Deciding it would be shameful to be so close to Paris and only visit Disneyland, David took Micaela and James on the 45-minute train ride to the heart of the City of Light. They were the ultimate tourists, choosing to visit Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower.
Construction began on Notre Dame de Paris in 1163. There is a stone reference marking point here in the square in front of the cathedral called
Point zéro. When road signs say "Paris - 30 kilometres," the distance is the measurement to this exact spot.
Home of poor Quasimodo. Victor Hugo wrote
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame to support preserving the cathedral instead of "modernizing" it (i.e. tearing it down) after it suffered severe desecration during the French Revolution.
The Louvre has been around, in one form or another, for the past 800 years. The Louvre Pyramid, the main entrance of the museum, was designed by I.M. Pei, a Chinese-American architect.
When David, in all seriousness, asked James if he had ever seen a real live mummy, James answered, "Dad, there's no such thing as a real
live mummy."
At the outbreak of war in September 1939, most pieces of the Louvre's collections were evacuated. The works were hidden in numerous sites, mostly châteaus in the French countryside.
Napoleon had this painting by Leonardo da Vinci moved from the Louvre to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace; later it was returned to the Louvre.
Inaugurated in 1889, La Tour Eiffel was supposed to be torn down after 20 years. It was allowed to remain standing when it proved to be valuable for communication purposes.
The tower met with much criticism from the public when it was built and was considered by many to be an eyesore. When novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the tower — was asked why he ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant so often, he answered, "Because it is the one place in Paris where you can't see it."
View from the half-way up the Eiffel Tower; La Basilisque de Sacré-Coeur, Montmartre in the distance. When the line for the elevator stalled, the Nylunds took the stairs.
Looking across the Seine to La Conciergerie, the former royal palace and prison. Dating from the early 14th century, nearly 3,000 prisoners of the French Revolution (including Marie-Antoinette) spent their last days here before meeting the guillotine.
Construction began on Notre Dame de Paris in 1163. There is a stone reference marking point here in the square in front of the cathedral called Point zéro. When road signs say "Paris - 30 kilometres," the distance is the measurement to this exact spot.
Home of poor Quasimodo. Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame to support preserving the cathedral instead of "modernizing" it (i.e. tearing it down) after it suffered severe desecration during the French Revolution.
The Louvre has been around, in one form or another, for the past 800 years. The Louvre Pyramid, the main entrance of the museum, was designed by I.M. Pei, a Chinese-American architect. 
When David, in all seriousness, asked James if he had ever seen a real live mummy, James answered, "Dad, there's no such thing as a real live mummy."
At the outbreak of war in September 1939, most pieces of the Louvre's collections were evacuated. The works were hidden in numerous sites, mostly châteaus in the French countryside. 
Napoleon had this painting by Leonardo da Vinci moved from the Louvre to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace; later it was returned to the Louvre.
Inaugurated in 1889, La Tour Eiffel was supposed to be torn down after 20 years. It was allowed to remain standing when it proved to be valuable for communication purposes.
The tower met with much criticism from the public when it was built and was considered by many to be an eyesore. When novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the tower — was asked why he ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant so often, he answered, "Because it is the one place in Paris where you can't see it."
View from the half-way up the Eiffel Tower; La Basilisque de Sacré-Coeur, Montmartre in the distance. When the line for the elevator stalled, the Nylunds took the stairs.
Looking across the Seine to La Conciergerie, the former royal palace and prison. Dating from the early 14th century, nearly 3,000 prisoners of the French Revolution (including Marie-Antoinette) spent their last days here before meeting the guillotine.
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