Notre Dame

Going through customs and immigration at Charles de Gaulle airport is a breeze. The immigration officer opened my passport, glanced at the picture, flipped to the only page with stamps and stamped right next to my other stamps. This was just minutes after Colleen mentioned that I would need to fill two passport pages per year in order to fill up my passport before the expiration date. I'm really going to have to step up my efforts at this rate. Customs was even easier since apparently France doesn't care what I bring into the country. After picking up our bags we proceeded to the exit, no red/green lights, no x-rays, no drug sniffing dogs, no one.


We decided to save a few euros and take the train into Paris. We made it to the station easily enough but after a couple failed attempts to purchase tickets from the vending machine a friendly Brit took pity on me and helped me out (perhaps he was an English-speaking Frenchman, but he was awfully nice so I assumed he couldn't be French). Given that the vending machine had English instructions, I'm a little embarrassed that I needed help at all. Unfortunately he wasn't with us when we attempted to transfer to the Metro. After several unsuccessful attempts at the ticket machine, we grabbed a taxi from the train station to our hotel.


We were really looking forward to taking showers before starting off in the city but alas, our room was not available. Instead, we settled for washing our faces and brushing our teeth in the lobby bathroom. After checking our bags with the bellhops, we headed off to see the city. We crossed over the Seine to the left bank and glimpsed the Eiffel tower to the left but decided to save this for another day and made a right towards Notre Dame instead. Before we could make it all the way to the cathedral, we popped in to a cafe for a bite to eat. I decided on the French Onion Soup (the just call it onion soup) and we each had a glass of wine because that what they do in France.

We made it to Notre Dame and waited in the long, but fast moving line under the watchful eyes of the gargolyes high above. Moments later I was happy to hear that Quasimodo is still hard at work ringing the bells. We strolled through the cathedral taking in the candlelight and insense while admiring the stained glass windows and artwork. We planned next to planned to climb the steps to the towers and become more acquaited with the gargoyles but once we saw the line decided that we would sit for a coffee in the shop across the street instead. Turns out, the coffee shop had plenty of gargoyles above the tables for us to admire over cafe au laits. Despite the coffee, the jet lag was starting to catch up to us so we returned to the hotel for a mini nap and showers before dinner. This is starting off to be a very nice parisian vacation.