Paris, France
April 21 - April 26, 2011.....

4/21
Bon jour from Paris.
OK - that's about all the French I know.

We had a terrific train ride from London to Paris on the "Chunnel"....the total time was 2.5 hours - with only a very short time in tunnels (under the Channel). 

The transportation system in London is really marvelous....clean, efficient, and always on time.

Now we will see how it is in Paris!!

We checked in to the Hotel Relais Bosquet at 19, Rue du Champ de Mars...only about a 10 minute walk to the Eiffel Tower.  It is located on a side street with many quaint cafes, patisseries, cheese and wine shops, open-air market with lots of fresh fruits & vegetables, flower shops, gift shops, etc.  We had a nice leisurely dinner at a cafe, eating outside, since it is ANOTHER gorgeous day...temps in the 70's with lots of sun!!  Then we stopped at a "Chocolat Boutique" and picked up an assortment of macaroons (pistacchio, chocolate-raspberry, lavender-apricot, banana-chocolate, passion fruit-tarragon, and vanilla) to eat as we strolled to the Eiffel Tower.

We'll see what tomorrow holds for us in Paris - The City of Love & Lights.

Au revoir.  (OK, I know one other word in French)

 

4/22/2011

I know you are going to get sick of hearing it, but....it was another glorious day in Paris.  Yes, temps were once again in the 70's with sun, sun, and more sun. We could not ask for any better weather - of course, it would have been nicer if I had packed for these warmer temperatures!!!  Blame it on the "Google" weather forecast!

Today was spent doing a tour of the city.

Sites included: 

Esplanade des Invalides

Paris Opera House

Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe

Notre-Dame Cathedral

Grand Palais and Petit Palais

The Louvre

Eiffel Tower

We had lunch near the Rodin Museum....near the famous statue of "The Thinker".

Then tonight we did a dinner cruise on the Seine, so we were able to see many of the sights with their evening lights.

The dinner cruise was quite nice - including live piano and violin music.

Paris Opera House

dinner on the Seine

 

 

Notre Dame Cathedral

4/23/2011

Most of the day today was spent traveling to Versailles....

a magnificent palace about 30 minutes outside of Paris.  The rooms are gorgeous, and the artwork is unbelievable.  The gardens are amazing, too.

Talk about grandeur.....here are but a few pictures, that really don't do it justice.

You will just have to travel to France to check it out yourself - if you haven't already done so.

Versailles

4/23/2011 - continued
After our trip to Versailles, and a nice lunch just outside the palace, we returned to Paris and finished up our tour of the city.

Among the sites this tour included:

The Pantheon

The Moulin Rouge

Basilica of Sacre-Coeur 

I've also attached a few photos of "typical" streets in Paris.

AND, I attached a photo to show that we had a bit of rain....actually about 20 minutes of drizzle - and then back to clear/sun/and 70 degrees temp....so, you don't have to feel too bad for us - nothing was spoiled!

We had a very nice, leisurely dinner just down from our hotel...so we could have several drinks/wine and just walk back home.....photos attached of our lobby - quite nice, if you don't compare it to Versailles.

4/24/2011

Happy Easter.

There is a bookstore right next to our hotel and they had a display of children's Easter books - of course in French...but I thought you might enjoy seeing some of their books.

We went to Easter mass this morning at Notre Dame. 

Then we went to the Louvre - now a huge art museum, it used to be a Palace & fortress. 

In 1989, a glass pyramid was added as the Louvre's main entrance - quite a contrast between the "old" and "new".

The most famous picture in the Louvre is the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, but there are also paintings by Renoir, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Titian.

There are also statues inside the Louvre. The most famous statues are the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

Notre Dame

 

 

the Louvre

 

 

4/24/2011 - continued

Bonsoir....Good Evening.

We had dinner high atop the Montparnasse Tower (which we can see from our hotel room)....at "Le Ciel de Paris" on the 56th floor.

We had read that the view from this site was better than from the Eiffel Tower - since you can see the Eiffel Tower....which you can't if you are actually in the Eiffel Tower (obviously!!) They were correct - the view was quite spectacular.  Plus we did not have to stand in some very long lines to get to the top.

(We had also gone to the top of the Eiffel Tower on our previous trip to Paris - and no, we did not climb the stairs even back then!)

As I've mentioned the weather has been quite warm for this time of the year, and no rain....so there was some smog, which you might notice in the photos - but the view was still awesome.

We could not pick out our hotel from high atop Paris, but when we returned to our room we checked outside our window, and we could see the Montparnasse Tower!

4/25/2011

Monday night, 4/25, our last night in Paris.

We had a wonderful dinner at "Capucine Cafe" - in a very lovely room with great food.

Then we went to the Opera House (the old one  - Palais Garnier, not the new one*}.

In 1896, the falling of one of the counterweights for the grand chandelier resulted in the death of one person. This incident, as well as the underground lake, cellars, along with the other elements of the Opera House even the building itself were the inspirations of Gaston Leroux for his classic 1910 Gothic novel, The Phantom of the Opera.

Our seats were under the chandelier and when Tom went to the restroom, I began to get worried. It was OK, though, for the chandelier did not fall.

The Opera house is a remarkabe building - fantastic inside the hall and the magnificent corridors. It seats an audience of about 2,200 under a central chandelier which weighs more than six tons, and has a huge stage with room to accommodate as many as 450 artists. The style is monumental and considered typically Beaux-Arts, with use of axial symmetry in plan, and its exterior ornamentation.

Two ballets by "Mats Ek", a Swedish choreographer, were very good - the dancers were flawless. 

Even if one does not have the opportunity to see a performance in the Palais Garnier, it is a site not to miss - absolutely gorgeous.