Our first full day in Paris was full of famous Parisian landmarks; we had a Paris card for the day which gave us entry into many of the museums and galleries and were determined to make full use of it. We started at the home of many of the world's most famous paintings, the Musee d'Orsay, where we saw paintings from artsits such as Monet and Van Gogh.
Next we went to Notre Dam cathedral, and waited in line for half an hour to see the inside, which was just as incredible as it is from the outside.
After a coffee in a cafe right next to the Notre Dam (not something I would normally be prepared to pay for the the comfort and convenience were definitely worth it) we visited the crypts underneath the Notre Dam which has remnants of the original Roman foundations of Paris. We then went to Saint Chapelle, where again we had quite a long wait, this time in the rain. From the outside we wondered whether it was worth waiting, but once we went inside we were blown away by the incredible wall-filling stained glass windows and the beautiful blue and gold fixtures, much of which remains original from when the cathedral was built in the 13th century.
Just next door to the cathedral was the Conciergerie, a large building famous for its roll as a prison during the French Revolution. It's most well known prisoners included Marie Antoinette, whose prison cell was reconstructed to its condition while she was held there.
In the afternoon we also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Pantheon before it closed. This massive building had some displays of famous French philosophers and writers, as well as the underground catacombs where many famous French writers, poets, inventors, philosophers and politicians.
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