Paris: Day 5

Today we visited the La Sainte-Chapelle, a medieval Gothic chapel. It was built by King Louis IX (St. Louis) to display his relic of Christ's Crown of Thorns, which he had recently purchased from the last emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II. The chapel was built astonishingly quickly, from 1239-1248. Although it was damaged during the French Revolution, it was restored and is one of the greatest displays of stained glass in the world.

Before entering, you must go through a metal detector and have your bags searched. Security is tighter at Sainte Chapelle than at other attractions because of it's close proximity to government buildings. After passing through security, we waited in line about 20 minutes to buy our tickets. Once inside, we went directly up the spiral staircase to the chapel.

Pictures do not do the place justice. It is just beautiful. Here is a video to give you more of a feel:

It was noon by the time we left Sainte-Chapelle. We were feeling pretty accomplished for the morning. We stopped at a sandwich shop nearby to grab some lunch to take with us and headed over to park near the Cuny Museum. The kids ate as quickly as they could, in order to get to the playground. They were excited to hear a little girl speaking English. We visited with her parents-both American online teachers. They had been living in France for three months and leaving soon for three months in Scotland. After that, they move to Spain, then to Portugal, and then to Croatia, then back to the States. How's that for a sweet deal? FYI, we are currently looking for online teaching positions.

After the kids ran themselves ragged at the playground, we hauled them to another bus stop. On the way, we saw some remains of an ancient Roman bath. It is so cool to just stumble upon stuff like that! We eventually made it to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe is an iconic monument, honoring those who fought in the French Revolution, Napoleanic Wars, and World War I.

We strolled down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a busy, wide street, filled with luxury shops and fine dining restaurants. 

We laughed and took pictures of people waiting in roped lines to get into Abercrombie and Fitch. "Man, it's so hard to find American schmedium t-shirts here!":

And we eventually found ourselves in another lovely park where the kids picked dozens of flowers for their mama. We've taught them well.

We headed home on another beautiful bus ride. Out the window, we saw the Eiffel Tower up close, the gorgeous Pont Alexandre III Bridge, and the Les Invalides, which is home to Napoleon's tomb. We also saw some big protest going on.

For dinner, we picked up Thai take out. The restaurant owner complimented us on our Thai food knowledge and told us, "The French don't know Thai food". Man, these San Diegans miss Oiishi's.