Day 36 - Tuesday, May 29th - Eiffel Tower

I know you are getting tired of hearing this, but let me say it one more time... "It's another beautiful, sunny day in Paris."  A perfect day for what we had planned for this our final day in Paris and our tour... a ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Before leaving the U.S., Martha had purchased our tickets for the Eiffel Tower with reservations for the 1 p.m. tour.  I would HIGHLY recommend purchasing tickets ahead of time as the people in line at the Eiffel tower waiting to buy tickets were waiting well over 3 hours to get in.  We just whizzed past them and flashed our pre-printed tickets and got right in.  It felt so good, like we were royalty.

The trip up to the Eiffel Tower was exhilarating and the views were awesome, but my photos of the day are of the little known monuments in Paris... the Statue of Liberty, and the Flame of Liberty.  This Statue of Liberty is an exact replica was offered to the French by the American residents of Paris to commemorate the centennial of the French Revolution.  Originally it faced the Eiffel Tower, but its creator, Bartholdi, insisted that it should face New York and was consequently turned to face America.

View of the Statue of Liberty on Swan Ally, Paris, in the Seine river as taken from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

The Flame of Liberty is a full-sized replica of the new flame carried in the hand of the Statue of Liberty at the entrance of New York harbor.  It was a gift to the city of Paris in 1989 by the International Herald in honor of its one hundredth anniversary of publishing an English-language daily newspaper in Paris and is a lasting symbol of the friendship between our two countries, just as the Statue of Liberty was when it was given to America by France.

An interesting fact about this flame is that it is directly above the tunnel in which Princess Diana died in 1997 and has therefore become an unofficial memorial to Diana.  Most people who come here think that it was built for her.

"The Flame of Liberty"
The inscription on the monument reads:  "The Flame of Liberty.  An exact replica of the Statue of Liberty's flame offered to the people of France by donors throughout the world as a symbol of the Franc-American friendship.  On the occasion of the centennial of the International Herald Tribune.  Paris 1887-1987."

Day 35 - Monday, May 28th - The Louvre & the Eiffel Tower by night

Another beautiful, sunny day in Paris.  I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, aren't I?  Well, what can I say, a month sure made a difference in the weather.  I'm happy, happy, happy!

Today is our day to tackle the Louvre.  We arrived by 10 a.m. and stayed for about 2 hours viewing some of the key "must-sees" such as the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, Napoleon's Apartments, all guided by a Rick Steves' podcast, courtesy of Martha.

But even with all the beauty and grandeur of the Louvre, the photo of the day goes to the shot Terry took of the Eiffel Tower during our evening stroll after dinner and a Seine River cruise.

Postscript:
Even though I awarded the photo of the day to the above Eiffel Tower photo, Terry thought I should at least show you a picture of the mass of humanity at the Louvre in the Mona Lisa room.  We were able to get close enough to get a better shot of her, but you've all seen pictures of her many times.  The old girl still draws a crowd.

That's the Mona Lisa in the middle of the far wall.  It's not as big as I thought it would be.

Day 34 - Sunday, May 27th - Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, & the Rodin Museum

Another beautiful, sunny day in Paris.  What a difference a month makes!  This morning we got a little bit later start because our agenda for the morning was to tour Notre Dame which didn't open until 10 a.m.  We are going to climb to the top of the bell tower and get eye to eye with the gargoyles.  So we headed over to our new favorite morning coffee place, Starbucks, around 8:30.  Today we ordered our coffee and pastries to go so that we could take advantage of our lovely balcony back at the hotel.  This morning we indulged by ordering cinnamon buns instead of the usual croissants.  At 9:30 we joined Martha and Jim in the lobby for a five minute walk over to Notre Dame.

The climb to the top of the bell tower is 400 steps but it was well worth it for the magnificent views all around.  We walked all the way to the top and went into Quasimodo's domain to see "Emmanuel", the 13-ton bell.  We arrived a few minutes before 11 a.m. and decided to stay to hear the bell.  We waited and waited thinking they would ring the bell on the hour, but the bell didn't ring.  We found out later that the bell is only rung on special occasions.  About 15 minutes later, at 11:15 a.m., as we were descending the spiral staircase of the tower the bell started to ring.  It was so awesome, I could feel the sound going right through me.  At that moment I realized, it was Pentecost!  Mass must have just ended.  No wonder they didn't ring it on the hour, they were waiting for mass to finish.  I was able to capture the sound on my camcorder (along with the footsteps of the person walking down the spiral staircase in front of me).

Video clip featuring the sound of Emmanuel.

Notre Dame from the front.  Emmanuel is housed in the bell tower on the right.

Side view of Notre Dame from the along the Seine river.

Emmanuel, the 13-ton bell in Notre Dame.  The clapper itself weighs 1,100 lbs.

