April 4th continued........


After the Louvre, we went to Sainte-Chapelle which was built in the 13th century and an exceptional example of stained glass.
-Katie

After a quick duck into a quaint bookstore, we headed over to Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Cute bookstore with a bookworm in front of it!

Notre-Dame Cathedral

The gang.

At the back of Notre-Dame

The side aisle as you walk forward.

Getting closer to the sanctuary.

Accounts of Christ's crown of thorns date back to the 4th century and were kept in Constantinople.  The Latin Emperor, called Baldwin the II, was in great financial difficulties and pawned the relic to a Venetian bank in 1238. St. Louis, who was King Louis IX of France, bought the relic from the Venetians and brought it to Paris.  The crown is in the red reliquary behind the flowers.  It was recently brought out on Good Friday, five days before we were there.

Another photo of the Crown of Thorns.

One last photo, beautiful....

And with a blink, we were done with Paris.  It was quaint, cleaner than Rome, the people were nicer than we were warned, and with warmer weather, I bet the city really comes alive with sidewalk artists and such.  Here are some final pictures of our hotel and street.  Enjoy the video of the traffic!  A driver took us to the train station for our trip to London.

Waiting for our driver to come pick us up.  The hotel was amazing!  Thank you Nicki, our travel agent!

Looking down the street outside our hotel.

Looking into the intersection outside our hotel.

The amazing driving skill of our Paris driver!  Sometimes, I don't even see lines on the road!  It's crazy!  Motorcycles and scooters are exempt from traffic laws, apparently!  It was similar in Rome.

Watch the video:   https://youtu.be/Eh-DWZGE8Kk