Unexpected surprises

Saturday started with with a metro ride to Saint Chapelle. It is one of the oldest churches in Paris and is known for its amazing stained glass windows. They depict the bible from the creation to the ressurection of Christ. It was very impressive. Whatever king commissioned the church also paid for pieces of the cross, pieces of the crown of thorns and a few drops of Christ's blood to be keep at the church and worshiped. These are not on display. Afterward we made our way to Notre Dame. It is epic. However, we arrived as they were doing mass so we did not get to see most of the building but hearing the organ and the singing more than made up for it. I could almost see good ole Quasimoto swinging from his bell rope. We then picked up the le car rouge - an opened top double decker tour bus - and headed for the Paris Opera House. Just when you think the buildings can't get any more opulent they raise the bar. This building is over the top. I think Mike took enough pictures that we could literally reconstruct the building and make a mural of it on a wall at home. The building is actually used for ballet now and the Paris opera is at a different and somehow bigger building.

Now we headed for the arc de triomphe. We reached it on the tour bus by heading down the champs élysées. The champs élysées is the big tree lined boulevard headed to the arc. It is full of shops and shoppers. The arc was very impressive and the climb to the top was...invigorating. The view over the city was fun. The weather was clear and although a little windy it was comfortable. Twelve street radiate out from the arc so it is really the world's largest round-about.

We went next to a smaller museum called l'orangerie. It houses a collection of Monet's waterlilys. Before you enter the Monet exhibit, the artist purposely design a space through which you have to pass that is a completely white walled room. It is supposed to be a "decompression" space to help you shed the city and prepare to view the traquil lilies. I thought that was a fun idea.

That night we ate, as promised, at Roger the Frog. I started with a roasted goat cheese salad. Mike ordered a pate but said later it was basically duck spam. We each got a frogs legs meal. Mine were in a cream sauce and Mike's in a garlic and basil sauce. Yum. Really they were very tender and mild tasting. However, there are a lot of small bones so it was a little labor intensive. For desserts I had a chocolate cake and Mike ordered Baba a Ruhm. This is basically a cake with rum POURED all over it. The waiter actually left the rum bottle at the table so Mike could help himself to more. I gobbled up my dessert and poor Mike just nibbled and said his tongue had gone numb. He didn't exactly like the frogs legs either. The idea was a bit unpalatable for him. So my meal was great and his was a bust.

We decided to head up to sacre cour after our meal. It's a church on a hill and the view is supposed to be great for night. There were a TON of people also headed that way so I was getting pretty excited about our adventure. With this many people headed that way it must be incredible. The crowds got thicker and thicker as we neared the church and then there was a tremendous boom and fireworks began shooting off. The way to sacre cour was completely barred and we were in the middle of a gigantic crowd watching fireworks for the next half hour. They were louder than loud but so amazing. Most people were drunk or headed that way and cheering and smoking. It was a sight to behold. Well we worked our way through the wine festival which was the cause of the fireworks, we think, and after being stuffed like sardines in a throng of drunk parisiennes we gave up the quest for the church and headed home.