Paris, France Part 4
After breakfast, we got to Notre Dame early. We barely had to wait in line to get in. We rushed through fairly quickly because we had an upcoming tour. I realized later I should’ve slowed down as I had more time than I thought. It was incredible inside! I loved the carvings depicting Bible stories!
We did the IIe de la Cite and Notre Dame walking tour with the Crypt option. This was a wonderful tour and our guide was originally from Louisiana! We saw and learned a lot about the island!
After, we enjoyed lunch, visited shops and a bakery.
We walked and I got to see the outside of the Louvre which was still closed due to the heist. We were however able to go underneath the Louvre to use the restroom down there and oddly enough discovered McDonald’s was beneath the museum!!! What!?! What is in the basement of the Louvre?!? McDonald’s??? What an odd discovery! That is a combination I never would’ve dreamed of! There were several other stores down there too.
We took a romantic walk through the Tuileries Garden which is right next to the Louvre. There were a bunch of really interesting statues there that make you wonder what the stories they depict are. One of the first ones to catch my eye was Man and his Misery. You can find the stories behind the statues on-line. I read that Man and his Misery was shattered during the battle to liberate Paris from Nazi occupation! It was reconstructed after the war.
We walked on to the Place del la Concorde. You would never know the horrors that happened here. Originally it was named Place de la Revolution. I was a bit surprised that France didn’t have any signage or anything to indicate the importance of this historical site (unless I somehow missed seeing it). This location has been turned into a pretty square. I think perhaps they’d prefer to forget their dark history. During The Great Terror, 1,119 were guillotined here, including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. A gift from Egypt now stands here along with two fountains to commemorate maritime commerce industry and navigation and commerce. Prior to The Great Terror, I read in a book about 133 people being trampled here during a celebration gone wrong.
