Notre Dame de Paris

I arrived at Paris CDG Airport at around 5 pm.
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I felt grateful to see my customer who was waiting there to pick me up. Actually I didn't expect anyone to come, but this customer insisted. I guess they wanted to return me a favor, since I gave them very good treatment when they visited us in GuangZhou 2 months ago. Precisely, I arranged accommodation, free transportation and free meals for them.
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The young man who came to pick me is a new person to the company, I have never met him before. Nevertheless, he is a very chatty one, told me a lot about himself, especially his experiences when he studied in Germany. Good, I was tired to think of anything, so it's good to have him do the speaking in the car.

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About one hour later, finally he found my hotel, and we parted good bye here.

Although small, the hotel room is comfortable enough to stay for 4 consecutive nights here.

The drawing in my room. I like it, because it was drawn by Vincent (Vincent Van Cough). Looking at it had reminded me of my Vincent who is also pretty good in drawing. Vincent & William, mommy miss you.



Since it was a Sunday, most of the restaurants were closed. Luckily, I found a small restaurant nearby that sell salad, pizza & burger. Without much thinking, I brought this Tuna Salad and a fish burger back to the hotel room for dinner. The tuna salad is very very fresh and delicious, baquette was good too. After I had finished these 2, I was too full to eat the burger anymore.
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I had a good sleep that night. Feeling really tired after all those travelling...
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The next morning, I woke up at 8 am. Then I went to the restaurant at downstair for breakfast. As usual, breakfast was consists of bread, yogurt and cereal. The baquette and croissants are good. Basically, every morning, I ate baguette, croissants & orange juice for breakfast.
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My customer came to pick me from the hotel at 9 am. The 1st appointment for the day was to meet his end customer. It was a long meeting and I thought it's a successful one, but turned out not the way I thought it was at all. During the lunch time, that end customer confessed that they had decided to choose our competitor as their 2nd supplier because he think our competitor is more suitable to manufacture their products than my company does. It did shock us to hear that. And frankly speaking, I felt quite upset about it.
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Later, my customer drove me to his office, and I met his boss. The boss was obviously disappointed to hear the news that his staff brought him. But he recovered very fast. At around 4 pm, the boss said he wanted to go out and he could drive me back to my hotel.
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I arrived at the hotel at around 4.30 pm. Feeling lonely, I decided to take the subway to Notre Dame which is only 20 minutes from my hotel.





Just when I came out from the subway station, I saw this familiar place again, after my 1st visitation to Paris about 13 years ago, with husband.

Everywhere is a good place to sit down and watch the world goes by.

Notre Dame de Paris from the Seine, still look as gorgeous as before.

A beggar with his 2 dogs.

Looking back to where I came from...

River cruise sails along the Seine River.

Notre Dame de Paris, also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic Cathedral. In English, it means Our Lady of Paris. It is more than 700 hundred years old now.

In the courtyard of Notre Dame is this statue of Charles the Great, aka Charlemagne. The inscription reads "Charlemagne et ses Levdes".

Notre Dame de Paris: Western Façade

Closer look at the famous west front of Notre Dame Cathedral.

The Notre Dame is the most popular monument in Paris and in all of France, beating even the Eiffel Tower with 13 million visitors each year. But the famous cathedral is also an active Catholic church, a place of pilgrimage, and the focal point for Catholicism in France - religious events of national significance still take place here.
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The admission is free of charge, very generous.

The west front's central portal, depicting the Last Judgment.

Apostles of the central portal (19th-century replacements).

The wooden doors have original 13th-century ironwork.

Interior of Notre Dame...

The North Rose Window (c.1250), with a theme of the New Testament.

The Crown of Light or Great Chandelier of the transept crossing. It was removed for restoration, during recent rufurbishment works in the choir.

Saint Denis




Saint Denis's wife and son?

I sat here for quite some time, listening to the soft chanting sound did give me some peace of mind.

Interior of Notre Dame, looking east to the choir

South exterior and transept.

One of the many tulips in the flower garden behind Notre Dame.

East view of the Notre Dame, from a bridge over the Seine.

A not very friendly street artist.

View from the south

View from the south

I remember there is a busy street somewhere with many small seafood restaurants along. So, I was trying to find it....

Ok, I've found that street. I felt that the pace is not as busy as before, perhaps it was not the peak hour for dinner? or the number of trousists had declined due to bad economy?

The menu looks attractive, not very expensive too. But I don't feel like having a big meal that night...

If husband were there with me, then I would want to dine here.

Seafood display outside the restaurant...

Bumped into Rue Saint Severin which is immersed in the streets.

Ok, it's nearly 7 pm by then. I got to go now...

It's really nice to get to visit this place again after all these years.

20 minutes later, I went back to the hotel's area. The place was quiet when night time approach.

Before walking back to my hotel, I stopped over this small shop to take away tuna salad & barguette again. The foods is really too delicious to try for the 2nd time. This time, the owner recognized me and he greeted me with his super warm smile.

Just bent a corner, and returned to my "home sweet home" for 4 night, Classics Hotel.
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I felt dead tired that night...but I reported the happenings to my boss before going to bed anyway.

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