The One and Only Paris

This was our busy day in Paris. Really, really busy! We started off the day by trying to go to the Museum d'Orangerie. Unfortunately, it was only open in the morning for groups (and was empty by the way). We were hoping to buy our museum pass there, but that didn't work out. We decided to walk down to the Arc de Triomphe and start there instead (since the museum pass included it).

Here is Aaron with an Egyptian Obelisk with some buildings in the background. It was stolen from Egypt :) Not all that different from the Italians! (Historical Note Inserted By Aaron - This obelisk marks the point were quite a few people lost their heads during the revolution. Apparently, the smell of blood and death was so terrible that they were forced to move the guillotine outside of the city. The smell was so terrible, people couldn't get horses to enter the square, as shown by the statue of the horse rearing in the background.)
Here I am in the middle of Champes de Elysses with the Arc de Triomphe in the background. This is where the Tour de France ends. You'll see me here again someday once I have perfected my "mountain goat" skills on the bike.
Aaron with the same street and site but closer.
Here is the Eiffel Tower as viewed from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.
Me at the top of the Arc de Triomphe.
This is a picture down towards the business district and the new Arch. I think it is a cool photo.
Since we had our pass to go in the museums, we headed to the Louvre. We didn't really care all that much about the art because, well, in Italy we have seen enough Egyptian and Italian art. We stopped to look at some large French paintings and sculptures, but we really were there to see the Mona Lisa. He we are at one of the entrances in the basement of the Louvre.
Here is Aaron in one of the hallways. It was pretty busy. We guessed that it was probably more busy than the Vatican museums.
Here I am with the Mona Lisa behind me. There were a million people crowded in there trying to take photos. I was just laughing at the stupidity of the people pushing to get up there. Flash plus glass cover equals crappy photo people. Buy the stupid postcard. I really don't think it was the best thing in the Louvre. It is famous though :)
And Aaron with the Mona Lisa. A small portion of the crowd is to the right, and the Mona Lisa is on the wall on the left. There are ropes and guards holding the crowd back.
Here is Aaron with a boar...he liked this sculpture...don't ask me why! (Note by Aaron - Go back and check the post about our day in Munich with Matt. A replica of this boar in bronze can be found outside the hunting and fishing museum in Munich!)
Me inside the glass pyramid at the Louvre.
Aaron outside the Louvre. I don't remember the story of this arch, but I'm sure it is a good one!
Me on the outside of the Louvre. This building is massive...we were told that if you spent a minute looking at each of the pieces of art in there that it would take over 300 days of round the clock visits...yikes!
Next we went back to the Orangerie to see the Monet water lilly paintings. Here is Aaron getting attacked by a spider when crossing the park to get there...the Louvre is on the other side of this park.
Here I am with one of the Monets.
And Aaron with another. Of all the works we have seen, I think the Monet landscapes and water lilly ones are my favorites. This was a small museum and didn't take long for us to go through. Luckily, we didn't have to wait in line because of the museum pass. That thing was perfect on a holiday weekend!
Next we went to the Museum d'Orsay. It is an impressionist art museum. We spent a couple of hours in there checking out the art there. It was actually a nice museum with some great art (and some not so great, but hey, it is art). Here I am waiting in line to get in. We had a decent wait, but again, the museum pass made it a lot shorter.
Here is Aaron with a Monet. I really like this painting! (Try to appreciate how hard it is to shoot these photos with the kit lens. You really need a steady hand...)
Aaron calls this work of art "Kelly looking out a window".
The Museum d'Orsay is actually in an old train station. It is a really cool structure to have an art museum in...I really liked this aspect. This is me in the main portion.
Here is Aaron with some tin characters. They used these for shadow plays at The Chat Noir. It was a special sort of theater that would be really cool to see, but I don't think they do it any more.
Here is Aaron in the large section of the old train station.
Next we went to Notre Dame church. We went inside after waiting in line. The inside was very chaotic, but we enjoyed looking at the stained glass windows. Here we are in front of the church after. We wanted to climb to the top of the towers, but it closed early and we never made it back. My other disappointment was that they cleaned all of the church except the main spire. It used to be very dark and cool looking, but now it is light like this except for the tall spire (not shown here, might be visible in bike tour photos). It doesn't look as cool to me now...
We also tried to hit St. Chapelle church, but it closed an hour early (don't ask, but the French certainly make Italian organization look very good). We kind of gave up and went to the Eiffel tower to go to the top. We had to wait for a long time, but we made it all the way to the top viewing platform (climbed over 500 stairs to the second platform and then took an elevator the rest of the way to the top). I didn't really want to deal with the wait, but Aaron convinced me to go up. I was really glad I did it...it was great to say I did it :) Here is Aaron at the top...we were there during the sunset, which was really pretty. Aaron says this photo looks fake though. I'm just such a good photographer that I make it look perfect...not really...
Next was dinner. By this point it was about 10:30 and we "settled" on the first restaurant we spotted. We had wine, escargot for appetizer, and this seafood platter for our main dish. It was awesome! We had oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp, snails, and crab. It was messy but so worth it. They even taught us how to use the funny French seafood tools. Here is Aaron with the platter.
We went back to the Eiffel Tower after dinner for some night shots.
We also happened to be there when the lights were twinkling (happened on our walk down). It looked better later because the stair lights weren't on this late. This picture only captures the color difference, but we have some cool video that I'll put up sometime later.
We were already up late so decided to get a shot of the Arc de Triomphe. It isn't perfect, but I think it is decent.
This is the Seine River and the Museum d'Orsay at night. It was really pretty.
We got back to the hotel at about 2:30 or 3 am. It was a great day, but LONG. We were happy to get so much site seeing in!

May 2, 2008, Paris, France