Although I'm not sure I agree entirely with Christine that the egyptian wing was the best part, it WAS pretty cool. And what's this you ask? It's a CANOPIC JAR. Something the egyptians used in the process of mummification when they rip out all your internal organs (IE: your brain, with a hook, through your nose) and put them in these babies so you know exactly where they are when you arise in the afterlife. Or something like that.

After the Louvre, we walked around a bit and saw many cool things (including the modern art fountains in front of the Georges Pompidou Center). On our way to a VERY little restaurant for supper, we learned that there's a good samaritan law in Paris. For those who don't know, it was introduced after Lady Diana's accident.
 

Incidentally, after supper, we got to see the underpass where the accident occurred. Right above the underpass, there's a replica of the flame held by the statue of liberty (France DID donate the thing). It's been there a long time, but people associate the two things. They leave flowers and notes on it for Diana. Everyone in our group signed the wall overlooking the underpass.

From there, it was on to the Bateaux-Mouches. There are many boats, lining the banks of the Seine River (Hope that's the right spelling). These boats can take you around the river on a sight seeing tour of Paris while a guide (or a recording, as the case was for us) of the different land marks you pass by.
 

I don't know about the others, but I don't remember the sky being THAT blue. It's pretty, isn't it? With the lights and all. Oh, and for anyone who may be making the trip in the future, if you're at the top of the Eiffel Tower, at night, taking a picture from above, down below is rather pointless. Unless you have a REALLY powerful flash, you're not going to light up anything and your picture will turn out black. When we were passing as it got to be dark out, we could see people's flashes from the boat. I must admit, we had a pretty good laugh about it.         BTW: J - 271 AVANT L'AN 2000 (for those who don't know or couldn't guess) means day 271 before the year 2000. Which isn't actually the new millennium. Incidentally, did anyone watch Paris' party on New Years? Talk about amazing! :)

April 6th, 1999. (Tuesday)
    Our group from Campbell hopped on a metro (a.k.a. Subway). Although we saw many places, the highlight (for me at least) was seeing big, wonderful, marvelous, (punctual) Notre Dame Cathedral. I almost started sobbing since half of the front was covered with SCAFFOLDING! Oh well, scaffolding is a liability for most places all over Paris and London. They have to make repairs and clean all the pollution off, made from the zillions of cars around. I didn't get a chance to see Quasimodo either. The steps up to the bell tower were also under renovations and supposed to be closed until the end of April (Damnit! I was a month too early).
 

This picture was taken from the Bateau Mouche. Note the superior gothic architecture, represented by the flying buttresses. tee hee.    While we were inside, Christine and I had the displeasure of being hit on by a couple gross guys (who didn't stop to think that maybe we can understand french before opening their big mouths and ruining the moment). That was the only really displeasing incident during the whole trip, so there's not necessarily any truth to the phrase "flirt like a french man."

From Notre Dame, we walked to the Saint Chapel, yet another church which is right next door to the Palace of Justice. You really can't throw a stone more than 5 feet without hitting a church in that city. The stained glass in there's pretty amazing. It was odd though, the security metal detectors to get in there are more sensitive than any I've ever seen in an Airport! After which, we walked over to the monument which every tourist gets to see in Paris.... even if they don't really. We got to go up in the Eiffel Tower! Talk about fricken huge. If you're not sure if you're afraid of heights, you'll know once you've been to the top. It's really not that bad. You can still see the people lying on the grass waaaaay down below.
 

Oh, you may be interested to know, after it travels a few feet, spit looks like little snow flakes (I didn't do it! Some guys were doing it! The only possibly questionable thing I did in terms of not entirely safe, was stick my head through the huge fence. And I didn't get my head stuck. Though, as Dale pointed out, "I don't want to be the idiot who has to call for help cause I got stuck.").

After waiting for the better part of an hour, and going up in a couple different sets of elevators, we made it to the top. What a view!! Everything seems so small down below, even Notre Dame and L'Invalides (the big building with the gold domed top, that's the hospital where Napoleon is buried and where Lady Diana died after the accident), and they seem fricken HUGE when you're standing next to them. Most of the buildings you can see are on average 8-10 floors high (Dale, Christine and I counted while waiting in line, while Tanis tried not to throw up at the sight of the grease stain on someone's clothes). Gives you a better perspective on how gigantic everything is, doesn't it? Yes, the french do everything big, except for their waistlines of course. They're all so skinny there!

That night, we had our last authentic Parisian meal in a nice big restaurant then headed back to the Camelia to pack for the trip to LONDON, ENGLAND the next day.

(Onto England)