May 21, 2014 I see Dead People...

May 21, 2014

So it’s our first free day in paris! I was so excited this morning! Granted Jill came and woke me up since I dont really have an alarm clock of my own and yeah… she was giving me grief from the get go. But oh well.

So we headed to breakfast this morning and then came back to the hotel to grab some things that we needed like cameras and metro passes and jackets because it is Cold!!! As soon as we were ready we headed out to Notre Dame Cathedral! I can’t tell you how excited I was to be going there. We jumped on the metro and after switching trains twice we arrived at the St. Michel-Notre Dame exit and as soon as we got back up to the street…. BAM! Notre Dame was right in front of us and it was even more amazing than I could have ever hoped! 

We quickly got in line after taking the preliminary Oh My Gosh! Photos and soon found ourselves inside! I was so happy to see that we could take pictures, so many churches dont allow it.  But we entered the south tower I believe and circled around the church on the inside. It was amazing to see the gothic architecture and all the vaulted ceilings within Notre Dame. I took as many pictures as I could focusing mainly on architecture and lighting. I love the stained glass windows I have seen. The rose window was incredible! The cathedral took over 200 years to build and it is located on a small island in the middle of the seine river.

Not to mention the stained glass was absolutely stunning!!!!

We wanted to climb the tower but the line was really long and not moving at all. And so we decided to skip waiting x amount of hours in the pouring rain to climb to the top. Although I hope we have the opportunity before we leave. Keeping fingers crossed.

After Notre Dame, we went to the Concierge. The Concierge is where Marie Antoinette was held prisoner after her husband Louis XVI was executed for treason. The more I read up about Marie Antoinette makes me respect her all the more. Her husband was an indecisive weak ruler and that ultimately led to their capture and exectution but she tried to make things right. 

She was always looking out for her children and she was even instrumental in the formation of the first constitution after the revolution. She tried to have the monarchy changed into a constitutional monarchy and allow her and her family to still live. But things went askew and that never happened.

We saw the recreation of her prison cell. It was somewhat better than most prisoners but I can imagine she still wasn’t treated too well. It is sad to think of the sorrow she experienced throughout her life especially after being imprisoned, she knew her children were imprisoned and both her sons died in their childhood. It must have been hard and she didn’t want that life. At first I thought she was spoiled and always wanted more but my views have changed.

After the Concierge we caught the metro and went to the luxembourg gardens. The gardens in the rain were very pretty. there was a fair amount of flowers and the fountain was going just in front of the luxembourg museum. We stayed for some good photos and then went to find lunch. We stopped at a little creperie where we found some yummy food and then went to the catacombs!!!

After a majorly long wait in line we paid the 8 euros and descended into the catacombs beneath paris. OH MY COOL!!!! They were so awesome! Looking at the walls of bones were extremely creepy thinking that there are so many people’s remains down there. I looked up some history of the catacombs and they estimate 6 million people are buried there.

Apparently the cemeteries in the heart of paris were emptied in the late 18th century. It took two full years to move all the bodies into the old stone mines that are now called the catacombs. It wasn't until the early to mid 19th century that the bones were stacked into their current positions.

So anyway the catacombs are super interesting!!! It just became a dumping ground for the people buried in the heart of paris, I know that is a horrible way to put it.

As I walked through the catacombs, I was struck with a sense of amazement and sadness at the same time. I thought of all the people buried there (and this is only in france) and all the other people throughout history and throughout the world. Each and everyone of them are children of god. Each and every one of them had a life. Each had a story. Each made some impact on their world, and now they are on display for the world to see. Yeah people will think its cool and creepy but these were and are real people.

That is how we finished out sightseeing for the day, we came back and grabbed dinner and I was glad to be back at the hotel. my ankle has been hurting for 2 solid days now and I know I need to take it easy. But we have so many fun things planned that I don’t want to miss out but I dont want to slow down Jill and Charee down either. I just don’t want to be the problem child on the trip. Which is sort of why I havent told any of the professors about my feet problems, I have dealt with it for years and I’ll continue to deal with it but with as much crap as Darrin gives out about things not going his way I dont want to give him reason to take aim at me. I already dont feel like I’m a part of the group and that is the last thing I need.

But for now I just need to get some sleep and things will look better in the morning.