The MacJohnson's Grand Adventure: The rest of Paris...

Hello again! Although it took a little longer than I planned to get the rest of our Paris photos on the blog, here they are - better late than never! We really did have a great week in Paris with the Watsons - and fortunately because we went the thrifty route of driving and taking a ferry, we weren't stuck due to the volcano in Iceland.

Yes, Breanna and Emma were very happy to be in Paris, on the Place de Concorde.

Another of our favourite experiences... the "stringers". Even after I had warned everyone at length to keep walking by these guys, Breanna stopped and got to have this wonderful tourist experience. Basically these guys wait outside of the tourist attractions, get kids to hold out their finger so that they can weave a friendship bracelet for them. Then, once they have the finger tied, they ask for money for the bracelet. Fortunately this guy was quite reasonable, and "released" Breanna quickly once we told him that we weren't giving him anything. The kids all walked with their hands in their pockets after this.

Our whole group outside of the beautiful Sacre Couer. This huge Byzantine style church overlooks the city on Montmartre (Martyr's mountain), and is a place of perpetual prayer. Since 1885 there has been someone in prayer in the church 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I hope that this guy is also praying. Interesting way to make a buck. This is the railing in front of Sacre Coeur - its a pretty long drop if he misses a step.

Great shot of Isaiah and his Mommy.

Off to THE Notre Dame cathedral. No sight of the Hunchback - although Kim hates it when I call her that...

There she is... okay, no Hunch - but she WILL kill me when she reads this!

On the facade of Notre Dame are the statues of many saints and angels. Here you can see St. Denis, one of Paris' most revered. St. Denis was the first Christian missionary sent to Paris (then Lutetia) to convert the pagan Romans in 250 A.D. Many converted, but St. Denis and 2 of his pals were condemned to death by the unhappy Roman governor. On the way up to Montmartre (where Sacre Coeur now stands), the Roman executioners got tired and decapitated their prisoners. St. Denis wasn't happy with this spot, so he picked up his head and walked the final distance to die where he wanted to.

Off to the Louvre. Sophia and Rachel are enjoying their time together.

They had this cool fountain that sort of looks like Emma.

Three scary faces in the Louvre.

Another great shot of Isaiah and his Mummy.

If you look closely, you'll see that one of these monkeys is slightly different than the rest!

After we left the Louvre, we visited the Catacombs. These are deep underground passages that go for kilometres under Paris. First built by the Romans as they excavated stone for building the city, they were expanded and have seen use for many purposes in Paris' history. One of these uses is as a storage place for the remains of 6 million Parisians. These bones were interred here as the city expanded over the years and cemetaries were dug up and replaced by buildings. Meant not to be creepy, but to be a respectful resting place of the city's dead - it was very strange nonetheless. Long dark winding passages of carefully stacked bones and skulls made a few of us a little uneasy.