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Day 03: Paris Saturday, 22nd March 2008
Day 3 brought us back to Île de la Cité, where we visited the Notre Dame of Paris.  Sadly, as the interiors of Paris’ most famous gothic church was very poorly lit, we failed to get any good pictures, as flash photography was forbidden. And rightly so too, as it is a place of worship. We did though, queue to climb the tower to get to the top. As are all queues, this one was slow moving too. We got in after about an hour, but not before it started to rain on us. Fortunately, a kind man and his family lent us their umbrella to keep ourselves dry, and chatted with us as well. The long queue to get up the Notre Dame  The climb up was arduous, but we eventually made it, and again were greeted by the stunning views of Paris. For some reason, the city’s so beautiful the same view from a different location wowed us just the same. Of course, it was here that we came up close with the Notre Dame’s famed gargoyles and the bell (made famous by Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame).  Look at the long queue   The gargoyles at the top of the Notre Dame  The bell  Lunch was at a charming little café in the vicinity. The food was alright, the can of Sprite was €4, but most importantly, it was warm inside! Crêpes for lunch La Saint-Chapelle We returned to see the archeological Crypt of Notre Dame. My honest opinion? Uninspiring. Next up, the Saint-Chapelle, originally built to house Christ’s Crown of Thorns, and other relics of Christ. The low ceiling bottom level was for commoners to pray, and the upper level was for the Royal Christians. The upper level boasts an impressive collection of stained glass windows. Fiat lux. "Let there be light." From the first page of the Bible, it's clear - light is divine. And it cannot be seen more so than through the stained glass of the Saint-Chapelle. The 15 panels of stained glass depicts scenes from the Bible, from Genesis, to the coming of Christ and finally the end of the world in the rose shaped panel.    The rest of the day was spent in department stores looking for beanies, gloves and scarves in anticipation of the colder conditions at our next few destinations. Unfortunately, they were not to be found (I don’t think they sell winter gear in spring.) and we were stuck with only what we had. (Hak and CY had full gear, Alwyn needed a scarf, Marcus needed gloves, Daryl and Derrick had nothing…) Our last destination before calling it a day was the Moulin Rouge. Obviously, we were too poor to ever watch a show there, but we had to take a look at it from the outside, windmill and all. Moulin Rouge  This was followed by a walk down the red-light district of Paris, Pigalle, nicknamed “Pig Alley”. Obviously, Derrick really enjoyed himself!  Just as we were finding our way back to the hostel (a short walk according to the map) and as we started to lose our bearings, it started to rain hail. Trying to navigate at night, wet and cold, with our maps getting destroyed by the water was a nightmare. After being led around in circles asking for direction from Frenchmen who don’t speak any English at all, we finally found our way back to the hostel. Picking up our bags, we headed for the metro on which we traveled to the end of the line to transfer to a bus to get to the airport. The bus trip felt weird as we were the only tourists on board, and all the other passengers were black French people. I guess it was in the black neighbourhood. We got off at the Paris Orly Airport – Terminal Sud in the end, and we found ourselves a cosy spot to spend the night before our morning flight out. On the train to the Airport  The area in the airport where we slept at night  Well… it was cosy until they decided to turn off the heating after midnight, after which we could no longer sleep despite having multiple layers of clothing on…
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