Paris Day 3: To the top of the Eiffel Tower & the Louvre
Monday, June 25, 2007

"Deux billets pour le sommet s'il vous plait"
"Two tickets to the top please"











inside the tower, waiting for the elevator








views of Paris from the first level of the Eiffel Tower:






























looking up at the rest of the tower from the 2nd level










view from the 2nd level:

































the very top!









Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower -- you can see the Arc de Triomphe in this picture.









Jacob took this really cool shot from the very top -- you can see the bottom of the tower and a heart in the grass that someone had made.














back on solid ground


































I love this place!



































What a great day so far!










After visiting the Eiffel Tower, we picked up Croque Monsieurs and headed to the Luxembourg gardens to eat lunch. A croque monsieur is a super-popular sandwich in France. It's a grilled ham and cheese sandwich made with gruyère cheese with melted cheese on top. Wikipedia says that it first appeared on a Parisian menu in 1910! Jacob loved it!

The Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg gardens) is the largest public park in Paris and is on the grounds of the Luxembourg Palace, which houses the French Senate.



















































After eating our lunch in the Luxembourg gardens, we headed to the Louvre.


The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world.







Construction on the existing Louvre was begun in 1535, and work continued until 1876. It was a royal palace until Napoleon opened it as a public museum in 1793 during the French Revolution. The pyramid was added in 1989.






inside the Louvre













Napoleon's dining room










so many things to see:


a Corinthian soldier's armor























a real mummy!









This room was SO big -- look how small I look!










The Egyptian section -- Christian would have loved this part of the museum:



































We also saw the Mona Lisa (or La Joconde, as the French call it), but we obeyed the signs and didn't take a picture!



Remember how I said that the stick figures are always running on French signs? ...Look at this one!








It was drizzling after dinner this night, but we still made a quick stop to Place de la Concorde.













Some info from Wikipedia:

• During the French Revolution, a guillotine stood where the obelisk stands today.
• In the summer of 1794, more than 1,300 people were executed in a single month.
• King Lous XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed here.
• The viceroy of Egypt offered the 3,300-year-old obelisk to France in 1831.
• The obelisk arrived in Paris on December 21, 1833, and it was placed in the center of Place de la Concorde on October 25, 1836.
• Without warning, in 2000 French urban climber Alain "Spiderman" Robert, using only his bare hands and feet and with no safety devices, scaled the obelisk all the way to the top.

That's about it for Monday -- it was a very full day. The next day (Tuesday) was our last day in Paris before our flight back on Wednesday. Tuesday was probably my favorite day in Paris -- I'll post those pictures as soon as I can get them organized and posted!

I don't have enough time today to post pictures from Paris, but I think this is hilarious, so I thought I'd post it.

clips from my favorite Friends episode ever -- Joey speaks French!




Have a great Tuesday!

Paris Day 2: Sunday, June 24, 2007

Versailles & boat ride on the Seine

On our way to the metro on this morning, we stopped for this photo-op of teeny-tiny French cars.























This is the river Seine that runs through Paris.









Jacob is standing in front of the Musée d’Orsay, which houses 19^th Century French art, including Impressionist paintings by Monet & Renoir. I really wanted to go here, but… so many things to see, so little time! We didn’t get a chance to go inside, but we got to see the outside because our metro stop to get to Versailles was right next to it.










Versailles is a little outside the city, so you can't get there by metro; you have to take a train. This is inside the RER train station, waiting for our train.

This is what we saw when we arrived -- Versailles is huge!
(even though this picture is miniature -- click it to enlarge it)





from Wikipedia:

It was Louis XIV's hope to create a center for the royal court. Following the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, the court and French government began to be moved to Versailles. The court was officially established there on May 6, 1682.

By moving the royal court and the seat of the French government, Louis XIV hoped to gain greater control of the government from the nobility to distance himself from the population of Paris. All the power of France emanated from this centre: there were government offices here, as well as the homes of thousands of courtiers, their retinues, and all the attendant functionaries of court. By requiring that nobles of a certain rank and position spend time each year at Versailles, Louis prevented them from developing their own regional power at the expense of his own and kept them from countering his efforts to centralize the French government in an absolute monarchy.

Some of the rooms inside the château:

Picnicing at Versailles.

The chapel at Versailles (from Wikipedia):

As the focal point of Louis XIV fourth building campaign, the final chapel of the château of Versailles is a masterpiece. Began in 1689, construction was halted due to the War of the League of Augsburg and was consecrated in 1710.

During the 18th century, the chapel witnessed many court events. Te Deums were sung to celebrate military victories and the births of children born to the king and queen; marriages were also celebrated in this chapel, such as the wedding of the dauphin — later Louis XVI — to Marie-Antoinette in 1770.

The Hall of Mirrors (from Wikipedia):

As central feature of Louis XIV’s third building campaign, construction on the galerie des glaces — The Hall of Mirrors — began in 1678. The principal feature of the room is the seventeen mirror-clad arches that reflect the seventeen arcaded windows that overlook the gardens. Each arch contains twenty-one mirrors with a total complement of 357 used in the decoration of the galerie des glaces.

In the 17th century, mirrors were one of the most expensive items to possess and at the time, the Venetian Republic held the monopoly on the manufacture of mirrors. In order to maintain the integrity of his philosophy of mercantilism, which required that all items used in the decoration of Versailles be made in France, Jean-Baptiste Colbert enticed several workers from Venice to make mirrors at the Gobelins Factory for use in Versailles.

During the 17th century, the galerie des glaces was used daily by Louis XIV when he walked from his private apartment to the chapel. At this time, courtiers assembled to watch the king and members of the royal family pass.

I was so excited to see the Hall of Mirrors -- it’s been under restoration for the past three years and has just reopened.

Looking out at the gardens from inside the château:
















The gardens at Versailles:

After dinner Sunday night, we got to take a boat ride on the Seine River. Our boat left at 10:00, so we got to see the sunset while we were on the boat.

The boat rides go under the many bridges that cross the Seine.

Pictures of the Eiffel Tower from the boat:




























At night, the walkways along the banks of the Seine are full of people sitting and chatting. We saw lots of couples who were out with a blanket and a bottle of wine, lots of groups of young people, even a group playing instrumental music with people waltzing! After our boat ride, Jacob and I walked down and sat on the bank to experience this for ourselves. ...
It was great until we saw a rat scurry by when we were leaving!



That's all for Day 2!

Hope you're having a great day!