Wednesday, August 1, 2012 – Paris, France
This morning we woke up early in Paris and joined the group from our cruise for a panoramic bus tour of the city of Paris. Our bus took us by the major sights including the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Notre Dame and Luxembourg Gardens. After lunch, Dad and I ventured out on our own to get a more detailed look at the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde. We also took a nice stroll along the Champs Elysees and popped into a few shops. Afterward we visited the l’Orangerie museum to check out some impressionist paintings including the famous Water Lilies paintings by Monet. This is an easily forgotten museum that should not be missed!
We were pretty worn out tonight after such a long day of walking and enjoyed a convenience store dinner back at the hotel. J
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| Arc de Triomphe |
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| Me by the Eiffel Tower in the Champ de Mars |
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
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| Cleopatra's Needle - Place de la Concorde |
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| Place de la Concorde |
Thursday, August 2, 2012 – Paris, France
Today is the first of our two days of fully independent sightseeing. We slept in a bit and then decided to make our way by metro (subway) up to the Montmartre area of town on the right bank to visit the beautiful Sacre-Coeur Basilica and check out the artist markets. If you’re looking for a great place to get a view across the city of Paris and don’t feel like waiting in line at the Eiffel Tower, this is the place to go. From atop the hill you can see all of the major sights in Paris.
After finishing up in Montmartre, we made our way to the Ile de la Cite island on the Seine River to explore Notre Dame Cathedral. Having already had my fill of old churches, I thought that my visit to Notre Dame may have been ruined, but I was mistaken. The grandeur of the high ceilings, stained-glass windows and flying buttresses still amazed me after everything else I had already seen.
We then moved back over to the right bank and explored the Louvre museum. Along the way, we ran across one of three "Paris Plaige" spots where the city has transformed the banks of the Seine into a beach. A person could really spend an entire day or more exploring the Louvre. We decided to focus on seeing the pieces that we were most interested in only to save time. We explored the Egyptian antiquities first, and then made our way around to see the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, and many others.
After the Louvre, we had a quick lunch in a café and then moved on to the Musee d’Orsay to see some more impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces. Here the main highlights were Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone (which we’d seen the site of in Arles earlier in the trip) as well as a number of familiar works from Delacroix, Renoir, Manet and Cezanne.
By the time we finished up at the d’Orsay we were exhausted again and headed back to the hotel to rest. This evening we cleaned up and went out for a nice dinner at a café in the Montparnasse district where our hotel was located.
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| View from Montmartre |
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| Sacre-Coeur |
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| Notre Dame |
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| Inside Notre Dame |
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| Dad at Notre Dame |
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| Paris Plaige |
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| The Louvre |
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| Mona Lisa at The Louvre |
Friday, August 3, 2012 – Paris, France
Today was our last full day in Paris and our most important task was to make our way out of town by train to visit Louis XIV’s Palace at Versailles. This was an amazing site. With the ornate golden gates, excessively decorated interiors, and enormous gardens, we were blown away. Check out some of the pictures to get a better idea of what I mean!
After finishing up at Versailles, we travelled back to Paris and made a quick stop to visit the Pompidou Centre which houses the largest museum of modern art in Europe. The building itself was a sight to see with its “high-tech” architecture and we also enjoyed the nearby Stravinsky Fountain. Inside we saw fabulous works from modern artists including Kandinsky, Matisse, Picasso, Mondrian, Dali and Andy Warhol, just to name a few. I think this museum was my favorite of all that we visited. After our visit to the Pompidou Centre, we stopped to enjoy a quick drink at a nearby Starbucks and then made our way back to the hotel to rest for a bit.
This evening, we took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower to enjoy the evening light show. We enjoyed viewing the tower from both the Champs de Mars and the Trocadero points of view. We found a wonderful restaurant, the Café du Trocadero, on the nearby square and enjoyed a very nice dinner together for our final evening. From the restaurant, we were able to see the Eiffel Tower light show which was a nice experience. After we finished eating, we made our way back toward the tower to enjoy the second light show in full view to finish off our evening and grab some pictures.
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| Versailles |
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| Versailles |
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| Versailles |
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| Dad in the gardens at Versailles |
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| One of many fountains at Versailles |
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| Pompidou Centre |
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| Eiffel Tower |
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| Eiffel Tower |
Saturday, August 4, 2012 – Paris, France
The end! L It’s time to head back home. We were sad to leave to ready to get home and relax for a bit before going back to work. It was a very long travel day.
It was great to explore a country in such detail alongside my Dad. We had a wonderful time and I am already looking forward to my next trip back to explore more of France!
Next up is Britain and Ireland coming up here in a couple of weeks. I’ll be taking a bus tour with Globus and will be hosting a large group of our clients from work. I will again share some of my experiences and pictures here on that trip. Here is a preview of the overall trip to get everyone excited. J Thank you for reading!
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| Highlights of Britain and Ireland Tour - Aug/Sep 2012 |
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