More Paris!

A couple weeks have flown by, and... where were we?! Ah, Sunday in Paris. We decided to hit Paris's major churches, for mass and site-seeing, and spend the day soaking up God's splendor. We were not disappointed!

For once, we were EARLY for our planned arrival for mass at Notre Dame, so had time to for a quick stop at a cafe for pastries and a bathroom break, and still made it into the Cathedral in time for morning prayer before mass (and plenty of time to meet our fasting obligation). We'd chosen the Gregorian chant mass, so that parts of it would sound familiar even if we couldn't follow the French. It was beautifully executed. And of course the surroundings are hard to beat! Notre Dame is stunning! None of our photos can possibly do it justice, though we took many. (Nathaniel said he may take time one of these days to come back and insert photos into my blog posts. He'd love me to include them myself, now, but I know if I add that to the to-do of posting, it will truly never get done.)

After mass, we took our time walking around the Cathedral and appreciating each of the side chapels. I cannot wrap my head around the antiquity, magnitude, and beauty of these old European churches! Notre Dame Cathedral is nearly a thousand years old! And yet, without all the mechanized equipment of today, people built it! By hand! For love of God! Mind blowing stuff.

We've made a habit of lighting candles for our godchildren at each of the churches we visit, asking God's blessings for each them. We also lit a candle near a statue of St. Thérèse and asked her intercession on behalf of our parish community at home. This was a big day for candle lighting! That's handy when you have five kids who fight over who gets to light the candle all the time (you get a candle! you get a candle! you ALL get candles!).

We left the Cathedral and crossed the street to try out one of the public toilets I'd read about in my guide book. I feel like I already talked about these, so sorry if it's a repeat. The toilets are brilliant, because they're self-cleaning. When the door closes behind one patron, it locks, and the whole interior is washed and dried. Then the door unlocks and the next person can enter. However, the cleaning process is s-l-o-w! And if you didn't know better, and couldn't read French, I can't imagine what would stop you from grabbing the open door from the person exiting, heading in, and suddenly being locked in a self-washing room and getting soaked! I was grateful I'd read a warning about this in the book. The long time between one person exiting and the next being allowed to enter makes it hard to resist sneaking in. Also, once you realize the system, you seriously rethink whether it's worth waiting in a line of any length for one of these toilets, versus purchasing a cup of coffee at a café and using the toilet there.

During our 45 minute bathroom break, several heavily armed camo-wearing men walked up and waited outside a large door near us (a hospital, per the map?), where they were joined by several more equally heavily armed men from inside. They chatted and laughed for a while, then the ones from outside went in and the ones from inside walked toward Notre Dame. A changing of the guard, I suppose. It's jarring to see these armed police (military?) on the street of Paris, but I suppose it's comforting, in a way, as well.

We wandered near Notre Dame and found our charming fresh crepe lunch that I mentioned in the prior "Paris" post. So fun to watch the older gentleman pouring and smoothing the crepes on the rotating pan, and loading them up with nutella or jam or lemon sugar. Mmmmm. Don't mind me, just drooling as I type.

After getting tickets assigning us a time to tour the towers for Notre Dame, we walked a few soggy blocks away to Sainte-Chapelle. Coming from Sweden, where the original old Catholic churches were all turned into Church of Sweden facilities, and the new ones lack the beauty of old architecture, these churches were a breath of fresh air in their glory. Sainte-Chapelle was amazing. I can only imagine how much more so it would have been on a sunny day with light pouring through the floor to ceiling stained glass.

We made a silly but necessary detour on our way back to Notre Dame to buy new shoes for Peter and Rachel. Granted, they are walking and running A LOT, and playing hard, but I was disappointed at how quickly the shoes I'd purchased at Zara had torn through. I was going to push through this trip and find new ones in Sweden, but the night prior, both children had shown me actual gaping HOLES in the soles of their shoes. The pouring rain made it impossible to put off buying something new. In fact, it forced me to buy new socks, as well, since I hadn't thought to pack an extra pair in my bag that morning, and no mom is going to have her kid put a soggy wet sock into a brand new pair of tennis shoes. Nasty! In fact, I couldn't bring myself to have them put the socks back on their feet once they took them off to try on shoes at H&M, so I had them hang out barefoot in the kids' department while I went and made the purchase, then handed them each fresh socks and shoes to put on immediately. Somewhat ridiculously, I then hauled gross wet socks and shoes around with me all day rather than tossing them in the nearest trash can. I had a lot on my mind... I can't be expected to think everything through clearly.

Finally, we were back to Notre Dame for the tower tour. It was well worth it! The climb up the stairs was long and exhausting, even for seasoned stair climbers like us, but the views at the top were breathtaking! The long distance views of the city were rivaled only by the close up views of the gargoyles. The kids loved it!

