Paris

What can we say? Our picture was taken
 by 2 students from Parksville, BC!


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It’s tough to do a tour of France without including Paris. And even though we had been to Paris twice before we realized there were things we hadn’t seen or considered. This year though Sandra had researched Paris very well and we felt we could see a lot of new places. Along with Heiko we agreed to buy 2 day Paris Museum passes that would give us access to a great number of sites/museums for 1 lower price. With Versailles included it was an easy decision to make. 

Panorama of Paris

          Sacre Couer       Montmartre                   Champs Elysee                 Montparnasse             Eiffel

Rodin's The Thinker

We started out a Napoleon's Tomb, “Les Invalides“ in the centre of Paris. The lines at 9:30am were nearly non existent and once you get your Pass you can skip most lines as the Pass speeds you right through. Napoleon's tomb was far more spectacular than we thought and included a great WW1 museum with it. Well worth the visit. Immediately across the street was the Rodin museum. Most well known for his sculpture of “The Thinker”, Rodin was truly an artist and we enjoyed many of his works, especially those that were displayed in the gardens. With our weather again sensational we really enjoyed the gardens.

Musee D'Orsay Main hall

Notre Dame

From the Rodin museum we made our way to the Musee D’Orsay, housed in the old Paris train station. More art sculptures, some paintings, works of furniture art all made up the collection on display there, as well as the Grand Hall itself which was beautiful. Both Sandra and I enjoyed the furniture artwork given our past work responsibilities.
By this time it was approx. 1:30 pm and we made our way over towards the Louvre where we had lunch and then went to enter St. Chappelle, but the lineups were ridiculous. This was in part because the Louvre is closed Tuesdays. We substituted another visit to Notre Dame cathedral and then walked back across the Champs Elysees to Place De Concorde and then to the Arc de Triomphe. From here we climbed the 400 plus steps to the top for a panoramic view of Paris. It was here Heiko advised he wouldn’t go along with the power sightseeing anymore. We admitted we had stuck a lot into one day.

Napoleons Tomb Altar

Napoleons Tomb

Orsay Clock

Beautiful Sculptures

Incredible Colors

Sacre Couer from Arc DeTriomphe

Napoleons Tomb

Rodins Roses

More Rodin

Rodin smaller sizes

More Rodin

Day two saw us catch an early train out to Versailles,  where we toured both the buildings and grounds and then returned to downtown Paris where we got to see Mona Lisa again at the Louvre. Wow, that place is huge, and always full of people. There is no better single ticket than to buy it for the Louvre.

Versailles Side Gardens

Dining for 2

Main Gardens

Kings Bed

Heiko and Sandra at Versailles

Ceilings

Chapel

Waiting Room

Famous Hall of Mirrors

Mona Lisa

wedding feast of Cana

Day 3 was a breeze in comparison, we all went to the Eiffel tower then Sandra and I walked to the Bon Marche, the oldest department store in Paris, as well as the Grande Epicure. Very impressive. From there we caught the Metro to Montmartre walked up to Sacre Couer, and then all the way back to our hotel through the early afternoon. By the time we had done this we were in shape to walk anywhere.

The Paris metro is quite efficient and very cheap in comparison to say the Frankfurt S Bahn. And armed with a free Android app called Metro 1, we were able to find the best pairings of connections from each station to our destination. We bought books of 10 tickets which cut costs even further.
Our meals were equally good as well. From Nicoise salad, to Spaghetti and smoked salmon, to Carbonara and pizzas done just like the best of Italy we ate well, although prices are higher in France.