Day 3, Paris

Day 3.
Woke up at 8:15 (solid!) and then we walked to Notre Dame. I totally didn't realize that our hotel was so close, but after, like, a 2 minute walk we were suddenly in front of Notre Dame. IT WAS AMAZING. The entirety of Mrs. McKinney's 9th grade history class came rushing back with the flying buttresses, rose windows, side chapels, tous les choses! I walked around the whole thing which was amazing, and I took pictures of, like, everything. Then I paused for a little bit and prayed (in French!) in front of the main altar. The entire time I was kneeling there all I could think about was all the people that had kneeled there (and all the signs reminding us that Notre Dame this is the 850th 'birthday') saying the "Notre Père" and it was just so... I can't even describe it. Cool? Mind-blowing? Nothing seems appropriate enough to describe it. After that we climbed about 420 stairs all the way to the top of Notre Dame. While we did pause at the spot in between the 2 towers, we did climb TO THE TOP. It was awesome. I saw all the gargoyles and chimeras possible. I also took video from in between the two towers so y'all can get a 360 view of paris from Notre Dame, haha. Then we walked a few blocks to Sainte-Chappelle, so amazing. It's this small, when compared to Notre Dame, church that was made, also in the Middle Ages but it was crazy well preserved! They have these magnificent stained glass windows that COVER the walls it's amazing. And there are two levels to the church, one for le peuple and the other for the king/queen and nobles, etc. The upper one, for the upper class, is amazing. I have tons of pictures of that as well, worry not.

Then we had some time to kill so we walked next door to the Conciergerie. This is, like, heaven for those that like the French Revolution. This is where they held the revolution tribunals for Marie-Antoinette and Robespierre. SO COOL. We saw Marie-Antoinette's cell and it was amazing. Also, the basement level had all of these histories of castles on one side and then, on the other, it had a giant lego Harry Potter castle, a Cinderella castle, castles in snow globes, the Disney castle. Why? I don't know, but I took tons of picture for my Harry Potter lovin' friends, haha.

Afterwards we went to the Louvre where we had a guided tour, in English,  to see all the big stuff. We saw the Venus de Milo, Victory, the crowns of Louis XVI and Napoleon I, Fra Angelico, the Mona Lisa, Jacques-Louis David. I kept getting reeeeally distracted by everything there. We didn't stay for long, only for, like 2 hours before we were on information overload. BUT I saw all of the David paintings that inspired la Révolution, which was crazy. I never realized how huge they are. Like the "Coronation of Napoleon", my Montrosians, do you remember during common homerooms when we would pull out the monster screen for projections in the M&M or the Great Hall. It's taller and wider than that. How could one person work on that, without smudging??? Obvi, I'm no artist, but I'm confused. (also, as a reminder to myself, the Louvre was once a castle.)

Then some friends and I (Aubrey, Meddie, MC, Claire, Nicole, Cate, Kailey and Ariel) walked along the Champs-Élyssée and did some shopping. I mean, when in Rome.  Then we metro'd it back to the hotel, went out to dinner again, and have been chilling ever since. It's so crazy and I love it here and when I'm not chilling with my friendz I'll update y'all about more like how I love this place and the food and the everything. AHHH I LOVE FRANCE.