Franco Fridays: Notre Dame

After passing out gospel literature that morning our team headed toward one of the most famous cathedrals in the world, but we had a few stops to make first.

It was past time for lunch by the time we made it to a little Greek restaurant where we stopped for kebabs...but not what we call kebabs.  We watched them shave off nearly a pound of meat for each sandwich or wrap, and it was not lady-like to eat, but it was good.  I have KJ's iPhone photos to prove it.

The stop at this restaurant was one of those times on the trip where we saw God's guiding hand of providence opening up doors to share the gospel, to just be Christians in Paris.  We were the only people eating upstairs in this little restaurant when a young woman came up by herself to eat.  We were laughing and talking, and KJ, wondering how much she was understanding, leaned his chair back and said, "Parlez-vous l'anglais?"  She smiled and said she spoke a little, but when her English was exhausted Parker was able to share the gospel with her in French.  They had a long conversation, and when we left, she had an Old and New Testament given to her.  It just goes to show you never know where a conversation may lead.

After lunch we made it to Notre Dame, where the line wasn't too long to get inside.  It was really beautiful without being overdone.  Just lovely.  

I loved those doors.  They were so beautiful.

 

I don't think you can beat the beauty or grandeur of a stone cathedral.  Pictures were allowed but no flash, so it was hard to get good shots in the dim lighting, yet still, I ended up with a lot of pictures...

That chandelier?  Gorgeous.

KJ and I had one of those annoying bits of marital miscommunication inside Notre Dame.  Most of the group walked through at a quicker pace and headed to do a little shopping.  I was taking my sweet time taking pictures, and KJ said he'd go ahead and wait at the back of the church, and we could go out together.  Well...

 Maybe it's just me, but I thought the blue fabric on the 

ceiling with gold stars in this alcove looked like it belonged

in Dumbledore's office.

By the time I made it around to the exit and started looking for KJ, he was nowhere in sight.  He was nowhere around the line going out the door; I even walked through the back row of chairs, thinking he may have sat down, and I didn't see him.  Finally, I didn't know what else to do but walk out to see if he was standing by the exit.

  This boys' choir was singing hymns in English,

and it was gorgeous.

I waited by the exit minute after excruciating minute.  There were crowds of people around but no sign of anyone in our group.  Entrance into Notre Dame is free, so I finally made the decision to get back in line and go inside again, even though I greatly feared that as soon as I did KJ would come out.  I stood in line keeping my eyes trained on the exit.  Once I made it back inside I found KJ sitting in the back on a chair.  The one time he got up to see if he could find me was the time I walked through the chairs looking for him.  It was so aggravating because we'd probably lost at least 30 minutes of the time we intended to spend walking around to the back of Notre Dame, but it was time to find our meeting place.  We tried not to be aggravated with one another, and this was probably the first time we started being really thankful we'd decided to hang around Paris during our anniversary trip the following week.  We're coming back, we're coming back, we're coming back...  

I'm really glad we went back.