Paris | Day 5 | Notre Dame & Musée d'Orsay

We actually spent a lot of time at Notre Dame, probably because it was relatively near where we were staying, or because we were always walking around it.  Also because it was amazing and awe-inspiring and it never got boring, so why not go back?  We toured the gardens, inside the church, and climbed the towers all on separate days, so that gave us a lot of time to visit.  

Also, gargoyles are especially amazing, mostly because I view Notre Dame as being a more serious locale, yet there are ridiculous looking stone creatures watching over everything. I mean, in terms of keeping watch and warding off evil, what could an elephant gargoyle do, really?  

We stayed at the top for a long time after we climbed all the way up---

I just couldn't get enough of that view. (I looked a lot like this guy.)

Later on, we visited the Musée d'Orsay, which is one of my absolute favorite museums.  It is located in what used to be the Gare d'Orsay from the early 1900s, and has an extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist pieces.  There was a tiny room of photographs in one of the wings and it was almost hidden, but I found it.  And I loved it.  The museum rotates its gigantic permanent collection of photographs every 3 months or so, so it was interesting to see the ones they chose to display.  I saw images by Henry Fox Talbot, Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Lewis Carroll, and even though they were pretty mundane photographs, and I had seen photos by these people in museums before, (and most of the aforementioned photographers had sordid pasts and made more-than-questionable choices in life) I couldn't help but get maybe a little teary-eyed.  They were all in the same room and I was the only one in there with them.  

The museum doesn't allow photos in the galleries (thank goodness!), but I did manage to get a few longer exposures by the gigantic clock window. It was just the best way to end our day.