When we left Normandy, my sister, her family, and in-laws headed back to Geneva for the weekend. My parents and my family had made plans to stay in Paris for the weekend, so off we went. We were using a great book for tourists, Rick Steve's Europe guide. It gave us great tips for getting around Paris and exactly where to go to see what.
We started off Saturday morning headed to the subway station fairly close to our hotel. We figured out how to buy "bulk" tickets (Cartay - I think they were called) so we wouldn't have to buy every time we needed to ride.
We rode the Metro (or Mo as it is called there) to Cite - the station that drops you right in the middle of the historic area of Paris. Coming up out of the subway was beautiful and amazing! You really are right in the middle of a beautiful historic part of Paris, with the Palace of Justice right in front of you.
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| At the Metro, waiting on the train. I don't think we ever waiting more than 4 minutes. |
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| Palace of Justice - the view as we came out of the Metro station. |
We planned to do our own walking tour of this part of Paris in the morning, so we headed off for Notre Dame. Amazing is a word that gets used a lot, but really does describe this beautiful cathedral. Walking thru the cathedral is free and we were fortunate that we did not have to wait in line to get in. The architecture in the cathedral, and really all of Paris, was mesmerizing. There is not anything that I have seen in the United States that compared to the detail and intricacy that you see in Europe. The stained glass windows were stunning and we were able to take our time walking through the cathedral.
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| Notre Dame - stunning! |
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| Inside of Notre Dame - there was a mass taking place at the front. |
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| One of the Rose windows in the cathedral. |
When we left Notre Dame, we found a place to have breakfast, as we had not done that earlier. We ate at a quaint little place just down the street from Notre Dame - and had croissants and chocolate. Yum!
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| Breakfast - YUM! |
After breakfast, we continued on our walking tour. We headed down Ste. Severin, one of the little roads in Paris that still has the remnants of the old sewer system - the brick road with the gulley down the middle. This gulley was where the maids would throw out the "waste" from the 4th floor windows and it would be washed down into the river. We also passed by a church called Ste. Severin. Another example of amazing architecture.
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| Church on Ste. Severin. |
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| A violinist on a street corner - he was really good. |
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| Paris street scene. |
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| Another Paris street scene. |
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| Paris street scene. |
From here we headed into Sainte Chapelle. We stopped first to buy Museum Passes for the rest of our Paris tour - this was a great value, as we paid a flat fee and then were able to get into the rest of the museums for free. Sainte Chapelle had even more amazing stained glass work than Notre Dame. Every window in here was designed from one book of the Bible. The Rose window was even more impressive, as it represented St. John's vision of the Apocolypse. The description said the king had it made so he would recall his mission to lead and protect his people until the last judgement. Wow!
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| Sainte Chapelle |
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| Some of the windows in Sainte Chapelle - most had been restored - some were still undergoing restoration. |
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| Stained glass in Sainte Chapelle. |
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| Rose Window that represented John's vision of the Apocolypse. |
We finished our walking tour past the Palace of Justice, the Conciergie (a palace that was later used as a prison and housed Marie Antoinette), and onto Pont Nuef - the oldest bridge in Paris. Here we caught a boat ride for a tour of Paris from the Seine River. This took us past all of the major sights of Paris with a little bit of history and trivia involved. This is worth it if you are ever in Paris.
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| Dad and me on the boat ride. |
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| American Church of Paris |
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| Conciergie |
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| Russian-French Friendship Bridge |
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| The backside of Notre Dame from our boatride. |
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| One of the buildings in Paris. |
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| The building in Paris that was the inspiration for the design of the White House. |
After the boat ride, it was time to eat again. We headed into the Latin Quarter, where the streets are only for walking and there are more choices for food than you can take in. We decided to get sandwiched from a street vendor and head to Luxembourg Gardens to eat our lunch. Luxembourg Gardens were beautiful and we ate by the Fountain of Midicis (originally built in 1340).
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| Street where we got lunch. |
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| Bread and cheese stand. |
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| Flower market |
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| Fruit and veggie stand. |
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| Luxembourg Palace |
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| Fountain of Midicis - we ate lunch here. |
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
From here we went to the Pantheon - again, beautiful architecture and lots of crypts. It was originally built as a church, but after many changes, it is now a famous burial place. It is also home to Foucault's Pendulum. A few of the people buried there are Marie Curie (the only woman with this honor), Louis Braille, and Voltaire.
