Hey All,
Becky is looking this up as we speak, but today we climbed 387 stairs at Notre Dame and 284 stairs at the Arc de Triomphe. Plus all the miscellaneous sets of stairways attached to metros and whatnot. While that's no marathon, I feel like it's an acceptable gym-substitute.
As of the last post, we had planned to do the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Well, by the time we finished the Arc, it was around 7:30, so we decided to go to a nearby bistro for dinner. Dinner was delicious (I got a salmon dish), but by the time we finished, it was post-10 pm and the Eiffel Tower was less of an option for the evening.
So some reactions to the places we were able to see today:
I liked the Saint Chapelle a lot. They had a video going in the room with all the stained glass that detailed the glass restoration process, and that was pretty interesting (read: painstakingly complicated). It was definitely nice that we were able to go there earlier in the morning, as I think that the sun made a big difference in the colors we were able to see.
Notre Dame was awesome. We waited for maybe 45 minutes or an hour to get in (or at least long enough to get through several rounds of "Who am I?"). The views were really incredible, and I loved all the different gargoyle statues at the top of the church. We got to go up to the bridge between the towers and go inside to see the bells, and then a little while later, they let us up to the very top of one of the towers. It was a little crowded - clearly the original architects had not envisioned the throngs of modern tourists that would descend on their 18" wide paths around the tops of the towers - but largely people were very agreable and it was a great experience.
The Arc was pretty cool, and the line to get in was way shorter than it had been for Notre Dame. The other nice thing about the Arc was that the stairs were much wider - at Notre Dame, it would have been pretty challenging for two people to stand next to each other on a step. The views there were also very cool, and we got to see the Eiffel Tower light up (Eiffel Tower, here we come!... tomorrow).
Looking forward to going to the Catacombs and the Eiffel Tower tomorrow!
Becky is looking this up as we speak, but today we climbed 387 stairs at Notre Dame and 284 stairs at the Arc de Triomphe. Plus all the miscellaneous sets of stairways attached to metros and whatnot. While that's no marathon, I feel like it's an acceptable gym-substitute.
As of the last post, we had planned to do the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Well, by the time we finished the Arc, it was around 7:30, so we decided to go to a nearby bistro for dinner. Dinner was delicious (I got a salmon dish), but by the time we finished, it was post-10 pm and the Eiffel Tower was less of an option for the evening.
So some reactions to the places we were able to see today:I liked the Saint Chapelle a lot. They had a video going in the room with all the stained glass that detailed the glass restoration process, and that was pretty interesting (read: painstakingly complicated). It was definitely nice that we were able to go there earlier in the morning, as I think that the sun made a big difference in the colors we were able to see.
Notre Dame was awesome. We waited for maybe 45 minutes or an hour to get in (or at least long enough to get through several rounds of "Who am I?"). The views were really incredible, and I loved all the different gargoyle statues at the top of the church. We got to go up to the bridge between the towers and go inside to see the bells, and then a little while later, they let us up to the very top of one of the towers. It was a little crowded - clearly the original architects had not envisioned the throngs of modern tourists that would descend on their 18" wide paths around the tops of the towers - but largely people were very agreable and it was a great experience.The Arc was pretty cool, and the line to get in was way shorter than it had been for Notre Dame. The other nice thing about the Arc was that the stairs were much wider - at Notre Dame, it would have been pretty challenging for two people to stand next to each other on a step. The views there were also very cool, and we got to see the Eiffel Tower light up (Eiffel Tower, here we come!... tomorrow).
Looking forward to going to the Catacombs and the Eiffel Tower tomorrow!
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