Paris in Springtime

The first leg of SpringBreak 2012 (brought to you by Anne and Mark) was a short jaunt through Paris.  Paris is a huge city and one of the most popular tourist locales in the world.  This has its pros and cons.  On the negative side, Paris is crowded, especially at the main sites.  On the positive side, however, the sites are world-famous and the city is well-prepared to deal with millions of visitors each year.  Additionally, since Anne and Mark visited in March rather than June, the crowds were not actually very large, so this turned out to be a fantastic visit to one of the capitals of Europe.

Their first day in Paris was spent visiting major, major sites (tourist sites in Paris are categorized as "major, major" - "big time" - and "I didn't know that was in Paris).  Two of the biggest and most famous sites in the city of lights are the Eiffel Tower (pictured above) and the Notre Dame Cathedral (also a "major, major" site).

Prior to visiting the cathedral, Mark was under the misconception that "Notre Dame" was either a housing development of some sort for hunchbacks or a fancy word that meant "mediocre football program in northern Indiana."  To his surprise, however, Mark learned that "Notre Dame" is a French term meaning "Our Lady" and the Cathedral of Notre Dame is a large, venerable church.

Fighting Irish of Notre Dame

The Fighting Polish at Notre Dame?

The church is hundreds of years old and sits near the center of the city on the banks of the river.  The building is still in use as a church, but also invites visitors inside for a tour.  The artwork adorning both the inside and outside of the building is beautifully maintained (or restored, in some places) and looks largely the same way it did during and even before the French Revolution.

Anne and Mark took the walk around the inside of the Cathedral and spent quite a while admiring the outside views.  While waiting to enter the cathedral, they noticed the statute pictured below near the entrance.  The gentleman with his head in his hands (literally) is St. Denis.  Apparently, St. Denis was an early bishop of Paris was beheaded on Montmartre in Paris.  Most of us would probably call it a day at that point, and a bad day at that.  But not Denis.  Instead, he picked up his head and walked a few miles around town, preaching a sermon the whole way.  This is the kind of guy who is not going to let a little beheading get in his way.

So if anyone ever says "You would lose your head if it wasn't attached" - think of Denis - who STILL didn't lose his head, even after he lost his head.

Running around like a Denis with his head cut off.

After visiting Notre Dame, Anne and Mark walked around the surrounding area.  They visited the memorial for those deported during World War II (photos are allowed, but visitors were required to promise that they would not post them on the internet, so none will be posted here).  Then they wandered around some of the old neighborhoods.

Wheel-a-pianist guy.

Anne visited the landmark bookstore Shakespeare & Co.

Later, the duo sat down for a fancy coffee-like drink.  The coffee in France is not like the coffee in the U.S.  They do not run water through ground up coffee beans and then serve the filtered result.  Instead they pump pure rocket fuel into the smallest cups they can find.  Mark can attest to this because after drinking half of the cup of French coffee pictured below, he ran a half-marathon and did 100 jumping jacks.  (Mark also reports that when he picked up this little tiny cup, he felt a bit like he should watch out for Jack and retreat to the safety of his beanstalk)

That's a strong cup o joe.  Classy with the pinky, though.

Finally, Anne and Mark capped off their first day in Paris with a visit to the Eiffel Tower.  Although they had only visited a few landmarks, they felt that they had taken a real bite out of their "to-do" list.

A "bite".... get it?