Day 3- PARIS!

I LOVED Paris. Loved it. I've always wanted to go and it did not disappoint.

The sights are beautiful, the city is beautiful, the buildings are beautiful, the people are beautiful, but the kids are especially beautiful. I don't know if it was because I was missing my own kids so much, but I could not stop looking at the little French kids everywhere. They were so well dressed and well behaved and just beautiful. I should have taken pictures! Instead, you'll just have to trust me on this one. Number one attraction in Paris - the children.

This post is going to be long. We did A LOT in one day. I don't think I've ever been more exhausted from sight seeing.

Here we are waiting outside for the Louvre to open. It was so much more massive than I was imagining it to be. Some of the art was so huge and the building was so impressive. We only spent an hour there, which I know sounds crazy since some people spend a week at The Louvre, but our time was limited and D and his sister had both been before. They gave us their own "Best of the Louvre" tour and I was content.

All I really wanted to see was this lady. She was littler than I thought she would be.


Here we are in front of the marble sculpture "Winged Victory of Samothrace" dating back to the third century B.C. I loved how at every museum D would point out something really famous, like the Winged Victory sculpture, and would say, "This is really famous. You know what this is, don't you?" Um, not exactly. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I took Interior Design instead of Humanities to fulfill my GE requirement in college.

When we left the Louvre, we walked through Tuileries Gardens and then through
Musée de l’Orangerie, an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionest paintings. When we left the museum and were walking to our next destination, we saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time. I had to get a picture. I was suprised that you couldn't just see the Eiffel tower from anywhere in Paris.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside a small gothic chapel across from Notre Dame called Sainte Chappelle. The stained glass windows were amazing. Two thirds of the stained glass was original dating back to the 1200s.

Just an average apartment building in Paris. So Pretty.

Our next stop was the Sacre Couer Basilica located at the highest point in the city. Even though we were really tired by then, we climbed to the top of the dome and were so glad we did. We got a spectacular view of the city.

Paris just goes on forever. I was blown away by how big it was.

Afterward, we took the subway back to the center of the city. I swear half of our food budget was spent to support D's European Fanta addiction. Every few hours, he would complain that his blood Fanta levels were low and we'd have to stop for some.
Next Stop: Arc de Triomphe

We climbed to the top and had another great view of Paris.

And another great view of the Eiffel Tower. Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower and we made the mistake of thinking we could walk there. It doesn't look that far, does it?

Well, it was far enough to look like this by the time we got there. Warning: Tall things in big cities may be farther than they appear. We actually didn't end up going to the top because the line was ridiculously long and we were getting hungry. Plus, I've been up the one in Vegas so I figure that counts.

Next up - a trip out of the city to Versailles and Giverny