Bonjour, Paris!

Bonjour Mes Amis!

Hubby and I just returned last night from 6 days in Paris, and I have so many photos to share with you!

First off, we had such a great time, and celebrated my birthday (which was yesterday) while we were there.

Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and we were so glad it didn't rain the entire trip.

 The flowers were glorious, including this arch of roses that I'm standing beneath, with Notre Dame in the background.  Notice all of the pretty fox glove too?  I just loved them!

And of course I had to snap lots of shots of fleurs at the street markets!

Here are just a few I took.

 It's a good thing we walked alot, as we ate very, very well!

I had a hard time saying no to all of the wonderful baquettes and butter (European butter is much richer than ours!), not to mention the wine, croissants, and Nutella filled crepes!

 The highlight of the entire trip was the day we climbed the towers of Notre Dame.

We've climbed just about everything else in Paris on previous trips, but never here at my very favorite church.  It was even more amazing than we expected!

(not to mention a whole lot easier than climbing the Eiffel Tower on our last visit!)

 Notice all of the people lined up in front of the church? They are actually waiting to get in!

Thank goodness, we weren't in that line for the towers!

That was just about a 45 minute wait, not so bad.

We did spent alot of time waiting in lines on our trip, though.  The craziest was Tuesday, when we went to Versailles and spent almost 2 hours just waiting to get in!  Ugh!  I'll share that for another post, though!

 Ok, back to the fun stuff!

The climb was well worth it, as look at what we got to see!

Gargoyles, and lots of them!  Up close and personal, too!

The panoramic views of the city were just gorgeous, including the Eiffel Tower, in this shot I snapped, below.

An aerial view of the line waiting to get into the church.

 Sacre Couer,  which means "Church of the Sacred Heart", perched on the highest point in the city.

 In the photo below, you will see the stunning and ornate opera house, near the horizon.

 Check out my new French friend, below!

 It was so neat to be up with the spire!

 A pretty view of the Seine.

 We were pleasantly surprised that we got to climb into the belfry!

There were two of these bells, and they were huge, each weighing over 19 tons!

Since the bells ring several times every hour, I was more than a bit concerned that they would start ringing when we were standing next to them!

So when we found out they only rang during special religious holidays, I was very relieved!

It is the bells in the north tower, not the south that we climbed, that ring each hour. 

 Another amazing view.

 This guy looks pretty hungry!

 And below is my favorite view of the church.

Unfortunately, several years ago people started putting locks on the bridge, which I personally hate the look of.  They are called "locks of love", and the new tradition is that the couple in love writes their initials and date on the lock, then tosses the key into the Seine river.  I was shocked how many more locks are there since we visited Paris two years ago!  In fact, there are even locks on top of locks now!  Ugh, what an eyesore!

I am hoping that one day, they will get removed!

Thanks for joining me on my little tour.  I have many more photos to share, including our visit to Versailles.  Stop back in a few days!

Au revoir!