with powdered sugar.

Life is full of opportunities we must take, regardless of the opinion of others.

I’ll get right down to it. We started this morning going through Notre Dame. We didn’t even have to wait in line because we got there right when it opened. It is MASSIVE! It’s not even that they ask you to be quiet while you’re in there, as to be respectful and such, but you can’t talk anyway. You’re soaking in every detail of every statue, of every pillar, of every fraction of light coming through the stained glass. Words can’t describe how it feels and pictures don’t do much better but I’m sure you want to see some anyway.

After that, our group of seven girls got in line as to go up to the top of Notre Dame. We split up and took turns waiting in line for when it opened. Two girls and I went and got ourselves crepes. Nutella and banana with powdered sugar—thinking about it makes my mouth water a little bit. One of my roommates and I walked over to the Latin District and looked at more souvenir shops. On our way back, we stopped by the front of the church to feed these small little birds that just hang out in the trees. I felt very Mary Poppins.

Well as we came back to get in line, the other girls had already gone up! So four of us had to go back to the end of the line and wait another 45 minutes to go up. It was so worth it though. There were over 400 steps and it was all narrow, steep, confined spiral staircases. The view was so breathtaking and we even got to see one of the original bells! They don’t use the bells anymore because they started to do structural damage to the church when they were rung. Apparently they have a recording that they play of the bells. Quasimodo would not appreciate that, I’m sure.

 

Heights are not my thing but it was definitely worth the view.

From there we made our way to Saint Chapelle, a nearby church with a LOT of stained glass. It was beautiful, like all the other buildings in the area.

We continued on our way to La Conciergerie, a government building that once was used partially as a prison. Marie-Antoinette was actually held there for a while when she was on trial. From there, we got lunch in the Latin District and ate in the park by Shakespeare and Company where the last performance of Dadaism was.

This evening two girls and I went back to the Latin Quarter with the intentions of getting a fancy dinner, but since we actually ate a full lunch (that had been the first time I had meat since the airplane last Friday) none of us wanted to get real food. So we went to Amarino’s to get gelato again!

But the actual shop instead of just a little stand in the middle of a park. We walked around for a couple hours and people watched. The night life here, even on a Thursday, is extremely entertaining. There was this really gangly, really old man eating lit matches and pulling razor blades from his mouth. Also, there was this guy;

 I tried to follow him to see him perform because every time we saw him, he was just talking into his microphone. He walks really quickly for having so much awkward equipment on him. It was actually quite impressive.

We also hit up Shakespeare and Company again! I got pictures of the inside of it this time.

 

This would be my "I don't get a lot of sleep so I have crazy eyes but I'm overly excited about all this poetry so I'm going to smile really big anyway" face.

One thing I do not like about Paris, which is saying something because I am enjoying it immensely, is the amount of smokers. You can’t go anywhere without inhaling a bunch of cigarette smoke and the butts are all over the place. Oh well, I’ll get over it.

 

Oh and we walked by this place. Again.

 

There ya go.