Paris Diary part 21

Day 26
16°, light rain off & on all day.

On our last Sunday in Paris, Lily & I went to Notre Dame. We had already been inside the cathedral, and we walked past it a million times, but we had never gone up the tower since it was always closed. We figured everything would be open on a Sunday. A lot of things are closed on Sundays in Paris, but this is a church. We could tell that the tower was open as soon as we crossed Pont Saint-Louis onto Île de la Cité and saw the long line of people along Rue du Cloître Notre Dame.

The climb up the tower was torture. I'm in pretty good shape, as is Lily, but those 387 spiral steps took their toll. A straight staircase would have been easier, but spirals force you to constantly adjust your balance. Instead of simply walking up, you are walking up and to the left.

It was a cloudy day, but the view was worth the climb. Paris is a pretty low city, so the high clouds never covered much of anything, and only made the view more dramatic. We could clearly see the Eiffel Tower, les Invalides and Sacré Coeur. Since we knew the city a lot better than we did the first time the tower was closed, we also noticed our roommate's hospital, Saint Sulpice, one of our grocery stores and more than a few restaurants.

After we climbed down all of the steps, we went down even further into the crypt. That is probably more interesting to archeologists, but still worth a look.

From Notre Dame, we went to Bois de Boulogne. We had already been to Bois de Vincennes, so we figured we might as well go to the other giant park that bookends the city. Bois de Boulogne is smaller than Bois de Vincennes, but not enough to notice. Bois de Vincennes has the Château de Vincennes, a small medieval castle, while Bois de Boulogne has the Château de Bagatelle, a neoclassical mansion.

Both parks have lakes and streams, but Lily & I agreed that Lac Daumesnil at Vincennes was the best of the bunch.

We spent the evening on the apartment's roof terrace. It had just stopped raining and was about to start up again at any moment, but we both decided that we liked our Paris apartment more than the big Antibes house. The Antibes house was much bigger and had a swimming pool, hot tub and all kinds of gardens and grounds to walk around, but it never felt like a home. The Paris apartment was more comfortable. Paris has plenty of gardens and grounds to walk around anyway.