This morning, we really were changing rooms, so first thing in the morning we brought our luggage downstairs to be locked in a closet (our new room on the 6th floor wouldn't be ready until 11 a.m.).
We walked over to Notre Dame, where there was a mini street fair with players in medieval dress strolling around the square. At the far end of the square, we found a tent where the post office was selling special commemorative stamps (you could also get them autographed by some people who were probably important but we had no idea who they were), or get your envelope addressed in calligraphic script.
Anyway, although we have seen post offices many times, they never seem to be open, so this was our big chance to buy some stamps. Le doh! - I discover that these stamps are big and I wrote too much on the postcard. Must squish stamps into corners.
We then went into Notre Dame to listen to the end of the Gregorian mass. After it ended, we went in and sat down, as we were going to attend the International mass at 11:30. The mass was given with French, English and Spanish spoken intermittently throughout the service.
I thought that having steady streams of people wandering through the church during Mass would be distracting, but there are enough seats that if you sit in the middle area, you don't even really notice the people. Except when they wander in front of you with their camcorders, only to be hustled out by an usher.
The singing was very beautiful, and the pipe organ is amazing to listen to. They use a lot of incense during the ceremony. I love Notre Dame; I think it's my favourite building in Paris. The interior is quite dark, even with the lighting, but the stained glass is truly amazing. The camera doesn't do it justice.
After mass, we sat down at "La Quasimodo de Notre Dame" for a quick lunch, then went souvenir shopping in the Notre Dame district. Jackie doesn't like to shop (too bad for her, cause I still don't have my opera outfit, and I have to get that tomorrow). After a flurry of activity and an exchange of many euros, we left with our purchases and returned to the hotel.
Our new room is #35, and it is on the sixth floor of the hotel. Remember that elevator I mentioned? Jackie and I stagger in there with our luggage, and she was wearing her backpack and got stuck in the doorway, forcing the hotel owner to shove her inside. I'm sure we were straining that poor elevator way past capacity. It only goes to the 5th floor, so we had to haul our luggage up one flight of steep stairs.
We are at the very top! There is a double bed (for me), and a little pauper bed in the corner (for Jackie, of course). Of course, Jackie's little garret window looks out over the rooftops of Paris, whereas my big windows look into some weird roof thingy, so she's got the better view.
Today's field trip was the Basilica of Saint Denis. And, lucky us!, today was free admission day. Yay! The Basilica is where most of the Kings and Queens of France are entombed. It is another very old church, and a relatively long metro ride away. I believe Saint Denis is actually a separate municipality from Paris. There was a sign pointing us to the Basilica, and it was another one of those moments where we walk around a corner and then stop to say, "Wow!"
Very many tombs, some dating back to the 5th Century. A lot of it is statuary, but the really old ones are simple stone caskets, and the oldest ones are simply stone plates on the floor in the basement.
There was one tomb which had a reliquary (I think it might have been a King Louis, but I can't quite recall), which is a little glass container that holds a relic. Which is usually some kind of body part. I'm not sure, but it looked like a dried little shrivelled heart to me. (Who says Paris isn't romantic?)
After we left, Jackie found an Internet cafe that also offered telephone services, and she was finally able to call home. I was annoyed because the Internet cafe only had the weird French keyboard and you couldn't switch to English. I mean, it was like I was in a foreign country or something!
This was the day I also began to suspect that Jackie's french skills are not what she claimed. I mean, to hear Jackie talk, she's so French that if the Revolution hadn't happened, she'd be the Queen of France. And yet, when we got back to the hotel, the desk clerk said something, and Jackie replied, "Chambre 35." The clerk then told her she was a very rude girl - he asks her how she is, and she says, "Room 35". We must have laughed at that for about half an hour.
Then it took us another half hour to climb the 430 steps to our garret on the sixth floor. I tell you, it is harder to climb up there than it was to climb the Eiffel Tower!
