Paris: Churches

So the BFFs, Laurel & I drove to Paris, which I was super nervous about. I was the only one who could drive, and I'm usually the navigator in these big city situations. We survived, but I did learn a few things. Number one is that I HATE driving in Paris. They are insane, especially in roundabouts! I was literally white knuckling the steering wheel, while my riding buddies assured me all was well. 

Number two is that I am a horrible parallel parker. Actually I didn't learn that on this trip. I already knew it. It was just reconfirmed for me. I think the closest my sweet Daddy ever came to wanting to kill me was way back in the day when he was trying to teach me to parallel park. Anyway, we arrived at our Airbnb apartment and had to parallel park on the street. The only spot available was a space that was basically exactly the length of my car which gave me like 6 inches to work with. Cindy had to get out of the car and direct me back and forth, left and right about 50 times before I finally got into the parking place. 

I was feeling really good that I finally got the car parked when things went awry. I had the passenger window rolled down so I could hear Cindy's instructions during the parking escapade. As she was opening the door to get back in, I rolled the window up not realizing that her hand was in the way. She started screaming at me to roll down the window, and when I did, she was left with a bleeding finger because the window basically closed down on her fingernail. Naturally we didn't have a bandaid, only a first aid kit for the car that contained huge bandages. Our host was waiting to meet us to let us into our apartment, so poor Cindy just had to wrap her finger up in a napkin and go. 

After all the time we spent parking, having a medical emergency, and getting access to our apartment, we were on the verge of being late for our dinner reservations. We hurriedly changed clothes, rewrapped the injured finger in another napkin, and bounded toward the closest subway without any real idea how to get to where we're going. Thankfully, we made our dinner reservation on time and had a fantastic meal before heading toward our one destination for the evening, Sacre Couer.

Sacre Couer, or the Basillica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, is a Roman Catholic church situated in Montmarte at the highest point in the city of Paris. Construction of this church began in 1875 and ended in 1914, and it is a real beauty.

We couldn't take photographs inside the church which is unfortunate because the church is really beautiful. Because the church sits at the height of the city, it offers some gorgeous views like this one of one of the sets of stairs leading up to the church.

Of course the views of Paris itself are spectacular from this vantage point. This was taken before we went into the church,

and this one was taken when we came out around 9:30 p.m. The sky was beautiful that night!

After the chaotic evening we'd had as our introduction to Paris, we were all ready to get a good night's sleep and start fresh the next morning, and that's exactly what we did. Armed with the knowledge of exactly where we were going and exactly how to get there (because I'm completely OCD about travel), we got up the next morning and headed to Notre Dame.

Notre Dame is one of the most well known church buildings in all the world. Construction of this cathedral began in 1163 and was completed in 1345. It was one of the first buildings in the world to use flying buttresses, and its stained glass is exquisite. We were all anxious to get inside this church. The fact that the girls, Mackenzie in particular, were big fans of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" as little girls only added to the excitement!

We were very happy to be able to take pictures inside the cathedral, and we just really took our time walking through.

Wow! We spent quite a long time inside Notre Dame, and it definitely goes down as one of my favorite churches so far! We eventually had to say goodbye and move on to other things, but not before glancing back for one last look at this historic place.