Day 2

Day 2 started out bright and early as we made our way first to Notre Dame! This was probably one of the most, if not THE MOST, exciting moment of our trip. I have dreamt of seeing the Notre Dame Catherdral for years and years! We rode the metro over to the 14th century Catholic church where we were able to walk right in!



The amazing view from when you first ascend from the underground railway.

The Catacombs


This line was drawn onto the roof of the quarries to help show workers the way out!
The Catacombs have been turned into a sanctuary and, therefore, monuments and dedications are spaced throughout to honor the dead.


Following our self-guided tour of Notre Dame, we headed back to the Metro station to meet my good friend Lindsey, her mom, and her sister at the Catacombs. We arrived about 45 minutes before opening, and thank goodness we did, because right away the line began to grow. By the time the doors opened, the queue wrapped around the block. Once inside the ticket office, you descend a ridiculous number of stairs to get to the quarries in which the bones are laid to rest. The old stone spiral stair case was narrow and went down down down until finally we reached the entrace into the Catacombs.









After the Catacombs, we made our, by metro of course, over to the Louvre! It kind of surprised me when I saw it because it almost popped out of nowhere, which I don't know how that is even possible because it was soooooooooooo big! Before going in, we decided to go eat at a little cafe across the street from the massive museum. There, as you can see in the pictures, Lindsey decided to try escargo! She tried to get the rest of us to taste but with no success. After lunch, we headed to the Louvre where we parted ways Lindsey and her fam, and Logan and I headed to through the entrance.
Once again, the size of this museum is almost unfathomable. We were there for two plus hours walking full speed ahead and didn't even see 1/16 of the place. We did get to see the really famous art though, like the Mona Lisa!

Saint Chapelle
After the Louvre, we headed back towards Notre Dame because we wanted to climb the tower, which was closed the first time we went that morning. First we stopped by Saint Chapelle and made a quick trip through this amazing building!
When we arrived at Notre Dame, the line to enter the towers was ridiculous, but Logan and I decided to wait it out anway. About two hours later, we ascended the never ending spiral staircase to the very top of the cathedral. It was amazing!!!




Our last stop of the day was at Champs Elysees and then to the top of the Arc d' Triomph, where we climbed about a millio more stairs! Logan and I calculated that we climbed and descended well over 2000 stairs that day! In fact, when I woke up the next morning, I could definitely feel the burn in my legs!
View from the top!
Getting back to the hotel, I don't know if I have ever felt so exhausted in my entire life! We walked all over Paris and saw most of the main tourist attractions, climbs thousands of stairs, and just went a little crazy! Of course that night, the jet lag set in once again and at about 1 am, I turned over to see Logan wide awake playing on his phone also! After a few hours, we were able to fall back to sleep and get nice and rested up to start our next day of adventure!