Paris - Day 3 - Part 1 - Notre Dame & Pantheon

After looking much at the exterior of the Notre Dame de Paris, we ventured out early to see we could visit the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris on Sunday.

Sunday morning at Notre Dame de Paris.

Luckily we beat the tourist crowd to the Notre Dame de Paris

At the entrance of Notre Dame de Paris

The Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris is a french gothic Roman Catholic Marian cathedral. Built at around 1163, it was completed on 1340.

Through the years, Notre Dame de Paris was enlarged.

Sunday mass in progress.

Gothic architecture mesmerizing with Sunday mass in progress.

The center area of Notre Dame with the famous organ.

Nice stained glass with high roof of gothic architecture.

Nice lighting arrangement in the cathedral.Quite mesmerizing that the church is built around 1300.

Stained glass at Notre Dame de Paris.

Intricate design with colorful stained glass.

Can someone tell me the meaning of this painting ?

and what about this ?

Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris is free and during early Sunday the cathedral has service going on and early Sunday is pretty nice to visit as you can beat the tourist crowd. Didn't take the steps up the cathedral, the interior is quite well lit as compared to other cathedrale or church in Paris.

After Notre Dame, out next itinerary is the 'Pantheon'. Some walking is needed to the Pantheon.

College de France.Nice building architecture.

University of Paris

Not too far from the university of Paris, we reached 'The Pantheon'

The Pantheon

The Pantheon used to be a Church but now it is a mausoleum for french dignitaries.

 Overlooking Rue Soufflot.

University Paris Sorbonne

Town hall of the Fifth Arrondissment

Another facade of 'The Pantheon'

'aux grand hommes la patrie reconnaissante' translated as 'The great man the grateful homeland'

The dome of the Pantheon

Statue at the pantheon, at the back is Saint Etiene-du-Mont

Another gothic church, St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris shrine is in it.

Depicts the martyrdom of St. Stephen, stoning of St. Stephen.

 The opposite of the church, nice buildings.

Along the way, we were fascinated with the street of Paris and shot a few photos

Looks like an alley

Sunday morning

An old lady walking by.

Streets of Paris

Some where secluded area of Paris street.

Some streets has the nostalgic feel to it.

After some hours of exploring, a short break for food is very much welcomed.

Paris - Day 2 - Part 3 - The Islands

After the good lunch and being closed to the islands, we decided to walk to the islands. The islands also known as Ile Saint Louis is named King Louis IX of France. After crossing the Seine, we walked towards Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris also known as 'Our lady of Paris'.

In the midst of the rain and the crowd, the Notre Dame can wait then

Walking by the river seine in a rainy day.

River cruise boats.

Wet cobblestones by the river seine

Autumn leaves

We spent some time walking at the cobblestones by the river seine.

 The ducks at the river.

Pont Neuf known 'New bridge' quite ironically the oldest standing bridge across river seine.

Skyfall premier, a look from Pont Neuf bridge

Crossing Pont Neuf towards the islands. Overlooking the Pont des Arts which is a pedestrian bridge.

At the entrance to Place Dauphine

Place Dauphine is a public square created by Henry IV in 1607, his second project named for his son. The dauphine entrance is flanked by the two buildings built at 1612. Although it is a square but technically the square is actually triangle in shape.

Signboards on the bridge

Place dauphine as stated.

 Place dauphine, the park in autumn day.

The buildings surrounding the Place Dauphine.

Another view of the buildings surrounding Place Dauphine.

Walking further down from Place Dauphine, we again reached the Cathedrale Notre Dame and visited the park next to it.

Square Jean, a park behind Cathedrale Notre Dame.

Fountain of the virgin, created by Alphonse Hale in 1845.

The fountain of virgin and Notre Dame.

Gothic architecture with gargoyles.

Flowers at Notre Dame

After the rain.

Southern wing of Notre Dame

At the Pont Saint Louis, the bridge connecting to Saint Louis island.

Crossing to the Saint-Louis island

Signboards 

When at the island of Saint-Louis, Berthillon ice cream is a must. Parisian enjoying at the Le Flore en L'lle

Berthillon ice cream was started by Monsieur Berthillon at 1954, it has since grown to a famous ice-cream manufacturer providing luxury ice-cream and sorbet. So we headed to the headquarters of Berthillon to try out the ice creams

Berthillon, quite a number of tourist here.

Today's flavour.

Berthillon's interior.

Overall, Berthillon ice cream isn't anything spectacular, it is more than 'Ohh I have been to Berthillon, yeah, it was okay'. It is something as a tourist you want to tick the checkbox indicating you were there too.

We then continued walking along the streets.

The islands are quite a tourist attraction area.

Biscuit specialty shop selling various types of biscuits.

Chocolate biscuits of finest quality

Pastry also.

And then we came upon this shop. Butcher shop with awards too.

Very exquisite butcher shop, selling various meats.

 Various meats.

Game meat also, winner of countless awards.

Statue.

After the islands, we crossed the bridge to 'Latin Quarter'. This is due to the spoken language of Latin as this area is known for universities and Latin is the language for learning.

 View of Notre Dame from Latin Quarter

Another view of the southern face of Notre Dame

More and more people at the Latin Quarter

Latin Quarter also has lots of bistros, cafe serving quite reasonable priced food. This could be a nice place to stay as it is near to some good food.

More and more people out at Latin Quarter even in the rain.

An alley, Rue Xavier Privas, intersecting with Rue de la Huchette.

Since it is not really dinner time yet, we ventured to a nearby Church, Eglise Saint Severin.

The stained glass.

I think the picture is depicting the saint's family .

There is a service going on.

Quite magnificent church

Overall the rainy day has disrupted the sight seeing plan, some shuffling of attraction places were unavoidable. Maybe October is not such a suitable time to visit Paris.