Here is the altar with the beautiful mosaic (fresco? I dunno):
A close up:
The view of Paris from Sacre Coeur. So beautiful. Can you find me?
Here I am!
We really enjoyed Sacre Coeur; I think it was one of our favorites along with Saint Chapelle and the Pantheon. Next on our list was the Mary Magdalen. It is dedicated to my Patron Saint, so I really wanted to see it. The architecture is very roman.
Here is the altar. Again, not the greatest picture because it was a bit far away, but still very beautiful.
Unfortunately the entire Church was decorated with modern art. We weren't really sure why...it was pretty ugly. There was a pyramid made out of old water bottles, and a curtain of iron rods, and some ugly statues. They got in the way of the real beauty of the church. The only thing that wasn't obstructed was the gorgeous ceiling.
After this we were very hungry, and walking around the town to our next destination we found a little crepe stand that smelt so good we couldn't pass it up. They make the crepes on this big hot plate, and we had ours with chocolate and bananas. It was so delicious!
Then it was time for the Pantheon, where all the famous French people are buried. I must say, I was pretty impressed with the inside as well even if it wasn't as ancient as some of the other Churches we saw.
They had this giant pendulum clock thing which was pretty cool, although I'm not really sure how it worked...
The walls were covered with painting about Saint Genevieve's life, but I wasn't too interested in that. I wanted to see the crypt! Here come the dead people!
The famous philosopher Rousseau. The Constitution is based off of many of his ideas.
OMG It's Voltaire. Yes. He's really in there.
Here is Jean Moulin, the martyred leader of the French Resistance movement. He was tortured and left to die in a train on the way to Auschwitz by Klaus Barbie (who I did a lengthy report on in college).
And here is the legendary Marie Currie, along with Pierre Currie. If you don't recall your history, you can read up on how important she is here.
Others included Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Henri Bergson, and even Louis Braille! Yes, the man that invented Braille. COOL. The Pantheon was huge so we were there for a pretty long time. We made a quick stop afterward at Saint Severin's, which is the only medieval church in Paris that has remained largely unchanged.
I really liked the design of their stained glass windows.
These are the bones, or relics, of Saint Ursula.
We were getting pretty hungry, so we hurried to see the Arc de Triumph before dinner time. It was funny, actually. You have to take an underground tunnel to get across the traffic circle around the arc, but some people didn't know that and they attempted to cross the HUGE traffic circle (4 lanes) by running across. It was hilarious, but only because nobody got hurt.
The tomb of the unknown soldier with the eternal flame. And a pigeon (he was not invited).
Well, we didn't want to pay money to go to the top and have to wait in a line, so we took our pictures and then headed to dinner. This cafe was much nicer than the first. We had a very good waitress, it wasn't too crowded, and we got a nice table where we could sit in the shade and watch the people on the street. For desert, of course, I had the french classic (and my favorite) crème brûlée.
After a nice and leisurely dinner we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to try our luck again. On the way we ran into a protest about political prisoners in Iran which was rather interesting. All along the park by the Eiffel Tower the protestors carried green banners with words on them. This was Brian's favorite:
Then came the big wait. Two hours in line to get up to the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower, and another 45 minutes to wait in the line to the 3rd floor. It was painful, but we did it! And really, I think it was worth it.
Well, that was Day 2 in Paris. Thanks for reading!
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