Arc de Triomphe et La Basilique du Sacre Coeur

Our tourist day failed to commence until the cessation of Ben's nap, which consequently resulted in the tardiness of our homecoming. I'm trying to very eloquently say, "It's not my fault this is late!"

I have a lot to write and pictures to back me up, but I'm yet again concerned with time. Ideally it won't be a problem. However, Ben is napping and that is always a tenuous situation at best.

When Ben woke up, we headed to the metro and made for Champs-Elysee, the main shopping street in Paris, and stopped at a station about 3 blocks before the Arc.

The sidewalk was very crowded, but we slowly made our way toward the Arc. On the way we saw some break-dancers and many street merchants selling some high quality merchandise. You caught the sarcasm there right?

The break-dancers were ok. Ben liked watching them for a bit. Then we headed to the Arc.

It's pretty sweet. I don't think I had ever been near something that large that was both artistic and made by man quite some time ago. It was built in like 1860...before cranes...right? I think steam engines may have been invented, but I'm fuzzy on the whole industrial time line.

We didn't go up into it because it was a long line, but hopefully Beth will take a morning off and we can head around town to some tourist things and visit the ones that normally have a long line.

After the Arc we took another train over to the Basilique. It rests on a hill overlooking most of Paris and it's also quite amazing.

The inside of the Sacre Coeur is very impressive. Stain glass windows, a high domed ceiling, and statues everywhere of the saints. With candles in front of them. And people praying to them. I'll do my best to hold my tongue, as wiser men than me have (C.S. Lewis), and not comment on that kind of thing.

No cameras were allowed inside the church, so I wasn't able to get any pictures, but I found this site: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/paris-sacre-coeur with some pictures of the inside at the bottom. Didn't find any other sites with pictures of the inside, so they must be pretty strict about that. I didn't look too hard though, I'm sure you could do better if you were really interested.

After that we headed home (in a metro that went above ground for a bit, which Ben thought was pretty cool) in time to give Ben a very late dinner and get him in bed. Then we ate an even later dinner, I didn't do the blog, and then we went to sleep.

A beautiful afternoon though with very beautiful scenery!