Paris: Notre Dame + Lovers Bridge

Today Scott and I will be busy working the French All-Star game! For those of you who follow the NBA, the event is very similar to our All-Star game which is coming up in February. We are hoping to get to attend that one as well!

I hope that you enjoy reading about trips because (per request of some family and friends) I have so much to talk about and share here. If any of you have traveled to another country before, you know how much you want to take pictures of everything. I feel like I have gotten better and only caputring what I really need to and that is what I am planning on highlighting. Ready?

Exploring Paris: Day 2

We didn’t end up leaving our hotel until the afternoon on Day 2. We finally caught up on some sleep and were ready to take on an entire day to check things of our list of things to do and see in the City of Lights around lunchtime.

Scott conjured up a plan of attack with our concierge and the weather was perfect for walking. En pied (or by foot), we made our way to Les Pâtes Vivantes in search of live noodles.

Lunch at Les Pates Vivantes

The place was not a roomy one, but well worth the squeeze in to see hand spun noodles made as you eat. We ended up dining upstairs, but took some time to watch the chef do his thing afterwards.

Both Scott and I ordered a noodle bowl with chicken, veggies, and fresh cilantro in a sesame sauce.

It was surprisingly spicy, but very good. Overall the restaurant was neat, but not as amazing as the reviews made it out to be. We did, however, make it in and out with our bellies full in record time. That is the perfect way to explore any city if you ask me!

With a destination of Notre Dame in mind, we walked through and over as much as we could see on the way.

I wish I could post all of my pictures. Everything is just so neat.

After a few minutes of walking, we found a large shopping center under construction with tons of apartments and cool buildings surrounding it. We also found a farmer’s market!

Fresh sea food anyone?

Just in time for the real sight seeing, we scooped up a memory card for my camera at Fnac. Have any of you ever been to that store before? It’s awesome. Very thankful to have my camera back, I whipped it out to capture ice skating in front of Hôtel de Ville.

Like last time, we didn’t actually go ice skating, but enjoyed snapping a few photos pretending anyways.

Finally, we found Cathedrale Notre Dame on the horizon and anxiously walked over to it.

For those of you who are already thinking it – yes – this is the same cathedral from the famous novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame!

We skipped waiting in the long line out the door to go inside, and took a segment of serious and not so serious pictures recreating the movie, of course.

 (I have told you before… we’re five.)

But we do have our moments too.

We followed the sound of live music across the street to the Love Lock bridge, located on the Pont de l’Archevêché.

Stories hint that couples come from all over the world to add their lock to the bridge. Legend has it that locking your love on this bridge is good luck for sweethearts.

We saw a variety of locks, some even painted and engraved!

It was beautiful. I know you are waiting for me to say we added our lock, but we didn’t. We took a photo like we did though! (That’s kind of turning into a thing here.)

If we had just a little more time before we had to leave early tomorrow, we might have gone back and placed our lock there. Because everyone is telling us we should have! Oh well… we might just have to revisit one day. 😉

We finished the evening with a stop at a famous hot chocolate shop, dinner, and attending a famous show! Can you guess what it is? Stay tuned for more stories!