ice cream is delicious: Paris, France

We decided to get the Paris museum pass, which allowed us into the Musee D'orsay, Louvre, Versaille, and any other little museum we might have wanted to visit around the city. It was a pretty good deal!

Eiffel Tower (320m): We were worried the weather was going to be bad the rest of the days, and today we saw blue skies! We headed there hoping to go up the stairs, but turns out stair closes early evening, so we had to wait in line for the elevator up, and only one was open. There was a security line and after the security line, there's a line to get tickets and go up the elevator. Of course we got stuck behind the guy who had a bunch of bottles of alcohol on him, and got delayed. After waiting maybe an hour or more, we finally made it just in time before the sun went down. It was amazing and beautiful, just as you would imagine. Only thing is because of the suicide attempts and people trying to jump off, a lot of the view sites were hampered by fences. But it's okay, still romantic.

The lights sparkle about every 15 min!

City tour:
We downloaded a historic Paris city walking tour from Rick Steves' website. It gave a tour from Notre dame to across the city, to a nice little quiche/pastry shop for lunch.

After lunch, we went to Shakespeare and Company store, Sainte Chappelle, and then the Conciergerie, and ending at Pont Neuf (new bridge, but one of the oldest bridge in the city), and the Seine.

Notre Dame:
It was a beautiful, classic church. The construction history of the church was displayed, and it was hard to believe it took 200 years to build it! That's how old the USA is! The stained glass were amazing, and every nook and cranny was intricate and ornate.

History of Notre Dame being built

With the museum pass, we could go to the top of the Notre Dame, so we got to see the famous gargoyles up close and personal.

We also saw the bell!

Sainte Chappelle:
From the outside, it wasn't that impressive. And when we first entered the church, I was wondering if it was just because of some history that it was so famous. It looked rather small and had some nice gold guilded ceilings, but wasn't super impressive.
And then we realized the amazing part of the church was upstairs. The entirety of the top floor upper wall/ceiling consisted of stained glass detailing all the stories of the bible. It was so lovely. You can look at the grandeur of it all, and also get up close to see the individual stories. We think we found the one about creation and maybe Moses.

Conciergerie:
This was a nice visit to a place we otherwise wouldn't have, but since we had the Paris Museum pass, we went in for an hour. It used to be a prison, but now for law courts. Even when you enter, there is an eerie feel to it. Hundreds of prisoners from here were taken to be guillotined during the French Revolution. There a specific quarter where Queen Marie Antoinette was imprisoned.

Arc de Triomphe:

Sacre Coeur:
Basilica dedicated to the sacred heart of Jesus. Boy do they make you work for it - as it's situated on the top of a hill. The views from here rival the views from the Eiffel tower, though. It was a church built after the 1870 Franco-Prussian war and uprising of Paris Commune of 1971. The thought was France's misfortunes may be due to spiritual matters.

We had a delicious dinner at La Poteger - didn't open till 7p, literally eating right next to other people, and space the size of our living room. We had egg and foie gras, potate au gratin with smoked duck, and milk fed lamb with mashed potato. Yuuuuuuummmmm!

And of course we loved the breakfast! So many delicious pastries to try!

Versaille:
Unfortunate for us, a portion of the metro was under construction, so we had to take a round about way. But we made it! Not really the best time to see the Versaille gardens - note to all, don't go in the winter, where everything is dreary, brown, and statues were covered up. But the Palace was so grand and ornate, it made up for the dreary winter outdoors.

The Chapel

Hercules Room (where daughter married and parties).

Venus room

Art makes it looks like the room extends

Mars/Guard room:

Mercury:

The Mercury bedroom

The Apollo room: Sword represents Europ, Lion - Africa, Eelphant - Asia, crocodile - Americas:

The room of mirrors!

View of the grand canal

Back view of Versaille

Latona's fountain and Apollo's fountain:

Marie Antoinette's not so humble abode

And another delicious meal of french onion soup, hen, and beef in wine:

Musee D'orsay:
Once a railway station, now has some very famous impressionist paintings highlighted in Rick Steve's guide.

The Source:

Different version of the Birth of Venus:

Olympia (Manet), so many features breaking convention: confrontational gaze, unusual posture, prostitute, black cat...quite interesting to read about on Wikipedia.

Gustave Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers

Renoir Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette

Renoir The Swing

Monet: Notre Dame and Japanese Garden

Van Gogh Self Portrait

The Lourvre!!! It was great having the Rick Steve's guide so we knew were to go to see the most famous masterpieces, but there were so many that we didn't get to see. I guess we'll have to take another trip!