Day 4: Muesums and Monuments

We began our fourth day in Paris at one of the largest museums in the world- the Louvre. I was overwhelmed by the size and by the crowds at this museum. The Louvre has three large wings- each with about four floors of stuff see. We were in the building for a little over three hours and were only able to see one floor of the Denon wing, and one floor of the Sully wing. We did see "the big 3" (Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and Mona Lisa), though. We started with the European paintings and then moved through the Greek and Egyptian artifacts. Three hours was about all that I could take. It was so crowded- even for such a large building. Under the Louvre, there was a shopping area / food court. After our museum visit, we went to this underground area to eat at the McDonalds. It was so nice to have fries and a coke after fighting the crowds all morning. Don't get me wrong, I liked the Louvre- I just wasn't prepared for it being so large and busy.

After spending our morning at the Louvre, we hopped on the metro and headed to the Arc de Triomphe. It was cool to see this monument. We climbed all the way to the top where we had a great view of the Champs-Elysees. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking down this street and popping into different shops along the way. The Champs-Elysees was decorated with Christmas lights that started to come on as it got later into the evening. There were also lots of vendors along the road, and there were even carnival rides set up in one area. The kids wanted to ride another carousel, and we let them. It was a fun day.

Day 3: Along the Seine

Day three of our trip to Paris was the busiest, but it was also my favorite. We spent most of our time staying near the Seine river and doing things that were close to its banks. The morning began early at the Museé d'Orsay. Of all the museums that we visited in Paris, the Orsay was my favorite. This is the museum that houses the impressionist and post-impressionist art. I saw numerous works by masters such as Renior, Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas. This was the only museum where photography was strictly prohibited- but as you can see from the photo of Whistler's Mother posted here, this rule was not followed by all members of our party (Brian). The kids did pretty well in the museum- especially considering that they had very little interest in the art. I was happy to be able to see everything that I wanted by noon. After a quick visit to the gift shop, we left the Orsay and walked to our next destination- the Rodin museum.

The Rodin museum consisted of a small indoor musuem and a fairly large garden area with sculputres all around in it. One of the first sculptures that we came upon was "The Thinker". Other favorites included "The Kiss" and "The Gates of Hell". We had lunch at the small café in the gardens of the Rodin museum. Being outside was a nice change of pace for the kids- even though it was a little too chilly for my taste. From the gardens of the Rodin museum, we could see the gold dome of the buliding that housed Napoleon's tomb. This building was across the street from the museum and was our next destination.

One thing is for sure- no expense was spared in building a tomb for Napoleon. From the painted ceiling to the marble floor- everything was expensive and larger-than-life. After looking around the building for a while, we started walking back toward the river. We crossed the beautiful Pont Alexandre III (Bridge) and booked passage on a boat cruising the Seine river. We cruised on board this sightseeing boat from the Eiffel Tower area to Notre Dame. It took a little while to complete this journey, so we had plenty of time to "recharge". I loved being on the river and enjoyed all of the sights along the way. We got off of the boat at the Notre Dame Cathedral and decided to visit this famous church. Even though they were holding mass inside the church during our visit, they still let people inside. We were able to walk around the perimeter of the Cathedral and observe the service. There was a man singing in the cathedral while we were inside, and I swear he had the voice of an angel. It was so moving.

The day ended with a metro ride back to the hotel. While we were riding, we were being entertained by a couple of guys playing instruments. This was not uncommon. We saw entertainers (usually musicians) in the subways daily. Once, there was even a small orchestra set up at one of the stations. All of these muscians and artists added something to our experience of everyday life in Paris. This, truly, is a magical place.

Day 2: The Eiffel Tower

Day two in Paris began with a relatively late meeting time and a delicious breakfast at a parisian café. We then made our way to the Eiffel Tower. The view as we approached the tower was spectacular, and we stopped to take lots of pictures. The locals had set up some little stalls along the road between the metro station and the Eiffel Tower, and they were selling all types of things- cheese, trinkets, purses, etc. There were also two different carousels between us and the tower. We made it by the first one without a ride, but there was no way we were making it by both of them. The carousel that we rode was cool, though, because it was two stories tall. I've never seen one like that before. After riding the merry-go-round, we continued our walk to the base of the tower. The line to go up into the tower itself was very long, but we waited anyway. We figured that we should go all the way to the top since we weren't sure if we'd ever be back in Paris again. So, after lots and lots of waiting, we got into the elevator that went to the second platform. There, we stood in line for a smaller elevator that took us to the top. The view from the top was awesome. We could see all of Paris laid out before us. I had no idea that the city was so large! The journey to the top of the tower pretty much took up our whole day. After we got back down, we walked around a little bit and then went back to the hotel. I would say that of all of the things that we did in Paris, this was the kids' favorite- and the one that they are most likely to remember.