if you’re going to spend any time in paris at all, be prepared to walk. a lot. everywhere. and, quite honestly, that’s part of the charm. even with the diesel fumes and cigarette smoke.

notre dame de paris and musee du louvre were two must see locations.  to get there we decided to head down the seine by batobus (aka water taxi).  best idea – ever!

stop number one was notre dame.  thankfully we got there early in the day.  by the time we left, the line wound its way through the giant courtyard in front of the church, and i’m not sure we ever would have found the end of it.

part of a trip to notre dame is winding your way through the inside on a self-guided tour, or you can head up to the top for a view of the city and the famous gargoyles.  unfortunately, we couldn’t go up to the top because it was closed for a while.  even without a trek up some narrow staircases, the experience was breathtaking.

from all sides this place is beauty-full…even at 850yo!

make your way to the St Anne doorway and you get the feeling that you’ve probably never seen anything like this before.

once inside and through the reception area, all is quiet as people make their way through.

a short walk down the seine, and we headed into the musee du louvre, which is so enormous, i’m not sure we could have seen it all in a day.  our plan: see the “big” stuff (eg the mona lisa).

the denon wing of the louvre runs the length of the south side of the museum.

it mostly houses italian paintings from the 13th through 18th century, and then a few spanish and english paintings.

it is also where one can find the statue ‘the winged vistory of samothrace’ and the ‘mona lisa’.

the louvre, if nothing else, is enormous. and beautiful. and mind blowingly awesome. it’s full of the works of some of the most creative people to inhabit the planet.  and, we only saw one-third of it.

next up – gare de lyon, the french countryside and lyon…