Photos from Paris Weekend

As promised, a mini photo essay of the weekend for all 3 of you who occasionally read this.

Place de la Bastille, very near to the hostel where we stayed. The last time I was in Paris I somehow managed to miss this entirely, but this time I walked through or past it several times. It is very near to a nice neighborhood with very reasonably priced food and drink as well as a bit of shopping.

I was in Heaven with all of the boats on the Seine throughout the weekend and it was sunny and clear most of the time.

Of course, a trip to Paris is not complete without stopping by the Eiffel Tower. A nice guy offered to take our picture together, so we have a great touristic snapshot.

Before mass on Sunday we stopped by the Institute of the Arab World and looked through the [very impressive] book shop and marveled at the building, which has glass walls with tapestry shapes engraved in the windows. Gorgeous! This really got me pumped for my trip to Morocco.

Notre Dame de Paris. We attended the international mass here. The music was beautiful and I really enjoyed the chance to really see the cathedral. There was also a large group of Girl Guides sitting in front of us. They were really cute when passing the peace using their special Girl Guides handshake with one another.

Clara had to get back to Normandy for work Monday morning, so I was all on my own for the day. I went to Montmartre first to see Sacre Coeur and also saw this woman playing the accordian and a lot of artists who didn't want their photographs taken. Pity...

But Montmartre was goregeous. I had only seen it from the foot of the hill before. It is a completely atypical structure and yet still turned out so beautifully, not a hot mess like so many other innovative architectural attempts.