Sightseeing in Paris

Sculptures at the Louvre


07 March 2008: So, now that we settled down in Paris, it was time to do some sightseeing and be less creepy. Today, we took the bus/Metro to the Arc de Triumph. It was a great beginning to our tour to Paris, because you can go to the top and get “the-lay-of-the-land”.

From there, we walked down the Avenue des Champs Elysees, over to an English bookstore (for some books to read to Kai at bedtime) and by the Jardin des Tuileries to the Musee du Louvre back entrance, through the shopping mall. Yes, of course I’d know where the shopping mall is… ;-) But, I also had to prove to Sean there was one, as well as a food court. They say you can bypass the lines at the front entrance/pyramid when entering. The lunch at the food court was….well…food court food. We were hungry, it was there. Then, we set out for The Louvre’s Denon wing to see the Mona Lisa, an Aphrodite (aka Venus) sculpture, the architecture of the museum itself and just the grand size of it all! Again, this was the least favorite part of the day for Kai. You can only tell her to “look at the pretty pictures” so many times. So, time to go!

As the afternoon faded, we crossed the Seine River and jumped on the Metro over to the Eiffel Tower. The funny thing about it, coming above ground from the Metro, we didn’t see the Eiffel Tower right away, because it’s so close! But, we got there just as the sun was setting and they were turning the lights on. There was still a line, so we missed being at the top of the tower as it got dark. But, it was still such a magnificent sight with it all lit up! I know some people don’t see any beauty to it. But, I would have to disagree after experiencing it like that!

08 March 2008: Today, took the Metro out to the other side of town to the Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise (Pere Lachaise Cemetery) to visit Jim Morrison’s grave. This was something I wanted to 3 years ago, on my one-day-on-the-way-home-from-working trip, but didn’t get a chance to. I heard that the Mona Lisa could be disappointing for some, but this was probably a little closer, because the statue of his head that used to be on the gravestone was missing. None-the-less, it was pretty cool to finally make it there and pay homage to Jim, who we think was a great artist too!

After stopping to see Notre-Dame real quick, we took the Metro back to the market we went to a few days ago, That street was buzzing with vendors and shoppers that night. And, we got the most over-the-top street “grub” I’ve ever had when we got home. We were pretty wiped out by then. The past 2 days in Paris was a lot of walking, and we’re ready to hit the road, West, to the coast. It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve been at the coast!