Ah Paris! Josh and I ended our trip with a two day stop in Paris. We left the cruise as soon as it docked in Istanbul, and flew straight to Paris. It was a whirlwind trip, but I got a taste of that great city.

Our first stop was The Louvre. I was so excited to see it, and it is a very imposing structure. It is U-shaped, with incredibly long wings, and four stories high. There were four levels, three above ground and one underground level. I cannot even begin to describe what is in there, or how large it was. You must visit yourself.

We picked certain areas that we wanted to visit, and tried to head through or past the other sections as quickly as possible. There was no way we would be able to take our time and still see all that we’d like to. I would adore working in a place like that, or living nearby. It’s the kind of place that you could go a million times, and still learn something new.

Venus de Milo

Venus de Milo

The Code of Hammurabi

Mona Lisa by Leonardo

Magdalena Bay by Auguste François Biard

I saw more masterpieces than I could’ve imagined in one day. It was like seeing my art history book, the entire thing, in person. There are many more pictures in my gallery.

The next day we tried to fit as many of the other sights in as we could find time and energy for. First stop: Notre Dame Cathedral.

This is a church to be proud of. Sometimes I wish that churches would be so dedicated to glorifying God in their buildings that they would build something as majestic as this today, utilizing the best in architecture and sculpture to connect with people now. Notre Dame is a glorious church. Every part of it is amazing, from the large to the small scale. For example, above the doorways are three arches. Inside these arches are hundreds of relief sculptures. I can’t imagine how long they took to make.

Notre Dame

One of the three relief archways, each of those people are unique.

One of the many stained glass windows

Inside the cathedral.

Josh and I spent some time inside Notre Dame. We even paid to see the treasury. If people accuse televangelist of making too much money, they should visit the Papal treasury. There were crowns that were covered in jewels and diamonds. Communion cups of solid gold, with jewels adorning them. There are some pictures in my gallery, but they can’t do it justice.

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

After Notre Dame, our next stop was Sir Eiffel’s Tower. It’s quite the process to get up inside it. There are two separate elevators: one to the first level, the second to go from the first to the second level. You pay admission, and then you wait in line forever to get onto both of the elevators. It’s quite the structure though. You get a great view of Paris from the top.

Eiffel Tower

I might fall!

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower at night

Another thing Josh and I did was go on a night dinner cruise, to see the sights of Paris at night, all lit up. It was too reflective to take good photos from inside the boat, but it was a nice time. It was really hard to tell what some of them were, we got a little lost trying to keep track of where we were, but we floated on the Seine, like millions of people before us, to see Paris from the water.