Paris, part 4: Landmarks!

You saw this one coming, right?


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The Arc de Triomphe image again, but it's so I can show you the next photo...

...which is much more interesting. But it's more impressive when you've seen the whole monument

A government building and a church (which I forget the name of) that I wanted to go to. Closed! How French... grr




Almost the same picture, but I like this one better. It just doesn't show the other large government building so here are both images.

Opera! It's hard to capture the amount of GOLD on this building with a night picture and my small digital camera.

Sacre Coeur, looking above Paris. It's as much a part of the Paris skyline as the Eiffel Tower is.

Another angle! This was a really impressive building. You can see the copper statues are so old and have started to stain the building green.

Now for a bunch of Notre Dame photos...
Rose window from the outside.

Gargoyles!
We tried to go up to the top of the Notre Dame to see the "better" gargoyles, but I guess the dudes running the line wanted to go to lunch. Chumps. I hope a gargoyle spits on them.

There was a park next to the Notre Dame with a rose garden. The French like their rose gardens.

...and rose windows.

The Notre Dame has an interesting history. It's freakin' old, to begin with. Construction began in 1163 and went on for almost 200 years after. Kings have been crowned here, Joan of Arc gained credibility after death here, and then it was abandoned. Victor Hugo saw that city planners thought of tearing it down, wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and people collected money to restore it. Good thing or else gargoyles would have gotten pissed off, right?

how silly...