amazement [root of confusion]: pilgrimage.

oh paris. where to begin about what today brought us?!

crepes. after an amazing nights sleep in the bed of heaven thanks to the hotel, we began our day with hopes of going to the centre pompidou. however it was tuesday and the pompidou was closed, so we decided to start our day with a local breakfast. thankfully, everyone agreed with my idea to get crepes, my favorite breakfast in the entire world. i could not leave france without getting a real crepe, and i got one. it was disappointing in a way, but overall it was decadent. it was served to you rolled rather than flat so that you could hold it in your hand. i got a crepe sucree, or sweet crepe, due to the fact mine was strawberry. this is where the slight disappointment came in. the use strawberry jam instead of real strawberries or a strawberry preserve like other places. the jam was barely there, but there was a good bit at the bottom which completely made up for it. it was warm, fluffy, thick, and amazing. a great start to our day.

i also was able to snag my last three souvenirs and my paris christmas ornament during this time so i felt quite accomplished.

notre dame. i was absolutely floored by the cathedral. majority of the cathedrals in england are episcopalian due to king henry the eighth, so it was refreshing to see a roman catholic church that has maintained its beauty and integrity for hundreds of years. the exterior of the church was decorated in inset reliefs, gargoyles, and staggering architecture. the interior only furthered the beauty. we waited in line for ten minutes before getting in, but it was well worth the wait. everything inside was breathtaking. stained glass windows of such rich and deep color and with subject matter ranging from across catholic tradition. the rose windows. i have only seen images of them before today, and they were far more magnificent than any image shows. none does them justice. the interior architecture of the vaulting, high ceilings, and carefully placed columns which were adorned at their capitals guided me through the interior making me want to keep walking. statues, prayer areas, and chapels could be found in almost every niche on the side. virtually no wall was left bear. there were two things i didn't much care for though. first, there was a daily mass being said while tours were going on, and people were taking picture of the service. not just people, tourists. i was frustrated to see that they didn't respect the scared qualities of the mass, and i wanted to leave as soon as realizing the mass was happening. i feel it is disrespectful to be in a church, no matter the denomination, during a mass and not participate. the last thing i was shocked by was the lack of rosaries the church sold. i had really wanted to buy one, but upon getting to the area where they were, they all were cheaply made and looked that way. i was quite disappointed. however, the cathedral itself was far from that. for a building centuries old, it was beyond well maintained, and for the horrors it experienced in the french revolution and world war ii, it is amazing that it remains in good shape.

musee d'orsay. i was very skeptical about going to the museum for it is one that focuses solely on impressionism. though i appreciate the works of manet, degas, monet, and renoir, my passion lies in ancient art, and i was prepared to be disappointed. thankfully, that was quite the opposite of what happened. the building itself is an old train station they converted into a museum. the architecture of the victorian station and the modern museum complement each other in ways unforeseen. the repetition of parallel lines and crosshatching can be found in virtually every inch of the museum. the old and new playing on one another provides for a healthy break from just one style that is focused on. the first exhibition we saw was degas' works. i was impressed by the collection shown because though his dancers were there, they displayed more than that. they had his series of bathing studies which i had known nothing of. his subject matter is similar to the dancers in their form and body movements, but they encompass an entirely other level of detail, allusion, and beauty. the museum also had many other popular works, but i found none as exciting as seeing manet's . she was painted to mirror an earlier painting of a female, a venus, but manet uses a prostitute as his model seemingly destroying the female's pure image. seeing the work in person allowed for much more detail to be seen including the detailing of the black cat and the face of the african american woman in the back. it was a piece i will never forget. many other spectacular works were there including van gogh's self portrait and the monet i painted a portion of in high school art class, but it was a work that i had never experienced before which completely blew me away. divina tragediaby paul chenavard. upon first glance, i mistook the massive painting for a work depicting christ being taken down from the cross, but then i saw it. it was a fusion of both the christian faith and the polytheistic greek and roman religion. one could see the virgin and child, but directly across from them was the head of medusa and athena. christ is being held by god, or is it zeus? i have been trying to find an explanation of the piece and have been quite unsuccessful in doing so, thus boosting my intrigue. it is definitely something i plan to further explore in the coming time.

bramley. we encountered a small portion of the anthropology museum yesterday when we ate at les ombres, however today provided a completely different experience. the museum was set up to resemble the congo river, long rampways which were narrow in their width, words constantly shifting and moving as if they were water flowing downstream, and at the end of it all, it opened a large area similar to the jungle. the areas of the museum included art of oceania, the congo, asia, the americas, and africa in general. the collection mostly consisted of clothing and textiles, but they also had sculptures and religious murals from temple walls.

patisserrie. my dinner, dessert, and experience of a true french croissant came from a little bakery near the hotel shortly before our departure. i started with an eclair, coffee eclair to be exact. and though it had been sitting in the heat for some time, upon biting into it, a cool coffee flavored cream seeped from the pastry and into my mouth. it was unlike any eclair i had before, it was a hard pastry, and it was one i'll probably not experience again. upon hearing we were to also eat dinner here, i asked the girl what she would recommend, and that was what i got. it was a soft bread covered in cheese and filled with ham and cheese. it was warm, and the cheese oozed over the sides assuring that it would be just as decadent in taste as in looks. it was similar to a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, but the bread was something i cannot describe. after this, i split a coffee macarone with duckie and barry, and an experience similar to the eclair took place. it was warm outside, but cool inside. it was the perfect ending to a great two days.

the train ride back was long. i got a lot of reading done, but i also was able to look at the scenery as it passed by. we flew past hundreds of windmills, perfect power generators which i think the united states should get on board with. going under the channel, the pressure was not regulated and my ears popped for the entire twenty minutes we were below it. after arriving in london and catching taxis back to oxford, i was grateful for a room with a bed to sleep in and a convertor that actually fit the sockets so i could charge my computer. it was an experience i'll never regret, though we only saw the arch d'triumph through a taxi window briejavascript:void(0)fly, and i would love to go back.

the wonders of notre dame i hope to convey to you by the following images.

the cathedral itself.