When you land in France you see French flags flying; they are red, white, and blue, the same colors as our own flag,but their flags have only three stripes and the stripes are up and down, not from side to side, and the colors are backward—blue, white, red, instead of red, white, blue. The street signs and signs on the buildings are ina different language, the people are talking a different language, and of course the money is different too. It is called “francs.”

You have probably heard some one say, “You look like your father or mother,” but they don’t say that your fatheror mother looks like you. Well, up the River Seine is the capital and largest city of France, spelled “Paris,” but called “Paree” by the French people. Some call it the most beautiful city . People often say some othervery beautiful city looks “like Paris,” but they never say Paris looks like any other city.

London is up a river too, but it is only a short way and quite large ships can get up to London. But Paris is a longdistance up the Seine, and the river is too shallow and too narrow for large steamships to go up so far, although smaller boats can do so. The Seine runs straight through Paris, or rather I should say it runs crooked throughParis, for it curves as it passes through.

On a small island in the river is a great church—a cathedral, built to the Virgin Mary, whom the French call NotreDame, which means Our Lady. Notre Dame was built many hundreds of years ago of stone and stained glass, with two towers in front and a thin spire in the center “like a finger pointing to heaven.” Long props made of stonehold up the roof. They are called flying buttresses, and if these props were taken away the roof would tumble down. Around on the edge of the roof of Notre Dame are perched strange animals made of stone. They are hideous creatures,different from any real animals you have ever seen or heard of, part bird, part beast, part devil. They are called “gargoyles,” and they were made as hideous as possible and put there on the edge of the roof because itwas thought they would scare away evil spirits from the church.