The day had gone by more quickly than I'd anticipated, and I was second guessing including Sacré-Cœur. Nathaniel was all in, though, so after the kids chased pigeons around the square outside Notre Dame, we grabbed some Subway, refilled our water bottles, and headed back onto the metro.

Sidenote: We purchased five-day metro passes that cost more than our airfare, so that we could take the trains and metros freely. I think it was definitely the right move for us, given that we stayed in zone 4, and had to take an "RER" train into the city each day. We bought them at the suburban train station, and the woman selling them to us looked appalled at the amount we were spending when I told her what we wanted. She stopped and ran through several other possible metro-pass scenarios (that I'd already considered on a spreadsheet back home) before determining grudgingly that they probably were the best option. Clearly they don't get as many week-visit-tourists at her station as the ones in the city, who I'm sure wouldn't have batted an eye at the cost.

The passes were tiny cardstock tickets, maybe .75" x 1.25". We had to use them going into the train/metro stations, and often exiting as well. If we lost one, there was no way to get a replacement. From the minute we bought them, we were hyper vigilant about keeping track of them. I was nearly as worried about them being pick-pocketed as anything else but our passports. As we entered a station, I'd get them out and hand them around ("tickets! tickets! get your tickets here!"); as soon as we'd passed through the gates, I'd gather them all back, counting off as kids handed them to me. The kids would laugh about who they were, based on the name on each ticket, because I didn't pay attention to names when I handed them out. Even Rachel had to scan her ticket and pass through the turnstiles on her own. The fact that we managed to keep track of all seven tickets for all five days was nothing short of a miracle. Phew!

The approach to Sacré-Cœur is impressive. The church is on a high hill top in the city, with a path winding up to various terraced levels, each a better photo opp than the last. At the street level, you may recall, there was a carousel. There are carousels all over Paris, actually. I'm not the kind of mom who decides on a whim to say yes to requests for things like carousel rides - we're on a budget, you know - but I actually intended to let the kids ride a carousel at some point, and this one was charming. Looking up the daunting hillside climb to the church, it seemed like the perfect reward when we came down. So I said yes. Yes! We'll ride the carousel after we visit the church. {sigh} You know where this will end, but onward to Sacré-Cœur!

We did not read up about Sacré-Cœur before visiting, beyond reading that it was a must see. Was it ever! It's much newer than other churches we visited - opened in 1914 - but beautifully done. No photos are allowed as there is perpetual adoration, well, perpetually. For a hundred years! I can't even wrap my head around that. We spent a few minutes in peaceful, quiet prayer, then explored the church and soaked in the art and architecture and overall sacredness (and lit more candles - we're praying for you, godchildren!).

We meandered back down the hill toward the carousel, only to find the ultimate disappointment - the sun had set and they had closed for the evening. Rachel was inconsolable. That's what I get for saying yes. We made all sorts of carousel promises for the next day, crossing our fingers we wouldn't have to spend an arm and a leg to make it happen, spent a ridiculous amount of time hunting down a grocer where we could snag some dinner food, and headed home.

*****

The next day, in addition to a carousel, we had promised the kids a low key morning. We'd been going, going, going, and stress levels were high. The little kids wanted a day to hang around the hotel and do nothing, which we weren't willing to do, but we did opt to take the morning slowly. Since most museums are closed on Mondays, we decided to return to the Eiffel Tower and walk the stairs. We had planned to walk to the second level then take the elevator to the top, but it was cold and windy, the kids were whiny*, and the elevator kept alternating between closed and having a long wait, so we scratched the elevator and got hot chocolate on the viewing deck instead. Winning!

*We'd had another lunch where we had to walk further than expected to find food and toilets. When we finally took food a park, Peter wanted to stay at the park and skip the Eiffel Tower completely. You'd have thought we were forcing him to leave the park to go to the dentist the way he cried and threw a fit. Traveling with kids is nothing if not a lesson in humility.

All the time we were having lunch and waiting to climb the tower, and on the tower, Rachel kept asking about her carousel ride. When? When? When? and saying "No! Not after! It will be closed if we go after!" You can hardly blame her, I suppose. As soon as we were back on the ground, we headed toward the carousel nearest the Eiffel Tower, and thank heaven! It was running. They even had a package deal for SEVEN tickets. Fate, I tell you. We all climbed on board. The joy on Rachel's face was tangible (see instagram).

Because one can never climb enough stairs, we decided to jump on the metro and climb the Arc de Triomphe, as well! I wasn't really sure what to expect from the giant arch in the traffic circle, but it was really lovely! I'm so glad we tacked it on to the day! (Somewhat hilariously, I had thought I'd seen the Arc de Triomphe when I visited Paris in college... but in retrospect, I think what I saw was a different arch celebrating a different triumph, that's near the Louvre. Turns out there are triumphal arches all around the city.)

*****

This has gotten long, so I'll post for now and plan one more entry to wrap up France.