Paris Day Deux Part Deux

After we had been at the cemetary for about an hour, I received a call from my parents saying they had a message from my sister and were going to try and meet up with her at the Notre Dame. So Suzanne and I left the cemetary and got a panini from a street side vendor, then headed for the Notre Dame. As I said previously, we didn't remember our memory cards on the first trip through the cemetary, so we had to go back to the hotel and get them before heading to Notre Dame. We arrived at the cathedral and met up with my parents, then walked through hoping to see Andra. Notre Dame is massive. I could not get over how large the building was, yet it didn't seem to have the seating a church of that size would suggest. We walked around the exterior and looked at all the alcoves where all the statues of the saints are. We didn't go up the tower, but even seeing the interior was breathtaking. Here is a picture from outside Notre Dame (I can't remember if we were allowed to take pictures inside or not, but we didn't really feel it was a tourist trap where that was acceptable).



Alas, no Andra. We decided to go back to the hotel and check and see if she was there. Instead of taking the Metro, though we took a water taxi along the river. Quick comment about the Metro: You don't realize how important good wayfinding is until you come across poorly done wayfinding. The London Underground map is a stroke of pure genius and even the wayfinding signs on the underground make it very easy to figure out where you want to go. Walk up to the diagram, find your station, take that train. The Metro on the other hand, doesn't have all of the stations listed, so you need to know the terminating station for a particular line as well as your own personal destination. This tends to leave you constantly checking to make sure you are on the right train or getting on the the right train.

The water taxi ride was very peaceful and we got an opportunity to see more than just the front of the Notre Dame from a distance. Below is a picture taken from the river.




When we got back to the hotel, we finally found Andra and it was about time to start looking for a place to eat dinner. The previous night's fare had been brie sandwiches all around and we decided that we wanted something a bit more substantial for this meal. So we found a nice little restaurant not too far from the hotel and I had a vat of mussels brought to me for dinner. They had been cooked in a cheese sauce and were absolutely fantastic food. I almost had myself convinced that I was eating healthy too because it was seafood. Almost. Suzanne had a Salmon dish that she also enjoyed a great deal. The service was also excellent despite stories of the French being rude. The walk back to the hotel was late enough that we were again treated to a light show from the tower. Blogger is giving me fits right now, so a picture of that will have to follow.