I was actually able to attend the Sunday mass, which happened to be the international mass. It was all in French accept for one of the readings, which was in English. Very neat! And the place was PACKED with people for mass. They played the famous huge organ and had a beautiful choir; the sound just radiated through the Church, I loved it. I actually took a sound recording but for some reason the blog video is down....I hope to be able to post later. I thought it was pretty neat to be able to say I attended mass in Belgium last weekend and then France! There wont be many times, if ever again, I will be able to say that.
While I went to mass, Amelia toured the church and waiting in the line for us to trek the 370....YES 370+ (I lost count) steps to the TOP of the church! More on that later...
Notre Dame! If you cannot tell, it is MASSIVE!
Notre Dame. If you see that railing and the very small people on the very top, well soon that would be us! Yeah, it was ALOT of spiral stairs, our legs were burning and we got an awesome view of the city! We also got to go into one of the bell towers that you see on both sides.
The detail of this church is absolutely amazing.
The famous rose glass window. There are two on both sides of the alter.
The inside illuminated for mass. I couldve included 100 pictures of this church. The main chapel where I attended mass is surrounded on both slides with many smaller chapels, each with stunning stained glass windows.
We got to go INTO the bell tower where the famous Hunchback of Notre Dame rang the bell! This is the entrance (which is very small....now I understand why he was hunchback). The bell, picture not included, was HUGE! I mean like 10 feet tall huge. I have not a clue how they got that thing up there and made sure they had the correct supports for the weight of the giant iron thing!
A view from the top! AMAZING! 
We made it! And our legs were burning! 370+ steps on tiny, narrow and at times slick steps all the way to the top.
Yes that is the ROOF of the church behind our heads.
Looking down at a small portion of the church. At the bottom, you can see the external supports (flying buttresses)After touring the church and making the long journey down the stairs, we had lunch and headed back. In the true spirit of France, I had a chicken and mushroom crepe and we share a Grand Marnier crepe for dessert (yes it is drizzled with the tasty liquor and it is as delicious as it sounds). It only took us 5 hours total to get home, including a stop for dinner. One the way home, Amelia and I realized that we had lunch in France, dinner in Belgium and would be at our apartment the very same night in Holland to sleep. That, to me, was an amazing thing to be able to say. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be living here and getting to see so much for Europe.
Another snowy Wednesday here, ugh. I woke up not happy about it being even colder and the return of the snow....little did I know that I would only hate it more as the day went on. The roads driving to work are generally fine, accept to when we get to the street where our office is on. For the most part, they usually always have snow and ice on them. Well this morning, I was driving and came to what was said to be a notorious sharp corner for accidents....and well, as you may have guessed.....the curve with snow and ice was not kind to our little opel :( She slid...seriously it was in slow motion, into another larger van. I was going so slow around the corner as to be careful and Opel just lost it. We both screamed because it happened so slow and in slow motion. Ugh, it was a TERRIBLE feeling and my first time to be in a car accident! (I am seriously having TERRIBLE luck in this country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Everyone was fine, like I said, we were going so slow. The other car had no damage and Opels bummer and hood had minimal damage.
We called a co-worker and they came to take care of everything. Apparently, it is very common in this weather and on the corner. (In fact, while waiting for our co-worker, I saw another car spin out down the road). Accidents here apparently are no big deal, especially with us being in an insured rental car. The cops didnt come, no tickets, just exchanged information and were on the way....I was very glad for that. In fact, an hour later we have a new car (which I will never drive again while I am here!) and its now all in the past. The other people were extremely nice and asked us lots of questions about being here and where we worked. Im so so thankful it was not worse, everything is already taken care of and most of all, everyone was ok. I was shaken up, cried a bit but everyone here has helped me find a little humor in the situation by sharing their accident stories about the same corner. Goodness, what a Wednesday! Im ready to be at home and in bed! And I still dont like the snow.....
I hope you enjoyed the weekend in Paris! I love the city and even for a short weekend, it was an amazing trip! And I promise all is fine with the car accident, especially the two of us. Everyone at the office took very good care of us. I am thankful to be working with such nice people. Needless to say, Ill be happy to see the snow go again. But on a very exciting note, it is only 10 days until Stu arrives and just a few more until Germany! That puts a smile on my face!!
al mijn liefde
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