Notre Dame It!

Ah, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Lady of Paris. How beautiful she is...if only the staff were half as attractive...credit to them tho, it was here that I learnt (as did the other twelve hundred tourists -the acoustics in there are incroyable!!) that it is customary to say "merci" after the HunchBack of Notre Dame spits directions in your face. So before I go on, I must say a grande MERCI to that mustached woman who so eloquently (think Hippopotamus Ballet here) gave me (think pulling teeth here) directions to the upstairs of the Cathedral, which, incidentally, I did not end up going up to. NO, not because I had peed my pants a little* after being yelled at *(if you know me, you know I suffer from a weak bladder), but because a good boyfriend always keeps his promises, alas, Anna was in class and I told her I would wait to go to the top with her. That, and a midday change of clothes was a standard in Europe! Fashion is God here (even at Church).

        

In any case, if you can get over the annoying tourists (you aren't going to get a good picture with a flash stupid!!) and the hundreds of couples that feel the Cathedral is the perfect place (!!!) to start making out, the experience is humbling.  The sheer size and magnitude of the construction is impressive (which brings to mind that nice gentleman I met on Chat Roulette last night), and it was built without any modern-type cranes or even a power drill (was that his name?) for that matter.  The stained-glass windows are something to be marveled at (they put light-shows at any Rave in the 90's to shame -outside of a Daft Punk show of course) and their intricacies are flawless. The windows alone are a masterpiece. There's no wonder it took almost 200 years to build this beast from 1163-1345, (perhaps the Quebec government should look into hiring the same team to do our construction?) and only thru human spirit and ambition was it completed, that, and of course a very healthy dose of fearing God.

So, if you happen to be in Paris, and you've got nothing to do (really?), take a stroll down La Seine River and cross over one of its many bridges (37 within Paris alone) onto the Île de la Cité and you'll find one of mankind's greatest constructions (next to the CN Tower of course)...and if you happen to be on the same budget as I am (do they still take Francs?) I recommend entering thru the "Exit" door: you'll avoid the long line-up and get in at the low-low price of one Golden Goose-Egg (yes, they still accept those in France). Amen.