Jackie thinks she is a little like Harry Potter - she is the girl who lives at the closet at the top of the stairs.
We walked over to Notre Dame, where there was a mini street fair with players in medieval dress strolling around the square. At the far end of the square, we found a tent where the post office was selling special commemorative stamps (you could also get them autographed by some people who were probably important but we had no idea who they were), or get your envelope addressed in calligraphic script.
Anyway, although we have seen post offices many times, they never seem to be open, so this was our big chance to buy some stamps. Le doh! - I discover that these stamps are big and I wrote too much on the postcard. Must squish stamps into corners.
We then went into Notre Dame to listen to the end of the Gregorian mass. After it ended, we went in and sat down, as we were going to attend the International mass at 11:30. The mass was given with French, English and Spanish spoken intermittently throughout the service.
I thought that having steady streams of people wandering through the church during Mass would be distracting, but there are enough seats that if you sit in the middle area, you don't even really notice the people. Except when they wander in front of you with their camcorders, only to be hustled out by an usher.
The singing was very beautiful, and the pipe organ is amazing to listen to. They use a lot of incense during the ceremony. I love Notre Dame; I think it's my favourite building in Paris. The interior is quite dark, even with the lighting, but the stained glass is truly amazing. The camera doesn't do it justice.
After mass, we sat down at "La Quasimodo de Notre Dame" for a quick lunch, then went souvenir shopping in the Notre Dame district. Jackie doesn't like to shop (too bad for her, cause I still don't have my opera outfit, and I have to get that tomorrow). After a flurry of activity and an exchange of many euros, we left with our purchases and returned to the hotel.
Our new room is #35, and it is on the sixth floor of the hotel. Remember that elevator I mentioned? Jackie and I stagger in there with our luggage, and she was wearing her backpack and got stuck in the doorway, forcing the hotel owner to shove her inside. I'm sure we were straining that poor elevator way past capacity. It only goes to the 5th floor, so we had to haul our luggage up one flight of steep stairs.
We are at the very top! There is a double bed (for me), and a little pauper bed in the corner (for Jackie, of course). Of course, Jackie's little garret window looks out over the rooftops of Paris, whereas my big windows look into some weird roof thingy, so she's got the better view.
Today's field trip was the Basilica of Saint Denis. And, lucky us!, today was free admission day. Yay! The Basilica is where most of the Kings and Queens of France are entombed. It is another very old church, and a relatively long metro ride away. I believe Saint Denis is actually a separate municipality from Paris. There was a sign pointing us to the Basilica, and it was another one of those moments where we walk around a corner and then stop to say, "Wow!"
Very many tombs, some dating back to the 5th Century. A lot of it is statuary, but the really old ones are simple stone caskets, and the oldest ones are simply stone plates on the floor in the basement.
There was one tomb which had a reliquary (I think it might have been a King Louis, but I can't quite recall), which is a little glass container that holds a relic. Which is usually some kind of body part. I'm not sure, but it looked like a dried little shrivelled heart to me. (Who says Paris isn't romantic?)
After we left, Jackie found an Internet cafe that also offered telephone services, and she was finally able to call home. I was annoyed because the Internet cafe only had the weird French keyboard and you couldn't switch to English. I mean, it was like I was in a foreign country or something!
This was the day I also began to suspect that Jackie's french skills are not what she claimed. I mean, to hear Jackie talk, she's so French that if the Revolution hadn't happened, she'd be the Queen of France. And yet, when we got back to the hotel, the desk clerk said something, and Jackie replied, "Chambre 35." The clerk then told her she was a very rude girl - he asks her how she is, and she says, "Room 35". We must have laughed at that for about half an hour.
Then it took us another half hour to climb the 430 steps to our garret on the sixth floor. I tell you, it is harder to climb up there than it was to climb the Eiffel Tower!
Jackie thinks she is a little like Harry Potter - she is the girl who lives at the closet at the top of the stairs.
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