Norte Dame left me speechless. Paris day 2// Monday August 7 This morning I woke up to a beautiful Parisian city scene peering through a space between the blinds. It was literally just like a scene out of a movie. This city has a pulse to it that is unlike any others I have experienced…it is as romantic as it is beautiful, and it’s breathtakingly beautiful. We grabbed croissants and coffee (AMAZING) at a cafe on the corner and headed for our tour of Norte Dame “OurLady”. The tour started at, “Love Lock Bridge.” It’s a pretty view and all the locks are cool to look at. I took the obligatory selfie with some locks. #basic We met our tour guide who proceeded to walk us towards Norte Dame explaining the history lining the walls we were passing. It was honestly amazing. I saw holes in a building put there by Nazi’s in WWII and the next building is where the king was held as a prisoner before being executed some ridiculous amount of time ago. Upon reaching Norte Dame the guide explained all the sculptures on the face of the building and relayed the stories they were meant to share. Just processing that humans built this huge church in all of its glory back in 1163 is mind blowing. They didn’t have the tools today or cranes etc and somehow they managed stuff like this. Insane. We were lucky and got to see (allegedly) Christ Jesus’ crown of thorns from when he was arrested. They were on rotation and were at Norte Dame that day. Apparently a former French king was obsessed with all the artifacts of Christ and so France had a few things like that in their possession. I am skeptical of their authenticity but it’s still cool. The inside of Notre Dame is just as impressive as the outside. We walked around with the tour, and I highly recommend the City Wonders tour of Notre Dame. The guide was fantastic and English speaking. He had tons of knowledge of the history and was really personable as well. We learned so much from him. After the tour we grabbed some wine and cheese at a corner cafe. Then we were off to the Louvre. Again, King Louis was so extra. Haha The palace is ginormous!!! We didn’t go inside because the line was insane, but the palace is full of historic artworks you can view. Ex. Mona Lisa. I will have to go back for this experience. Merhawit told ,e it takes like 5 days to see all the artwork so pick some favorites to seek out. We walked to arc de triumph further down and explored outside –then laid in the grass for a while in the garden soaking up some sun. Next was macaroons and ice cream (amazing) at Laduree, then we headed to Louis Vuitton in Champs de Eestrey. The store is 2 floors and they have WAAAY more lines of bags/clothing/shoes than we knew existed. LOL From there we headed to dinner at Cafe Louise (we literally couldn’t get enough) and then headed to the hotel to collect our bags and head to the airport for our flight back to Dublin. A couple notes: *Make sure you bring a shawl or are not showing your shoulders if you plan on attending Notre Dame. It is still a church and they make you cover up. Luckily our guide had a shawl I could borrow. The church appeared to be loaning some as well. *There is a security line with a bag search before you can enter Notre Dame.