J'aime Paris!

Day two in Paris:  First, a correction.  Sacre Coeur is a basilica, and not a cathedral.  Either way, it's incredibly beautiful.  I read that it's made of a stone that becomes harder and whiter over time.

Last night we visited the Eiffel Tower.  The tower and surrounding grounds really are beautiful.  It's gorgeous at night, especially when the flashing lights go off on the hour.  We went up to the first level and walked the perimeter reading the posted photos pointing out landmarks.  While the tower was great, it was hard to see any of the other landmarks because they're not really lit at night.  So much for that City of Lights thing.

After the tower (and an unbelievable onslaught of people selling light up Eiffel Towers, and their calls of "One Euro") we walked to the Trocadero, which may be my favorite building so far.  A pair of quarter arcs fronted by a huge terrace, it's directly across from the tower with a great view.  I believe it's now a museum, but will have to research more.

Today we started the morning at Notre Dame, which was everything I'd hoped it would be.  I have photos of the interior and exterior, but will probably wait until I'm home to post.  After Notre Dame we walked along the Seine to Saint Chappelle, which was also amazing.  It's two chapels, one on top of the other, and kind of hard to explain.  I have photos of that to post as well.

The highlight of the day followed with the Musee d'Orsay.  Incredible collection, incredible building, it deserves a post all on it's own which I'll try to do when I'm back.

Following those sights we returned home for a nap.  After cleaning up we headed back out to walk around the Marais neighborhood.  The gay bars were all crowded (and let me mention here, the French are beautiful, men and women alike) so we just roamed the neighborhood and finally settled into a table on the sidewalk at a quiet cafe.  Boyfriend had a pizza-like thing on a baguette that came with a salad.  I had a big salad consisting of greens, sliced tomatoes (they don't taste like this at home), ham, shrimp and smoked oysters.  It was delicious and a nice foil to all the bread we've eaten.  Of course we'd picked up another baguette on the way home, so the bread eating continues.

While we're on food, let me mention Berthillon, the French ice cream maker.  We stopped in at their flagship store on the Ile de St. Louis this morning for a cone.  Boyfriend had a dense, not overly sweet chocolate, and I had a creamy praline, and both were outstanding.  Should you ever find yourself somewhere that has it available, have some.  Don't think, just have some.

Tomorrow is the flea market, you can imagine my excitment!