On Friday, we visited Notre Dame, St. Severin and the Louvre. Notre Dame was every bit as special as we had hoped. We were able to take the 4 line from Mouton Duvernet near our hotel to St. Michel-Notre Dame. Once we climbed the stairs - there IT was, the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

Victor Hugo and the 1939 movie with Charles Loughton and Maureen O'Hara flashed across my head as I looked at it. But the reality was far better than the imaginary one. We had to wait in line to get into the South tower (unfortunately, the top of the Tower was closed). A tall man in a driving hat and down vest handed out brochures to the Cathedral while you stood in line. A couple with twin girls in yellow coats waited in front of us. (The father at one time took one of the girls over to a puddle in the street, stripped her pants off and allowed her to pee in the puddle! Maybe you’re stepping in more than you think in Paris, huh?)

The man with the driving hat spoke English quite well. He passed out the brochures with a flourish, pulling the multicolored papers from a stack and holding them high above his head like a fencer holding his epĂ©e. When he gave me the paper, I said “Aha! With a flourish!” He smiled as I took the brochure.

We climbed the spiral staircase to the level above Esmeralda's cell, which is located in a bookshop near the roof level of the Cathedral. The narrow stairs were worn in the middle from thousands of feet ascending and descending the staircase. The level just below the towers, where the Chimeras stand guard over the city, offers spectacular views of Paris. The views from that level of the cathedral were - in my opinion - better than the views from the Eiffel Tower. The buildings are closer, the city seems more alive - not quite so distant.

After coming down from the tower we ate lunch in a park adjacent to the Cathedral (Parc LaGrange). We had sesame bread, cheese, ham, and Malesan Bordeaux wine - little half carafe bottles we bought at the Monoprix. (Maybe I sound like a cheap bastard, but believe me, with a dollar being worth about 75 cents in Paris, eating out can kill the budget quickly!) Having climbed and descended several hundred steps, squeezed into the belfry the see the Emmanuel Bell, and walked across more cobblestones than I ever imagined, we were HUNGRY and TIRED.

Eating and drinking was a relief. We were glad to be off our feet. We stopped to get coffee at a local cafe, but had not been off our feet for hours. Sitting under the sycamore trees in a park was a welcome relief. After lunch, we visited a Greek-catholic church next to Notre Dame (St Julien le Pauvre) and then went to St. Severin in the Latin Quarter.

St. Severin was built in the 15th Century and includes a so-called "double ambulatory" where the columns are twisted to look like palm trees. It too contained stunning stained glass windows and a huge organ in both the choir and one of the transepts. While not as large as Notre Dame and not as showy as Ste. Chappelle, the windows were breathtaking in their own way. I would recommend a visit, especially midday when it is quieter.

After lunch we walked to the Louvre for the second time and this time we saw the Apartments of Napoleon III. All I could say was "It's good to be the king!" Not only was there gold, but also velvet, tapestry, crystal chandeliers, sculpture gilt jewelry boxes and of course Napoleon's throne! We left the Napoleonic apartments and walked into the area of French Renaissance sculpture. Much of it was funerary sculpture, but some of it was also decorative or memorial work. A teacher was lecturing his class in the area where we were touring (they were visual art students, using the sculpture - and their teacher - as models).

After a couple of hours of wandering the sculpture area, our feet were tired so we decided to leave. We metroed and RERed on the C line and the 4 and eventually got back to our hotel. We were not sure if the transit strike was over or only partially reduced, but we had little trouble getting home. For dinner, we had foie gras, duck pùté, bread, cheese, wine, fruit and hazelnut chocolate spread. Cornelia took a bath and I watched the Rugby World Cup third place game - Argentina crushed France. After a little while we dozed off, exhausted from another day in the City of Lights.