Paris, our first full day: Ile de la Cite, The Marais, and Jardins de Luxembourg

We started the day at the cafe downstairs. Then Aurel suggested we go check out their little neighborhood church, Notre Dame. It is a 2 minute walk from the apartment.

Here is the sun coming up behind Notre Dame:

Aurel and Caroline went to work, and Cam and Jon strolled over to Sainte Chappelle. It is much smaller than Notre Dame, and is known for three things: 1. Beautiful stained glass 2. It holds the actual crown of thorns Jesus wore on the cross 3. It holds pieces of the actual cross. Big stuff, apparently.

Here are a few shots of the stunning stained glass:

More:

Outside St Chappelle is a little square that looked great in the morning light:

On our way back to the apartment, we saw Notre Dame through a narrow alleyway:

Directly across the bridge from our apartment is The Marais district. It is known as "the gay part of town" which almost always translates into excellent shopping and dining. This is definitely true in Paris. It is the oldest part of the city, so the cobblestobe streets are narrow and web-like. It feels like exploring a maze.

Here is the restaurant we ate at on our first night, which has an alley heading uphill that leads into the Marais:

Some street art:

Les Archives (Museum of French History):

Looking towards the Pompidou museum of modern art in the background, with Super Mario street art in the foreground:

This was a nice little dead end alleyway with sidewalk cafes on either side, under the trees:

We walked through Place des Vosges, a beautiful public park set in the middle of a palace courtyard. Very popular with the young people, this place:

We found a quieter, smaller park off of a quiet side street to have lunch:

Cam went into every flower shop we passed. Paris just injects romance into your system on every block, and Cam was not immune to the mojo:

The streets are sort of what the West Village or NoLita or the Mission aspire to be. Very, very cool, very, very beautiful:

In the heart of the Jewish Quarter on Rue des Rosiers, Jon got an incredible felafel (arguably the best part of the day):

A little further down the alley we got a delicious Nutella+Banana crepe:

Watching them make it puts the salivary glands into overdrive:

Another killer little street to explore in the Marais:

One of Paris' several large public parks, Les Jardins des Luxembourg is gorgeous. It has a beautiful palace, which now houses the French Senate:

You can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance:

It has a statue of Pan, which makes this Jitterbug Perfume lover blush:

The lawn had a hold on Jon. He was salivating as he dreamt of mowing it (Jon often dreams of mowing lawns for a living) and simultaneously sneezing from all of the grass pollen in the air. Poor Jon.

Here is Cam heading towards a bench to rest her aching feet. We took this scene in whilst sitting in the shade:

Then we met with Aurel and Caroline at little wine bar in the Odeon district. Tres chic!!

The champagne was incredible.

And so was the conversation (hard not to have good conversation with Caroline and Aurel)

Tomorrow we hit the museums!!!