The Left Bank

Yes, I know there are those of you out there who thought you might be off the hook for reading the rest of my posts about France.  I had to take a while off from blogging to finish packing for my move, and to actually move.  Sadly for you, now that I am semi settled in Utah (details coming in a later post), I am about to finish telling you all about my trip.
SATURDAY, JULY 28, 2012
This was a very full day.  Prepare for many pictures.
We began our day at the Middle Ages museum.  It was a smallish museum, but had a beautiful collection.  I definitely enjoyed it.

We saw this sculpture of the Mary breast feeding Jesus. We were surprised that this was not portrayed more often considering how many breast feeding sculptures and how many Mary/baby Jesus sculptures we saw.

These are heads from the kings on Notre Dame.  I guess they have to replace them sometime in 850 years to keep them actually looking like something.

Man, it's time for me to lose that pregnancy paunch.

One highlight of this museum is that it is actually built right over the ruins of some Roman baths, which have been preserved for people to walk through.

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry

Courtyard of Middle Ages museum

Our next stop was St. Severin.  Pretty cool, right?

After that, we headed to the Pantheon, the burial place of many famous French people.

Voltaire

Braille

the Curies

Next we enjoyed what I think was actually one of out better meals in France at an Asian restaurant.  They had this cute pink water pitcher.

We followed up lunch with a dessert of gelato.  This place we found actually makes the gelato into a flower shape, which was so pretty.  Plus the gelato was really, really yummy.

To be honest, walking down this street was one of my very favorite things that we did in Paris.  It was just full of people and food and shops and I loved it.

We happened upon this mosque.

The mosque had a pretty courtyard

The ruins of a Roman amphitheater.

Next we explored the Montparnasse cemetery.

This is the father of cynicism. He sure looks mean

Baby at the cemetery

Saint-Saens

Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

Then we went to the top of this skyscraper, Tour Montparnasse, to check out the view.

Here's the cemetery from above

Paris is a very big city

Eiffel Tower

Look, we were all there.  The Eiffel Tower is cut off by Beth's head.  That's what happens when you have random people take pictures for you.

We stopped by this church, St. Sulpice, the 2nd largest church in the city after Notre Dame. It is beautiful.

Wow, that is one big seashell

We wrapped up the day by walking around the Luxembourg Gardens, the 2nd largest public park in Paris.

Palace of Luxembourg

Medici Fountain, built in 1630

We also attempted to hit up the catacombs on this day, but we got there about an hour before they were closing and the line was longer than an hour long, so we left.  Bummer dude.  We still got a ton done that day though, and it was really a blast.