Paris Day Two - Tour and Notre Dame

It was Sunday morning on our second day in Paris and we had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel with lots of great cheeses, breads and sweets. Having breakfast as part of the trip deal has been a good decision. Another part of the trip package is the Monogram tour of each city. The one in London was great and this morning of day two in Paris we had our city tour scheduled. We were picked up at the hotel and then stopped at another hotel to pick up more Monogram customers. Then we began our tour of Paris by bus. The tour guide on the bus was extremely knowledgeable and very entertaining. She certainly knew the history and politics of the city and had some insights into the French Revolution and the religious structures of the city.

While driving around the tour guide also updated everyone on the terrorist attack the previous night. Most people didn't know about it yet and apparently we were the only ones near the actual incident. We also saw a lot of military police driving around the city in groups. Tourist areas were heavily patrolled. It did feel a little disconcerting.

Our first stop off the bus was at Notre Dame and it was a cloudy day that threatened rain. We had to park on the right bank of the river and walk over a bridge to get to the cathedral.  There were some wonderful views of Paris from the bridge. This was the first time we saw the locks attached to bridges in Paris. Some of the people on our tour bus had mobility issues which made getting around complicated. This was one of the reasons we stayed clear of tour buses on our trip except for the one main tour of the city. I can't imagine spending most of our time in a foreign city on a bus. We like to walk, take public transportation and explore.

When we entered Notre Dame there was a full Sunday morning mass in progress. This made the tourists guest more respectful. The mass had a special aspect of it to pay respects for those killed and injured in the terrorist attack last night. The terrorist was a 21 year old Chechnya-born French citizen who was shot and killed by French police during the incident. The attack took place about two blocks from our hotel.

The mass at Notre Dame was very solemn and beautiful. The cathedral building was amazing. We loved the rose window stained glass and the bas-reliefs of the story of Christ.