Weekend in France - Part 2 - Paris

Walking may be good for you, but it's killer on the feet.

We arrived in Paris on the train at 12:30 am Monday morning, and took a taxi to the hotel. We made ourselves get up around 8:00 even though we got in late, because we had lots we wanted to do and see.

We left the hotel a little before 9 am, and headed toward the metro station 2 blocks away, stopping at a bakery for breakfast. The pastries we got were fabulous, and the woman behind the counter was smiling and friendly. The metro was fairly easy to navigate but when we got off, we ended up walking a quarter mile in the opposite direction from the Louvre before realizing it.

We got to the Louvre around 10, and saw the gardens and archway outside. Surprisingly, there was no line for tickets to the museum. Inside, I was often more taken by the painting of the ceilings and architecture of the rooms than with the displays of art themselves. The ceilings were so high, and the hallways were so long. Many of the ceilings had gold all over them, and were highly artistic themselves.

We saw the statue Venus, the Mona Lisa (smaller than you'd think), the club foot boy painting, many Roman and Greek statues, the display of Egyptian artifacts, Napolean's apartment recreated, medieval works, and renaissance works. We walked around for hours, finally having our fill at around 3 pm.

Our feet were already aching, but we walked about a mile (we think) to Notre Dame cathedral. It was quite impressive architecturally and artistically, but it brought to mind many sad things as well. As Christians it is hard to understand why people would elevate mere mortals to be worshiped along side Christ and God. It was also astounding to consider how much money it took to build such an ornate place of worship.







We then went back to the hotel for a while because we found out that none of the restaurants are open for dinner until 7 pm. It seems crazy to us as Americans, but I guess it's just culturally not beneficial for them to open earlier. So we made ourselves wait until 7, and then went to a small restaurant a couple blocks from the hotel. It had been recommended by our concierge, and we were not disappointed. We had the smoked salmon and toast as an appetizer, Barry had the rack of lamb, I had the roast duck in a honey sauce, and we each had creme brulee for dessert. It was all delicious, and expensive.

We then walked several more blocks to the Eiffel Tower. It was a beautiful site, and I was much more taken with it than I expected to be. It is lit up all the way up and down, and was quite a beautiful show against the black of the evening sky.

Then we walked back to the hotel to give our feet some much needed rest.



7 hours on 3 different trains got us back home on Tuesday, feeling wiped out. We had a good weekend overall, and learned some good lessons about the trains for our next trips.

P.S. We didn't encounter any rude people. Everyone seemed very helpful, but we were mainly in the tourist areas too.