Paris Sites

While in Paris, we felt it was important to get to as many of the famous sites as possible.  We are trying to strike a balance between seeing everything because we will probably never get to come here again, and realizing that we have three teenage children who would just as soon stay in the room and surf the web.

Stacy's must-see place was the Palace of Versailles, a 100-room palace on the outskirts of town.  This magnificent mansion, built over hundreds of years, has been inhabited by French

royalty for centuries.  It was almost too elaborate to take in.  Each room was more dazzling than the last filled with room-sized paintings, ornate furniture, and awesome statues.  The piece-de-resistance was the Hall of Mirrors, which was an elaborate hallway filled with chandelliers and statues intended to impress royalty who visited ages ago.  The gardens were filled with massive reflecting pools, manicured hedges, and perfect statues.

We wanted to take in the Louvre and the Orsay museums.  The size

of these buildings is completely overwhelming.  Admittedly, we are not familiar with much art and probably couldn't appreciate it to the degree that most people would.  There were a few pieces the kids wanted to see: of course, the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and other things by Leonardo Di Vinci, Monet, Picasso and Van Gogh.  It was remarkable to see these pieces up close and realize their age and worth.  I was most impressed by the works of Rodin and Cezanne.  These statues and paintings were so detailed and life-like.

We also wanted to take in the Pantheon.  This had been a church at times in history, but has come to be a memorial to famous French personalities.  There is a crypt underneath the

building that houses the  graves of famous frenchmen like Victor Hugo.

We also made the hike up to the highest point of the city on Montmartre to see Sacre Coeure, a white cathedral that sort of resembles a mosque.  This was my favorite church that we have visited so far.  You have to climb

hundreds of steps to get to it, so when you arrive up on it, it is revealed suddenly and takes you back.  Beyond that, on the inside the art work and windows on the ceiling is dazzling, but it is extremely Christ-centered.  Where many of the churches here are centered around Mary, each fresco here pictures Christ in glory.

Montmartre was the whole family's favorite place in Paris.  This was the gathering place for many well-known artists and it still contains a marketplace where many artists sell their wares.  There are lots of little cafes to sit and watch people and it is very quaint.  You would recognize some of the names of the sketchy areas of this place , like the Moulin Rouge, but the good here far outweighs the bad.

The catacombs of Paris were located near our flat and this was probably the freakiest place I've ever been in my life.

Most of the stone used to build Paris was quarried out of the ground underneath.  At some point they decided that more digging would jeopardize the stability of the ground above, so they stopped digging.  But there was another problem--the cemeteries were full and bodies were stacking up and causing sickness.  So they decided to dig up all of the bones from the cemeteries, to bless them, and bury them in these caverns.

Entering the catacombs, you descend several hundred feet below ground to a single narrow passageway.  Reaching bottom, you travel for a ways, and all of a sudden you come upon rows and rows of neatly stacked bones.  There are creative designs with skulls and bones, making hearts and crosses.  It goes on for what seems like miles.  In fact, there are so many that you almost forget that these were once alive.  It's crazy!

We ended our time in Paris climbing to the top of Notre Dame to see the bell tower that the book "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is based on.  From the top of the church, you can see past the

gargoyles to nearly every part of the city.  Paris, in my opinion, was not nearly as beautiful as London.  London was impeccably clean, orderly, and safe.  Paris, on the other hand, had many parts that resembled New York City.  There was lots of graffiti, many beggars, and parts where you had to be on your guard against pick-pockets.  But Paris has a charm in its places, its people, and especially its food that was like no other place I've been.