Notre Dame

It's only been a few days but so much seems to have happened that it's hard to remember it all! Wednesday we went out to the Palace of Versailles but I think I've mentioned that already. Yesterday we visited Notre Dame which was only a short walk away - which ended up being quite deceiving since we went up the tower. This has over 300 steps that wind up narrow circular staircases. despite being stone or similar material, there are impressions in the steps from the millions of feet that must have walked on them. there are a couple of levels, fortunately, so you don't need to go the whole way at once! when you're on the ramparts you get a 360° view of paris and we could make out our street opposite the sorbonne. we also squeezed through the door-for-midgets & climbed a few more stairs to see one of the bells. luckily it didn't ring while we were there.

on the way to the musée d'orsay the other day we stopped & bought some watercolours of local buildings, & from the top of notre dame i could make out one of them because above a cafe it has a bent pipe that's vertical, but looks like it comes out of a fairy tale. it's about 1100 years old. when we came down we walked home past it, and next door is the shakespeare bookshop that's the oldest one in paris. strangely, it's full of english books & the shop assistant was american! we also discovered the narrowest house in paris around the corner - & that many times we had wandered past it before without noticing. it's wedged between two others but set back a little from the street so that you can only see it up close. must only be a few metres wide i reckon!

i think jetlag caught up with me in the afternoon, or maybe just those steps, because we collapsed in the hotel for most of the afternoon. i had meant to try to go somewhere else after notre dame, & it ended up being dreamland! slept like the dead for an hour or 2 & we read & lazed for a while before dinner. obviously we both needed it so we didn't fight it.

actually, we had done something else! at the front of notre dame there's a crypt where they've excavated the foundations of previous inhabitants from the gallo-roman era right up to the 17th century. you walk around under the square in front of the church & can see remains of the cardo, bath house, cellars & houses from a few thousand years ago!

today we're doing our own thing & meeting for dinner later on.

luv2all

Belle xxx