Making Friends, Roma Girls, Notre Dame and the Marais

In an earlier post (which you can read here) I mentioned we shared a café creme with a couple from one of the travel forums I stalked ... visited.  As it happened, L reached out to me in a private message and let me know we were practically neighbors.  I responded and we ended up meeting Friday morning at Le Paradis at the corner of Rue de la Verrerie and Rue St-Martin. 

We arrived at 10ish that morning, our agreed upon time; we recognized each other almost immediately.  I had told him I was on the tall side and would be with my wife who is a redhead.  He responded by telling me he and his wife would be the two Parisians in U.S. tourist uniforms. 

After quick introductions all around we ordered our café creme which was educational in itself.  I'm not much of a coffee drinker so, since the invite was for café creme, that is what I ordered.  Betty, being a coffee drinker, ordered a coffee.  L's wife C immediately asked Betty if she actually wanted coffee with cream and sugar?  Betty naturally said yes so C changed Betty's order to café creme.  After our waiter left it was then explained to us that a coffee in Paris is an espresso, you know, the one that comes in a really small cup and is really strong.  Thanks to C, we ended up with the coffee we wanted.

From there began a relaxing conversation covering a wide range of topics.  The chatter between us was as if we had known each other for years.  After talking about the many miles we had already walked we asked about where to buy Metro tickets.  L explained you can get them in most Metro stations and both he and his wife offered to help us purchase our first carnét of tickets. 

After paying our bill and thanking our waiter, who really did an excellent job keeping up with us, we started down the street in the direction of the nearest Metro station.  Suddenly, L takes a left and walks though a set of doors into a building followed by C and then my wife, who poked her head back out and put her finger to her lips, "shh".  Apparently she knew what was going on because at this point I had no clue (which happens more often than I care to admit). What followed, I was genuinely not prepared for.  This is what we walked in to:

An unassuming building from the outside, at least the side we entered from, contained this gorgeous church, complete with a functioning pipe organ.

 

Beautiful Stained Glass

 

 Of course, while in Paris, you must always remember to look up.

 

I don't know the name of this church but I will remember it as being the first church we entered in Paris.

After enjoying the beauty of the church we returned to task and made our way to the Metro station to purchase our carnét of tickets.  Actually, the process is rather straight forward.  Since we didn't have a chip and pin card (which I am positive we were told it was) we just needed to go the information window and politely ask for one carnét of tickets please.  So simple.  Afterward, we bid goodbye to L and C and made our way back to the studio for left over chicken and potatoes for lunch.

Our stomachs full and feeling replenished, we headed back out, slowly working our way through the Marais following a rather serpentine course with our ultimate goal for the day being Notre Dame.  I had read on their website that Friday (which it was today) they would be displaying the reliquary that contained a portion of Christ's Crown of Thorns and I really wanted to see it.  

We found ourselves in front of Notre Dame with a huge amount of people that apparently had the same idea we had.  Looking at the line to go in we decided to take a walk around the building and see if the line would shrink.  We walked down the north side, that would be the side with the long line to climb the towers which I really wanted to do as well but, again, really long line.  We continued down the side and around the back where we were greeted by the Gypsy, sorry, Roma girls with their petitions.  Having already been aware of their scam I simply said no, ignored them and walked past.  They retreated and looked for their next target.

If you haven't heard of the Roma girls and their petitions here is how it works.  They pose as being deaf, put a clipboard with a petition on it in front of you and try to get you to sign it.  Once you do they turn the board over which shows you a Euro amount they want you to pay.  If you don't, they get rather belligerent.  Just tell them no and walk past.  All the ones we encountered during our entire stay backed off after being told no.

Passing the girls we discovered a nice little park/garden behind Notre Dame, we stopped for a couple of pics.

 Making our way back to the front, surprisingly, the line to enter the church had shrunk.  We took our place in line and walked in.

Notre Dame does not disappoint.  The stained glass, the architecture, the overall ambiance and the statuary are not to be missed.

 

After taking a lap around the cathedral, and taking way more pictures than either of us thought we would, we inquired where the Crown of Thorns reliquary was.  As luck would have it, we missed it by two hours.  The reliquary was put away at 3:00pm and we were told it would not on display again, at least not during the time we were in Paris.  So, bummer.

We finally finished our tour of Notre Dame and went back out to wander along the Seine before heading back to the studio.  All in all it was a wonderful day.  We made new friends, had a good lunch, discovered more of our neighborhood and toured Notre Dame.  Not a bad way to spend a Friday wouldn't you say?