Day 14: the heat continues

We ended our second week in Europe in Paris during a heatwave.  The heat last night could have rivalled any Australian summer.  It was a full and rich morning.  We woke up as early as we could (7am) in an attempt to beat the heat and the crowds.  We started with a metro ride to Notre Dame where we ate our Panne Chocolats for breakfast.  

Walking around this huge cathedral I (daddy) had mixed emotions.  It is amazing to see the devotion and care that was put into a building that is supposed to be a place that glorifies God, and so many years ago too. There was amazing craftsmanship of biblical themes. One walks in under a scene of the last judgement, a potent reminder to an eternal reality. 

However, the place was also filled with superstitions, icons and displays of pandering to the political elite.  The 30 kings that are carved in the front facade show the material success of wedding the church to political power.  The place is now literally a museum. It seems now that the parts of Europe we have travelled we can see the indelible mark of Christian influence.  The large buildings in every town have literally become the sepulchres of the divine, while people busy themselves in a mixture of hedonism and materialism. So sad.

We then hit The Louvre. Although it was again filled with the treasures the imperial European powers stole from their vanquished enemies, much like the British museum, the kids failed to be impressed. 

The picture below is pretty much representative of the whole time... The kids trying to drag us to the "sortie" whilst we tried to enjoy the view!

It was great to see the Mona Lisa and other artworks, they did go a little over the head of the kids though.  We did see see a great painting of "Holly of Arc" 

The foundations of the old excavated castle under the Sully wing were amazing. It appeared that were three main themes in the artworks here. There are religious themes, political boasting (eg Napoleon on his horse), and nudity.  Sex, religion and politics essentially. But amazingly the whole world flocks here to see it!!!

After that we got a quick lunch and up to the Arc d'Triomphe. They really are impressive structures.  To see a city so open and with such wide boulevards is a tribute to the designers.

We then got the Metro home to recover.  The question is how many sights is it possible to see without getting totally exhausted. We sat in the heat and watched the first stage of the Tour de France on French TV while the kids had some screens.  We are all pretty tired and looking forward to slowing down poolside in the Loire Valley.  It is a "long" drive on Monday of about 3 hours.  Well long by French standards.