Paris 2012 - Day 2

Submitted bydkranker onTue, 09/25/2012 - 17:05

We learned about the subway system in Paris today.  It's a little more confusing than the system in London, partially because of the names are not familiar, but also because the stations don't appear very consistent, in either their entrances or signage. One of the stations along Le Chapelle, has a yellow M, for Metro, with a circle around it, while others have Metro spelled out in red letters. It still seems like a good way to get around the city.  We'd located the subway station nearest our room on a map the night before and could get back to Notre Dame by getting off at the subway station near it.  Getting in line earlier at Notre Dame let us get in sooner because by noon, the line had extended the whole length of the building.  While one of us stayed in line, the other went into some shops along the side and got something the eat.  When we came into the cathedral, we could go up to the towers first.  From the towers you can see the gargoyles up close and see all around Paris.  There's a lot of graffiti on the top with people writing their names in the stone block or lead roof panels.  After the tour of the towers, we went into the cathedral itself.  We got to see the gigantic, Rose Windows which are on both sides of the building. We had looked at t-shirts of the rose window in gift shops but they had some glitter on them that looked a little messy, so Kristi got a nice pendant in the gift show that is made to replicate the design of the window.  From Notre Dame, we got back on the bus tour and used it to get to another area of town where there was some smaller shops and galleries.  We saw a lot of off-the-beaten path items here, including some random paintings and drawings by some students in a couple galleries.  We got some prices for a chain for Kristi\'s pendant and found a gallery that had three Wolfram watercolor's that we really liked. We walked back out on the main road and saw the Hard Rock Cafe Paris, we circled this block, checking out shops along the way, knowing we\'d eat some "American" style food that night. We had to wait in the bar area and was just standing there when two Americans saw us and started talking to us, he was from California, and his wife was from Washington state.  He'd picked up a Scottish or British accent by living in the area so long and he'd bought a bottle of wine that he shared with us. Kristi had a cheeseburger and I got a barbecue pulled pork sandwich. He gave us some pointers for sights to see in Munich, since he'd been a couple times. After we ate, we walked back though some shops, but most were closed by this time, we found a supermarket to get some bottled water and some packaged waffles.