One of the many interesting places we see this week is La Sainte-Chapelle, on the Ile de la Cite near Notre Dame. It is a Gothic chapel built by Louis IX in 1248. It was built to house Christ's Crown of Thorns and other relics of the Passion, including a piece of the cross (they are now kept in the treasury at Notre Dame). They were bought by Louis IX from a Venetian in 1239 for a huge sum. The chapel is a two story building with the bottom floor serving as a parish church and the top floor as Louis IX's private chapel. It contains beautiful stained glass windows that run the entire length of the chapel from floor to ceiling.

The week we are in Paris the exchange ratio for the dollar to the Euro is about 1.4 to 1. Since we are spending dollars, everything is very expensive. For example, a 12 oz. can of Coke sells for around 3 Euros in most public places. That converts to about $4.20 U.S. per can. By comparison, a 16 oz bottle of Coke in Tanzania sold for around $0.30 U.S. This creates some sticker shock for us the first few days we are in Paris. After a great week in Paris, we catch the high speed train to Amsterdam for our KLM flight to Houston.

Photos from Amsterdam and Paris can be found under the link in Favorites in the right column of this page. Use the Slideshow button to view the photos.