Nate and Kara spend a day in Paris, hitting the Luxembourg Gardens and ending with a picnic at the Eiffel Tower for its hourly light show. They try the catacombs but find them closed on Mondays, and share quick facts about Notre Dame's height and completion date.
1345
295 ft
1996
Do you know anything about the Notre Dame?
I know that they filmed a movie about Hunchback. They did.
Is it about this?
I think he lives in it.
Really?
In the movie?
Today is our first full day in Paris. We have two things on the agenda today. Two big things. First is the catacombs and the second is the Eiffel Tower.
So if you've never heard of the Paris catacombs before, it's like tunnels underneath Paris where they've stored thousands and thousands of dead bodies. Now they're just bones, they're not actually bodies. The pictures look insane, but from what we hear the lines can get super long and we don't have a skip the line pass like we did when we were in Rome for the Colosseum or the Vatican. We've heard the best time to go is in the afternoon. Cuz everybody goes early thinking that they want to be there before everybody else. And then everybody's just there early. So it is about 4:40 and that's where we're headed.
And we're walking 30 minutes because it's Paris and it's beautiful. That was a really loud bus.
Sash. Closed Mondays.
It's closed on Mondays.
So far I have completely failed at planning our time here in Paris. We got to the Luxembourg Gardens last night when it was closing and apparently the catacombs were closed on Monday. And I didn't happen to come across that on the Internet in all of my research.
Oh no, it's okay. We can go do something else.
I'm sure there are plenty of other things to do in Paris.
We just walked 30 minutes.
It was a beautiful walk though.
It was okay.
Ah, I was thinking maybe we could go to the Louvre. But it closes at 6 so that's not going to happen because it's already 5:15 so by the time we get there it'll be 6. That's the problem with like constantly traveling. Like if you're coming to Paris on your one week vacation, you would like plan for the entire year and you'd be like boom, Monday we're doing this. Tuesday we're doing this. Wednesday we're doing this. But I'm like the night before on the computer. What should we do in Paris tomorrow? So maybe that's just my fault, but yeah, it normally works out. Today it hasn't. Yesterday night, last night it didn't. Oh well.
What next? We're ending with Eiffel Tower tonight, so it can't be that bad. Let's go. Okay, new plan. We are going to walk a lot.
Starting with the Luxembourg Gardens that were closed last night.
After that, we're going to go to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the famous architect. And then ultimately we are ending the night at the Eiffel Tower with B.
It's going to be great.
We can go in.
Walking is not so bad when all the streets look like this. And it turns out that was just park. This is the actual Luxembourg Gardens, but they're also open.
So the Luxembourg Gardens, they're huge. They're beautiful. Everybody lays in the grass, which I think is really fun. And there's chairs everywhere that you can just pick up and move wherever you want. You can put them in the shade or in the sun. You can wear clothes. You can not wear clothes. It's crazy. It's a really nice park.
Oh, it's beautiful. Now on to Notre Dame. Dom. Notre Dame. Which one is it?
But first, ice cream, and now we're at Notre Dame.
I'm just now realizing that the spire that we can see from the window of our Airbnb is the Notre Dame. Dom, we really need to figure out how to say this.
Do you know anything about the Notre Dame?
I know that they filmed the movie about Hunchback. They did.
Is it about this?
I think he lives in it.
Really?
In the movie? I mean, it's been 15 years since I've seen it. Maybe longer.
Were you 13 when you watch the movie? I don't know.
All right, Wikipedia, fun facts.
Okay, tell me about the Notre Dame Cathedral. Okay. I found this, a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Le de la Cite. It is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and is among the largest and most well known church buildings in the world.
What about the Hunchback?
It was completed in 1345. It is 295ft tall. It doesn't talk about the Hunchback. Did the Hunchback live in Notre Dame Cathedral? Here's what I found on the web that did the Hunchback live in Notre Dame Cathedral? She says Notre Dame.
She's Australian. Hunchback did, in fact live in the cathedral. And the movie came out when I was 7, not 13. 1996.
Is Quasimodo his name?
Yeah, that was Hunchback.
He was the bell ringer.
Did you not watch the Hunchback?
I don't remember things from when I was five.
The problem with Paris is that there's too many awesome buildings. We can't get anywhere because I keep stopping to film.
It's like got our first view of.
The Eiffel Tower buildings here that don't even have names. Well, they probably have names, but like not names that like tourists know are like as good as the best buildings in other cities.
It's crazy.
And they're just like, ah, it's another building.
By the way. We're walking an hour to the E Tower and we don't even care cuz.
It'S right beside the river and it is incredibly beautiful.
Even the buildings that are under construction are pretty.
Oh, this one's still warm.
We just got all of our food for our picnic. The line was so long and the sun is setting and we have to run to the Eiffel Tower. How far is it? Like 20 minutes?
Yeah, I'd say it's a good 20 minute walk from where we are. There is a light show that happens every hour on the hour for five minutes. So we're hoping to catch the 10 o' clock here. It is currently 9. 10.
Oh, we have plenty of time.
Maybe swing by the arch real quick. But yeah, we want to get there before it gets dark.
I want to get this.
Sam.
We just made it to the Eiffel Tower 10 minutes before the light show. I don't think we could have timed it at a more perfect time of the day. The sky's like this beautiful blue color. The lights of the Eiffel Tower.
It's beautiful.
I'm way more impressed than I thought I was to be.
I am too. I had heard it was kind of underwhelming, but this is awesome.
Yeah, I was just coming to check it off the list, but yeah, it's beautiful. And now we're going to sit down and have a picnic.
And then ultimately we'll end the night at the. At the Eiffel Tower. No bathing suits.
Whoa. It let it me touch it. Gross. Gross. About to be over. Soak it in.
