Wednesday was a reasonably relaxed day so we tried to pack it in Thursday. We started by revisiting Notre Dame. It was great at 8:30 AM, no one was there and we walked right in. Unfortunately, the tower access was closed so we still haven't gotten to climb to the top--Everlie did not shed any tears.
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| The boys mimicking St. Denis, who supposedly lost his head but kept right on going! |
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| Statues on either side: "Dude, you don't look so good." |
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| Adjacent bridge full of locks. That's a lot of very optimistic couples! |
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| We had a few more minutes to kill so we went into St. Eustache Church. This is near our apartment but doesn't make it into any of the guidebooks. It was free and really quite impressive inside. It's funny how some sites, monuments, paintings and restaurants become "famous" and others don't--often it seems rather arbitrary. |
Our guided tour today was a 'Taste of Paris" tour. Our guide, Mary Ellen, is an American teacher who has been living in France teaching English to French schoolchildren for 20 years. She gave us a guided tour of the little bakeries, cheese shops, butcher shops, etc. in one section of Paris. There are more and more supermarket type stores now, but most Parisians still get their groceries at several small different specialty shops.
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| At the chocolate shop. Boys are picking out the chocolate that they want in their "hot chocolate." A "hot chocolate" in France is made with melted chocolate and hot milk--no cocoa powder here! |
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| Sampling at the cheese shop. The cops had set-up a "speed trap" for motorcycles violating the "pedestrians only" zone--and this captured most of our attention. |
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| They were writing 2 tickets a minute, and the interaction is the same in any language! |
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| This is the foie gras shop. Turns out foie gras can be really complicated. |
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| In the courtyard of the Army Museum. Napoleon is beneath the gold dome. |
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| There he is--the old stinker! South American style general-turned dictator, 100 years before such a thing was cool. Awfully big coffin, guess the Napoleon complex continues after death! |
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| The Thinker, Rodin's most iconic work. |
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| The Kiss. Davis loves kissing. |
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| That's what I call "putting your heads together!" |
We were hoping to make it to the Paris Sewer Tour, but it was already closed (that stinks!). So we headed to the Eiffel Tower instead.
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| Below the Eiffel Tower. The thing in the back is part of a giant disco ball for Bastille Day, this Saturday. The line for the elevators was literally 800 people long. Line for the stairs was 15 minutes. |
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| We all climbed the steps to the first level. |
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| Scott and Logan climbed to the second level where they were able to purchase elevator tickets to the top. Everybody else stayed behind. |
While we were up on the Eiffel tower the rain really started and it was moderately heavy as we set out in search of dinner. We happened upon a great little Pizza place just North of the Eiffel tower in the adjacent neighborhood--although we didn't realize it, it was actually recommended in the guide book we were carrying!
It would have been smart to call it a day, but instead we headed to the Orsay Museum "on the way" home. We were all wet and tired and no one really cared about it, which was a shame because it seems like a great museum.
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| The Orsay Museum--in the rain. |
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| In the Orsay Museum, a remodeled old train station. Photography is not allowed...must have hit the button by accident. |
Reportedly, Paris is better in the rain. We've seen a lot of rain in the last couple of days--and we are not so sure. Perhaps in a taxi or a limo maybe, but not when you have one pair of practical shoes that you have to dry out when you get home!
We dragged our tired crew home and it was past 11 before they were asleep. Future days will need to be more sane!
I can''t get over how great the boys have handled this whirlwind of a trip. They are troopers! I'm not so sure that Sam and Baby-Who-Knows-What-His-Name-Will-Be are going to be such impressive tourists.
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