Paris Part Deux

Our Paris Afternoon:

After walking through the Tuilerie gardens and a stop at the Musee D'Orangerie (worthy of its own blog entry), we took the metro to the Notre Dame stop. From our previous evening's walk, we'd already seen Notre Dame. But today we wanted to climb to the top. This was mostly for CJ who has a healthy obsession with "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" - the Disney movie...alas, not Victor Hugo's classic...maybe someday :). The line of people waiting to climb to the top was daunting; it extended from the entrance, around the corner, and went almost the length of the cathedral. I walked down to the end and prepared myself for a long wait in the hot afternoon sun. 

A few minutes later, a worker came down the line, took a look at my crew and asked, "Are these all your kids?"  

"Yes," I replied rather sheepishly.  

"Come with me," he instructed."You can skip the line."

What? Had I heard him correctly?

I was actually being rewarded for having lots of kids?! Happy Day! I love France!

So we walked past the very long line and went inside the significantly cooler, dark building. CJ prided herself on climbing all the stairs to the top, keeping a constant lookout for Quasimodo.

 

We did not find Quasimodo. But we heard the bells. We were at the top of the cathedral at the two o'clock hour. The bells pealed through the afternoon air. I could feel the vibration of the deeper chimes in my chest. 

Being upclose, sometimes face-to-face, with the gargoyles was very cool. The stone was rough against my hands, and I was impressed how well the gargoyles had held up to weather, wars, and even a cathedral fire. CJ was pretty sure she saw the exact gargoyle Frolo fell from. 

  

  

But out of the hundreds of gargoyles, these were by far my favorite ones:

  

Paris by Night:

When planning our 24 hours in Paris, the number one item on my list was the Eiffel Tower. But I had heard/read horror stories of long lines. When I tried to buy tickets online, to avoid the lines, the ONLY time left was 10:30 at night. I remember turning to my husband to tell him our only option with a plea, "Do we dare?" We looked at each other knowing 10:30PM could potentially be miserable for our family of early-bed-goers. But as a once in a lifetime experience, we chose to book the tickets.

What that translated to in reality was that CJ fell asleep at 9PM and my dear husband carried her the entire way to the Eiffel Tower. Holding her on the metro wasn't so bad. But carrying the 40+ pounds of deadweight from the metro to the tower was an act of true love. I know CJ will not have any memories of this part of the trip. But I will always remember watching my dear husband carrying her along the streets of Paris.

CJ, in Dad's arms, on the metro:

 

Here we are walking to the Eiffel Tower. The sun had just set (it stayed light until quite late). We were about 1/2 mile away...a long walk for my sweet husband.

Like the French baguettes and the delectable pains du chocolate, The Eiffel Tower did NOT disappoint.

A surprise:

I knew we were the last group of the night to take the elevator up the tower, but I didn't know that the lights of the Eiffel Tower twinkle at the top of the first hour after dark. So while on the tower, looking out over Paris, you can imagine our surprise and delight when all of sudden the lights began to twinkle. The lights danced up and down the steel beams. The entire structure shone like a giant Christmas tree. The crowds around us cheered, and we could hear people below clapping and cheering at the sight. Although the picture below doesn't begin to capture the brilliance or our amazement, it is our record of the added bonus of the night: 

The kids (minus sleepy CJ) were absolutely giddy. They pointed out landmarks like the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe. They oohed and ahhhed at the fireworks we could see in the distance from Versailles. They loved the experience even more than I could have imagined.

I love this selfie of the three girls...on top of the world!

 

Here we are on the Eiffel Tower! It was cold and blustery. But absolutely beautiful. CJ finally woke up for about 15 minutes. Just long enough to see the twinkling lights and snuggle her Dad. 

We could not have packed our Paris day any fuller. We saw everything on our bucket list...and then some. And life surprised us with unexpected bonuses, perhaps even "tender mercies" - like the skipped line and the twinkling lights. There on top of the Eiffel tower, in a city I never dared dream to visit, time stopped for a moment. I took in the stars, the lights of the city, my smiling children, my patient husband, and my heart soared.

In the future, when I'm having a bad day (cuz I know I'll have plenty of those!) and I need a "happy place" to go to in my mind...this will be the place.