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| Pantheon |
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| Some of the amazing architecture at the Pantheon |
We decided to catch the Mo over to the Arc de Triomphe. For those unfamiliar with this, it is located in the middle of a roundabout - 12 streets feed into this roundabout - including the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysées. The Arc de Triomphe is a very famous landmark, built by Napoleon in 1806 to celebrate France's military prowess. It was marched under by Hitler and the Nazis in 1940 beginning the German occupation of Paris and celebrated under by the Allied Forces in 1944 at the liberation of Paris. We were here, so up to the top we went - all 284 steps. It was a good thing it was all enclosed to my dad and I would have never made it! The view of Paris from here was remarkable and we were glad we came, although some of the pictures got Dad and me a little close to the edge!
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| Arc de Triomphe |
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| Arc de Triomphe |
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| Mom and Dad with Eiffel Tower in the background. |
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| The stairs we had to go up and down - we were dizzy by the time we got to the bottom! |
We then walked from here to the Effiel tower. What an impressive sight it is to walk up to and under! Much to the chagrin of my kids and the relief of Dad and I, we were not able to go up into the tower. One of the lifts (elevators) was broken, so we had been unable to secure tickets online and the wait to get tickets was hours long.
From here, it was time for dinner, so we found a cafe not too far away and sat outside to eat. What a relief it is to sit outside for so many meals and not have to fight the bugs. James and my dad had snails, while the rest of us stuck to pizza and salad. G even tried a snail and actually liked it!
Day two started with a ride on the Mo to the Louvre. This is one of several art museums in Paris. We are not really art aficionados, but we didn't want to miss seeing some of the famous works of art in Paris. We used our handy tourist book and took a self guided tour! The works of art to note were: Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Marriage of Cana, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The Louvre itself is an impressive work of art, with amazing ceilings and carvings everywhere.
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| Louvre |
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| Louvre |
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| Winged Victory of Samothrace |
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| Ceilings in the Louvre |
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| Ceiling in the Louvre |
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| Mona Lisa - rather unimpressive. |
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| Marriage at Cana - very impressive. |
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| Venus de Milo |
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| Another ceiling in the Louvre. |
We walked from here to the gardens of the Palais Royal. This was a quiet, beautiful place. As we headed to the Orsay, we crossed one of two lock bridges in Paris. The bridges are covered with padlocks! Our boat tour guide had told us that the locks were put on the bridges by those that were in love. They then locked the padlock and threw the keys into the Seine river, therefore sealing their love forever. Of course we had to add our own locks to the bridge!
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| Lock Bridge |
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| Sealed with a kiss. |
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| Sealed with a kiss. |
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| Throwing our keys into the Seine River. |
The Orsay Museum was an old train station than originally provided service between Paris and Orleans. It is now a beautiful art museum. We took a quick tour (thanks to the Paris Museum Pass) and saw works of art by Van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir.
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| Orsay Museum |
We headed from here to have some lunch back in the Latin Quarter. We ate at another great little place and G had the lamb chops. I was so proud of him for all the new food he tried on this trip!
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| Paris lunch - Day 2. |
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| Door in Paris |
A little funny from our morning. We had been warned and had talked to the boys about the abundance of pickpockets in Paris. There are signs up at all the museums that warn of this as well. We had prepared and fortunately, did not fall victim to this. M had a few things in his pockets, but nothing of great value. He informed us at one point that "if someone pickpockets me, all they will get is 55 cents and a lollipop!"
After lunch we went to the Army Museum and Invalides. Invalides was originally built for wounded homeless soldiers between 1671 and 1676. It now, not only maintains its original purpose, but also serves as home for 3 museums, 2 churches, and Napoleon's tomb.
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| Hotel de Invalides |
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| Ceiling at Invalides |
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| Napoleon's tomb |
As we neared the end of the day, we were all pretty tired! It had been a great, but long 2 days of sight seeing. We headed back to the Latin Quarter to do a little shopping before we went back to the hotel. It began to rain a little bit, but not enough to deter us or the other tourists in the area. :) We were so thankful the forecasted rain had held off as long as it did.
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| Shopping in the Latin Quarter |
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| Latin Quarter |
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| At one of the Metro stations |
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| End of the day! We were wiped out! |
