Birds, birds, and oh yeah, Notre Dame.

Cathedral de Notre-Dame, Paris!

One sunny afternoon we walked down the Seine and stopped at Notre Dame Cathedral. It is amazing to look at- so much detail in the architecture. The stained glass windows are brilliant and the kids loved finding the gargoyles!

Inside the church -cool to think that many of France's Kings and Queens were crowned here!

This is the place to which all signposts in France refer to when they give the distance from Paris. (Whew! That is a mouthful...)

Great pic of the front - also showing the beauty of the "Rose Window" above the main entrance. This was one of our warmer days in Paris. It rained a lot while we were there. There were tons of birds chirping and flitting about these hedges.

The kids watched someone feed a small bird right out of their hands. The kids were determined to try it...

We had better luck with the pigeons.

Even me... they liked curry chips the best!

Sully loving it!

I love this pic of Audrey! The kids said this was the best day of the whole trip! When I ask them about Paris they still say they loved the birds best!

The Louvre

The Louvre- one of the worlds largest museums, and the most visited museum in the world! It was much bigger than I thought. We decided to go early in the morning- we were first in line. Word is, you get there as early as you can and rush to the Mona Lisa in the Sully wing. This gives you the closest look at her, when the crowds are less full.

This is the Sully wing from the outside.

Audrey and Grace patiently waiting...

Sul loved seeing his name up there...

The Winged Victory.

So much - too much, to look at...

And there she is.... Audrey was so excited! This is the first glimpse of The Mona Lisa. The famous painting is displayed behind bullet-proof glass and a roped off viewing area of about 15 feet circumference.

Q and the girls jockeying for position...

Inspiring!

Sully said he doesn't really feel bad for Jesus because he gets to live again.

The main hall to The Egyptian Antiquities.

The gals and King Tut.

Ramses. This wing inspired me to plan an Egypt family vacation...

Their first view of a real mummy....

I think the kids loved this little troll the best. They had fun making up sounds and stories behind this guy.

And there was a cool a/c vent right in front of this display case. I think we may have spent the majority of our time here.

A view from inside and under the glass pyramid. This is also the main entrance for The Louvre.

We may be still living there when this happens...

Paris Catacombes

Thursday morning we decided to go off the beaten path. We took the subway out to Denfert-Rouchereau Station to see "The Cimetiere des Innocents (Cemetery of the Innocents). Paris has a huge underground graveyard. Around 1785 the cemeteries in Paris were over crowded, and the decaying bodies were tainting the drinking water. Someone had an idea to move the bones and newly deceased bodies about 20M underground the streets of Paris to an area which was once a quarry.

This is a gypsy band playing in the subway terminal. Pretty good group!

Waiting in line outside the Catacombes. Who knew this was such a popular destination? We are all awaiting in terrorizing anticipation...

Once inside the small entrance you walk down 90 steps to a huge complex of tunnels and caverns.


These caverns are stacked with neatly placed floor to ceiling skeletons, about 6 million of them. The halls are quite chilly and damp and have the name of the Parisian street above you. They ask visitors to not use camera flashes, we did the best we could with the low lighting.

There is only indirect lighting casting haunting shadows along the floors and bones. We took a few flashlights that the kids felt a little braver holding.

Even some of the old tombstones and cemetery markers are placed between the bones.
This skull had a bullet hole through it.

There was also a section that was used for mass. City folk could come down and pay a small fee and attend mass. You still had some sort of access if your loved one's bones were somewhere down here.

The ascent to the street above.


Outside the grocery store.

Grace at the flower shop!