We were up early and decided to take a walk around the area while looking for a coffee shop to have breakfast.  We got to River Seine in just a few minutes and were just in time to see the beauty of the sky during sunrise.

We weren't able to pass by any open coffee shop on this early Sunday morning so we just continued walking. 

View of Île de la Cité from one of the bridges over River Seine
One of those love lock bridges in Paris.  I guess this one is somewhat new as it's still not full of locks.

It was still early for the mass at Notre Dame Cathedral so we went to Eiffel Tower first.  We got back at around 11AM, dropped by Fontaine Saint-Michel and still had some time to take some pictures outside and inside the cathedral before attending the mass.  The 11:30AM Sunday mass is an international mass but it's still celebrated in French.

Fontaine Saint-Michel

Notre Dame de Paris

Ceiling of the cathedral

After the mass, we went back outside and looked for the entrance to the tower.  We started to the right (facing the church) of the cathedral.

We saw a restaurant named Esmeralda
near the back of the cathedral

As we were going back to the front, round the cathedral (this should be the left side when facing the cathedral), we saw the line going to the tower.  It was long enough that we decided not to go up.  There's only a limited number of persons allowed to go up at a time, and falling in line might mean we have to wait around 2-3 hours for our turn.  We don't have the luxury of time so we just passed up on the opportunity.  For those who want to do this, it might be better to be here early.  Please note that it's 387 steps to the top of the tower, no elevator. 

Sculptures on top of the doorway

Gargoyles in the tower

Since it's a Sunday, we reserved going to the Cathedral today (instead of Saturday), so that we would also be able to attend mass.  After taking some rest, we readied ourselves for the 6PM mass.  We took the multicab going to town proper (PhP8/person) and got off at the end of their route, which is the cathedral.

After the mass, we planned to have dinner at Balinsasayaw.  However, the tricycle driver told us that it's closed on Sundays, so is Ka Lui's.  So, we went to Kinabuch's.  I guess we should have made a reservation before going here.  The place is full, plus it's raining hard (on a summer evening) so they had to move some of their customers from the open area to the covered area.

After waiting for some minutes, we decided that we should just have dinner at one of the fast food chains.  We hailed a tricycle at the other side of the street (PhP8/person; tricycles right outside the restaurant charge higher fare) and just went to McDonalds.


FYI: 
- The tricycle terminal in the cathedral has higher fare (PhP20/person).
- Tricycles from outside the restaurants (i.e. Kinabuchs) cost a bit more... I think at PhP50/trip.
- Ka Lui and Balinsasayaw Restaurant are closed on Sundays.