fast food place called Quick. The food wasn't very good and the service wasn't either. I had to wait an extra five minutes just to have them leave off tomatoes and lettuce and mayonaise. Then we kept walking some more stopping in stores here and there. Then we came upon two palaces on the side of the road. Just sitting there. So we checked them out. One is the Le Petit Palais (as pictured to the right) and the other is Le Grande Palais. I think one is offices and the other is a museum. We didn't go in but just stared for a few moments.

Down the street in between the two palaces leads to a bridge called the Alexandre III Bridge. It had gold statued columns and a great view of Eiffel Tower with the Seine river. Kodak Moment! I was excited and looking forward to tomorrow when we would actually go up to the top. Well, some more wandering and going back to our hotel so Melanie and I could find some good postcards. There was a little store just around the corner from our hotel so we grabbed some snacks for our dinner. Chocolate cookies and ice cream. Mmmmm.