I'm in Paris!!

I am in Paris!! I have been here for 2 and a 1/2 days. I'm loving it so far.

Yesterday we went to see the Louvre. The entrance was a big glass pyramid that you went into and then went down on an escalator to go under ground to the entrance, and looked up through the glass pyramid from under ground.

Soon we had gotten through the gate and we saw the Mona Lisa! The crowd around it was very, very big and everyone was bustling and pushing because of the great sight in front of us. At one point the security guard was making signs and saying "clear off" to everyone but we were so interested in the great painting that everyone refused to go! I thought the painting was fantastic, it looked like she was smiling, but then she had a secret look that made it look like she was smirking.

We looked through the "Italiano section" and at the Coronation Crown of Louis XV which is a beautiful crown that Louis XV used to own. And the cups and saucers made out of stones and crystals. The walls were also very beautiful with pictures and sculptures all over them. After we went to the "Medieval Section" with beautiful walls of stone and a story along the wall to follow. We were sad to go but we said goodbye to the Louvre and walked home...

Today we went to the Notre-Dame. Here is a little bit of information I found out about it.

In 1163, Bishop Maurice de Sully laid the first stone of Notre-Dame de Paris, a project which was to take almost 200 years to complete, on the site of a previous cathedral. It was the biggest cathedral for the next 100 years. Its towers are 69 metres high. We enjoyed walking into the beautiful church and found these big 'rose' windows that were very pretty and enormous.

After coming out, we stood in a long line to wait to climb the towers of the Notre-Dame. Finally we got in the gate and climbed up 250 steps before stopping for a rest at a beautiful viewing point. We kept going to the very top. We went into a door about 1 meter off the ground! That door led into a little room. We gazed upon a beautiful, 13 tonne bell that Quasimodo used to ring in the story of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame!! It was about as big as half of a bedroom!!

Later this afternoon, we walked to the ice skating rink. I had been hoping to go ice-skating since seeing the rink at Carpentras. We hired our boots and got skating. As I stepped onto the ice it was really slippery but as we skated I got much better. I got Dad to time me on my run and my 1st run was 17 seconds and my second run was 19 seconds. It was sooo fun and I started to do twirls and spins. We finished ice skating when we got too cold, put our boots away and walked home to our warm appartment.

It was a great day. See you next time : )