Paris Day 2 (19,905 steps, 15.4km)

It was very hard to get up this morning. We were so tired that we opted on buying our breakfast instead of making it. So we stopped at a bakery/pastry shop. We both had a croissant, a pain au chocolat, and a chocolate éclair. Not the breakfast of champions, but we both felt more Parisian for buying it (being tired and grumpy added to the feeling). We started our day at the same stop as yesterday, the St Michel plaza. Only this time we crossed the Pont de Notre Dame. The Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris is famous due to Victor Hugo’s novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Touring the inside of the church took no time at all. It was pretty remarkable, but I felt jipped, as I expected the church to be bigger. Julie however, found it to be the exact size she pictured (liar). Once we did our walk around the inside of the church it was time to see the roof (Julie couldn’t believe how loud everyone was inside the church). We then realized that we had to exit the church in order to go to the roof. So we stood in a very long line to climb up to the top of the church. It would have been a very boring wait if it wasn’t for a street performer. A guy wore an ugly mask and would walk around the crowds of people bustling by and try to scare them. He was very good at what he did. A group of girls actually sprinted off screaming, most women though just screamed, then laughed. It was very entertaining. On fresh legs the climb to the top would be a cinch, but because we were walked out it was a very long climb up. It was however worth it. The gargoyles are amazing up close and the views are nice as well. We were lucky enough to be up there when the church bells rang and before long we were on our way to our next stop, The Paris Opera house. The Paris Opera House is the setting for Julie’s favourite play “The Phantom of the Opera” and Gaston Leroux novel. The inside is pretty elegant and I asked Julie about 30 times if she was sure she didn’t want to see a play that night. We found the box seat that the “phantom” always reserved for himself, then took some photos and were off. On the way to the Opera House I managed to loose a piece of the camera, thus making our makeshift button practically useless. We then switched to Julie’s key ring. It was easier to use and I was actually enjoying taking photos again. After the Opera house we went to find the tourist office to pick up some info and a map. I unfortunately left the new button for the camera on a seat in the tourist office and only realized this after we got off the subway. Julie and I were very tired from the previous day and our day wasn’t working out right. My left knee is also causing me some pain and I felt that resting it would do it some good. The day was taking too long and I had already lost two things. We therefore made the decision to make the Rodin museum the last stop for the day. The Rodin museum has sculptures outside in a garden, one of them being the “thinker”. This museum was thankfully cheap, only 1 euro each. The line up was ridiculous and according to a lady that Julie was talking to it was not the norm for there to be a line up here at all. We left quickly after viewing the “Thinker” and made our way back home on the train. That night we rested and posted all our pictures and updated our blog.