Day 2!
We planned some fun independent activities during the Sunday morning before our trip 'officially' started in the afternoon. This included a mass at Notre Dame and a visit to the Eiffel Tower!
The first thing we did was go to mass at Notre Dame. Jason is Catholic and he really wanted to see a Gregorian mass, so off we went.
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We loved admiring all the beautiful art and architecture inside. Since I am not Catholic, I got a blessing from the priest. For non-Catholics at mass, you can approach the priest with your arms crossed and they will give you a blessing!
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The gothic architecture inside of Notre Dame did not disappoint! I was in awe of the massive stone ceilings, the stained glass, and all of the beautiful art.
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We came to Notre Dame for the first time after the great fire and the following restoration; I was impressed by how clean it was inside and out. I had heard it was 'dirty' but that must have been something from before the fire. When we visited the stone was beautiful and clean.
Next up, we were off to our pre-booked tour of the Eiffel tower! I got us tickets in advance to streamline the visit.
We walked all the way from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower, taking in the sights of the river as we walked. We're both active walkers so we wanted to get our 'steps in' as they say going back towards the tower.
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It was a cold Sunday in November when we went and unfortunately the top of the tower was closed due to frost! We got a partial refund for the 'top' of the tower part of our ticket.
That said the views from the 2nd level did not disappoint; we could see pretty far from that vantage point.
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It was cold though so we didn't stay too long. After we went to our hotel to rest before meeting our group and going on our evening neighborhood walk!
After going back to the hotel and resting, we met up with our tour group and did our walk around the neighborhood. Our tour guide, Rolinka, pointed out the little 'space invader' in the photo to the right during our walk.
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A friend of mine who was an avid space invader player had passed away the week before our trip, so it was very meaningful to see this little space invader in Paris! Every time I saw a space invader, I thought of my friend, and it cheered me up a little bit.
I loved this one especially, it had a little French flag, almost like it was saying "Welcome to Paris!"
During our walk, we got to see the Eiffel tower all lit up at night for the very first time, and WOW, it did not disappoint!
I will remember seeing the tower all lit up like this for the rest of my life.
We also had a group dinner at a restaurant that was quite good! We got to meet more of our small tour travelers and we enjoyed getting to know them.