 After our tour of Notre Dame we ate lunch and walked over to tour Sainte-Chapelle, a church which is know for its beautiful stained glass windows.  The church was originally built to house the Crown of Thorns (now housed in Notre Dame), it contains over 1,100 scenes in stained glass of the entire Christian history of the world.

Sainte-Chapelle - the photo just doesn't do justice to the beauty of the stained glass.

 From there, we rode the Metro over to the Rodin Museum, our final attraction of the day.  The museum itself is an 18th-century mansion known as the Hôtel Biron and is surrounded by beautiful gardens.  Rodin's masterpieces are displayed both inside the museum and scattered about throughout the gardens.  Along with works by Rodin, paintings by Renoir, Monet, and Van Gogh are also featured in the museum.

"The Thinker"

"The Cathedral"

Day 33 - Saturday, May 26th - Arc de Triomphe & the Champs-Elyées

Another beautiful day in Paris!  A perfect day for our trip to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysées.  A short metro ride brings us to our destination and the Paris I had in my mind's eye.  I had a preconceived notion of what Paris would look like and until today, I hadn't seen it.  But this was it!  The wide streets of the Champs Elysées and the elegant shops, now I'm happy.

We toured the Arc de Triomphe by walking to the top of it, all 284 steps up!  The Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate his victory at the battle of Austerlitz.  At the base of the Ach is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (from WWI).

Afterward, we strolled the Champs Elysées over to the Place de la Concorde which is Paris' largest square.  On the square is a 3,300 year old  Egyptian obelisk, a gift to France by Egypt in 1829.  It originally was at the entrance to the Luxor Temple and is decorated with hieroglyphics praising the reign of Ramses II.  The Place de la Concorde is most famous, though, as the spot on which King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were guillotined along with 1200 other people during the French Revolution.

From there we walked over to the Orangerie Museum, an Impressionist museum with huge 360 degree paintings by Claude Monet of his famous water lilies (sorry they didn't allow us to take pictures).  Then on to the Orsay Museum for some more Impressionist paintings and some beautiful statuary.  The Orsay Museum was formerly the Orsay railway station which was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.  The building is quite beautiful and a work of art of its own.

Our photo for the day would have to be of the four of us in front of the Arc de Triomphe.  It's not often we have an opportunity to have a photo of us all, but when another tourist asked Terry to take a picture of him and his family, he was more than willing to reciprocate.

The Four Musketeers at the Arc de Triomphe.

Day 32 - Friday, May 25th - Versailles and Montmartre

Today is our day to visit Versailles, the palace of kings and the seat of the French government for a hundred years, and the day couldn't be more beautiful.  So after a typical French breakfast, coffee and a crescent, at our local Starbucks we set out on the train for our day trip to Versailles.

The complex of Versailles is so immense that it is hard to find just one photo that says it all.  It is really three sights in one:  the chateau or palace, the gardens, and the Trianon Palaces and Domaine de Marie-Antoinette where Louis XIV and his successors escaped from the pressures of being king.  So with that in mind I am including a slideshow with a few select photos.

The expansive Gardens are a landscaped wonderland of statues and fountains.  The Gardens were actually in transition when we were there.  The spring bulbs were over and the summer annuals were just being planted, so there's not much in the way of flowers.

The Trianon Palaces were actually miles from the main Chateau in the tiny village of Trianon and were built to be an escape from the rigors of kingship.  There is a Grand Trianon and a Petit Trianon.  The Grand Trianon was actually built by Louis XIV for his mistress.  The Petit Trianon was built by Louis XV's first mistress, Madame de Pompadour, and then later lived in by his second mistress, Madame du Barry.  Then later when Louis XVI became king, he gave the palace to his new wife, Marie-Antoinette.

On the grounds of Marie-Antoinette's Estate, is a fake-peasant Hamlet which was created for Marie-Antoinette.  She longed for the simple life and some of her happiest days were spent here.  This was an actual working farm with chickens, cows, goats and a bunch of servants to keep it all running for her.

(Double-click on the slideshow to view in enlarged format and to scan photos at your own pace.)

Versailles was magnificent, but I reserved my photo of the day for the Sacré Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica which we saw during our evening outing to Montmartre for dinner.  With the Romanesque-Byzantine architectural style of this basilica one would think that it is much older than it is, yet it is not quite 100 years old, only having been completed in 1914 after 44 years of construction.

Sacré Coeur Basilica

But Montmartre is so much more than the Sacré Coeur Basilica.  Montmartre is the highest hilltop in Paris and is historically a hangout for struggling artists, poets, and dreamers who come here for the cheap rent and the bohemian atmosphere.  Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Satie all lived here at one time or another.  Besides the bohemian artists, Montmartre is also famous for its cabaret nightlife - think "cancan" and the Moulin Rouge.  So, I can't let it go with just this one photo of Montmartre so I am including a few more photos of our evening.

Artists at work in Montmartre

Strolling among the artists and sidewalk cafes

The famous Moulin Rouge (Red Windmill)