Wednesday the 29th was a relatively short day due to my late arrival, but Amy and I did managed to cover quite a bit of territory in the remaining hours of sunlight despite that. The first thing we did was hop on the metro and headed straight to Notre Dame cathedral whose refurbishing had recently been completed in preparation for the millennial celebrations. From what I remember when I visited Paris back in 1994, when I believe the refurbishment process had just commenced, Notre Dame was a dirty gray, soot covered bedraggled mess of flying buttresses and scaffolding. Despite the innate beauty of the cathedral's architecture, the pollution covered exterior loomed over Paris like a dark, menacing monster straight from the clutches of the Dark Ages. It was upon viewing Paris under this ash gray mask that I automatically associated European gothic architecture with darkness, mystery and angst. This, despite the fact that I was there in 1994 right smack in the middle of the sunniest and hottest summer western Europe had experienced in over 200 years. Theoretically I should have walked away from that 1994 experience of Paris with images of brightness and happiness dancing around in my head, but that wasn't the case! Although I fell in love with Paris instantly then, it was, in part, due to its dark, gritty mystery. Paris 1999 was nothing like I remember the original! Upon first sight of the newly cleaned and restored cathedral, immediately I thought, "My God! What crazy bright white building is that over there?!? I thought Notre Dame was supposed to be around here somewhere!" But voila! There it was - a brand spanking new looking Notre Dame whose filth and grime had all been washed away (presumably into the Seine River?) and appeared to be embracing the new millennium with open arms! The menacing monster of yore had shed it's polluted 20th century cloak and was standing bright and beautiful for all to admire! Needless to say I was impressed. But I must admit it's a bit strange to go from remembering a building that the Batmobile would look perfectly at home parked in front of to seeing the same building that would now perhaps better compliment Cinterella's sparkling white carriage. The renovation of this one building has single handedly turned my mental image of the "Dark Ages" on its head. In fact, when most of these gothic "monstrosities" were built all across Europe they were done so with gleaming white sandstone and crowned with magnificent light refracting stained glassed windows to compliment the entire brightness of the design. It wasn't really until the filth of the industrial revolution came along that these works of art had been melted and scarred for centuries. It's nice to see the damage being moderately reversed. The only minor drama affecting Notre Dame while I was there was not the doing of man, but rather suffered at the violent hands of Madame Nature. Due to the Storm of the Century which had blown in and out of town just three days earlier, there were plenty of uprooted trees all around the cathedral, along with fences to protect pedestrians from crumbling pieces of spires and stone ledges which had been dislodged by the storm. It was a bit sad to see such a nice restoration mired by a tempest of nature, but I'm sure it can all be repaired. After Notre Dame, AmyLynn and I strolled along the river down to Pont Neuf (New Point Bridge) and did a little bit of photography of the Seine River and Paris. The sun was just starting to set in the west - the direction the storm flooded river was flowing - and it all looked rather surreal as the centuries-old city stretched off into the clouded sunset. Very inspiring. But not inspiring enough to make me want to stay out in that icy cold wind any longer than was absolutely necessary in order to snap a couple pictures and then get the hell outta there! While I still love Paris, I don't love it more than being warm so Amy and I moseyed on south of Pont Neuf and wandered into the Latin Quarter and wandered up and down the little streets enjoying our little European experience. To stave off the wind I ran into a ritzy little winter clothing shop and indulged in the benefits of a strong Japanese yen to the French franc and bought a nice, black pair of leather gloves to compliment the full length black coat I had received from the Scheffler family and was currently wearing. Fortunately for me and Amy, the new "euro" currency of the European Union was at the lowest level in its one-year history and by default meant that all the national currencies of those countries participating in the euro (France, Germany, Italy, etc&ldots;) were equally weak, and this made shopping across Europe a true joy! When I was in Germany in 1994, the exchange rate was DM 1.3 to the American dollar, and in December it was DM1.92 to the dollar, and since the Japanese yen and American dollar were nearly 1:1 in December, for every dollar/yen I exchanged I was able to buy about 50% MORE in 1999 than I was able to in 1994! Hence my shopping spree. I never thought I would be able to say this after my experience in 1994, but today Europe is one big ol' bargain basement! On our way back to Hotel Exelmans, AmyLynn and I stopped at a random little café on some random little corner in Paris and had ourselves a quaint little dinner DESPITE the fact that our snooty little waiter seemed wholeheartedly uninterested in providing us with anything remotely resembling good service. It must have been that he was busy, or was unimpressed with my American accent while shredding his pristine language to pieces, but whatever. Fortunately he made up for his rudeness by running outside after Amy and I had gotten up and walked out the restaurant to thank us for the giant tip she and I had left him. We were both in good moods at the time, and as per the above mentioned good currency-exchange rate, we were in the mood to be generous. And since Monsieur Waiter made a point to thank us in public for our generosity, his prior bad service has been forgiven! ;-} If only all people could be bought off for $5 . . . Anyways, Amy and I eventually made it back to our little hovel of a hotel in the south-western side of Paris and spent the rest of the night relaxing, chit chatting, peeling the lead based paint off the crooked walls and catching up on all the latest gossip in each other's lives. That is, after all, what going on vacation with someone else is all about!