The inside of the Cathedral is really nice and somewhat different to the several cathedrals we had seen throughout the UK. It is definitely the epitome of the French Gothic architectural style with it high arches, columns and rose windows.
The outside was just as impressive and Cailin made sure to take a lot of photos of the flying buttresses, an architectural term we learned in high school. It became everyone's favorite and most easily memorable term because of its funny name.
Now I'm sure most people are familiar with the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and as the title suggests, the movie primarily takes place within Cathedral and the real thing is very similar to how it's displayed in the movie. Most notably, there are the same gargoyles and saints that line the outside to keep evil spirits out. You could just imagine the Hunchback swinging from the Gargolyes on the side of the Cathedral.
After an examination of all of the ornate details of the cathedral, we went up to a platform that was made to take photos and looks at the Cathedral from a more straight on perspective. We got someone to take a photo of all four of us, which was probably the only group photo we were able to get!
As we were crossing a bridge over the Seine, we spotted a man blowing these huge bubbles on the street and one of our friends was able to quickly run over to a bubble so we could snap a photo!
We also grabbed a Nutella crepe on the street for lunch to add to our Parisian food fest. Next, we headed to Sacre Couer to continue our cathedral day. Sacre Couer is actually a basilica and is located in Montmartre. As we soon found out, it was only 10 minutes from our hostel! To get there you have to climb this pretty large hill and once up the hill, you have to climb up a lot of steps to get inside the basilica. As we made our way up, the views of Paris got better and better!
Once we reached the top we took a lot of pictures looking down on the city, watched a cool street performer, and then went inside. At this point in our trip it was about the fifth or sixth church we had seen in Europe and it all started to blend together. However the outside of Sacre Couer is much different than the churches we had seen in the past. With the outside being completely white, it stands out and is clearly visible throughout many parts of Paris.
What we learned about the basilica was that it's made of a travertine stone that has calcite. This keeps Sacre Couer white throughout time and weathering! The inside however was pretty similar to the cathedrals we had seen in the past with beautiful stained glass windows, columns, and pews. It did have a beautiful ceiling though and a gift shop... two different things from what we had seen previously.
We also weren't allowed to take pictures inside which is why I don't have any! After we made our way through the basilica, we walked around outside of it and into the artsy area known as Place du Tertre. It is essentially a little village of artists that all fill one secluded area and sell their artwork. Many of them had gorgeous paintings of Paris's scenery and landmarks while there were also many artists that repeatedly asked to draw us. If I had room in my suitcase to bring anything home, I definitely would have snagged an abstract painting of people walking down a Parisian street!
As we were already pretty close to our hostel, we walked back in that direction and stopped at a grocery store to grab dinner. Since we were pretty well fed during the day, we weren't super hungry and continued in the day's theme of typical Parisian food by buying huge baguettes.
We also stopped at a patisserie to get treats for after! Tara ended up getting a strawberry tart while I got a chocolate mousse-like thing that I ended up smashing... Typical, but it still tasted delicious! As we ate, we watched a classic Parisian movie: Passport to Paris with Mary-Kate and Ashley! Well not exactly classic, but it was fun to watch the twins see the same things we had during our past days roaming around Paris.
As it was our last night and we had a 7AM flight to Nice, France the next morning, we went to sleep early and dreamt of our amazing Parisian food day. Although we were definitely excited to continue our adventures in the French Riviera we were still sad to say au revoir (goodbye) to Paris.
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