Our wake-up call was at 7:00 this morning, so we got to "sleep in" a bit compared to the other days!
Breakfast was at 7:30am. We arrived a little late, and it was like a cattle drive trying to get through the buffet line! The breakfast was similar to the others... breads, fruit, eggs, sausages, yogurt, cereal, juice, and coffee.
We met at 8:30am to board our bus to do a guided tour of Paris with our local guide, Brigitte.
Our first stop was the famous "Notre Dame," home of Quasimoto.
It was beautiful inside, and we were able to take photos.
Brigitte was sure to point out the stone carving of Quasimoto in the corner of a wall outside the cathedral.
The weather was COLD and windy, which caught many people off guard, since it had been in the low 100s many days on our tour!
Several of the women (me, included!) bought a scarf at a souvenir shop near Notre Dame to keep warm. It was the best 6 Euros we've spent this trip! Ha!
After Notre Dame, we boarded our bus with Brigitte and drove to a spot near the Eiffel Tower that she recommended for picture-taking.
We drove around a bit more with Brigitte, locating the Louvre, the Arche de Triumphe, and the Champs-Elysees.
After Notre Dame, we boarded our bus with Brigitte and drove to a spot near the Eiffel Tower that she recommended for picture-taking.
We drove around a bit more with Brigitte, locating the Louvre, the Arche de Triumphe, and the Champs-Elysees. We arrived at our drop-off point, "Rue de Rivoli", at 11:30am. We then had free time until 3:30pm, when we were meeting up with Brigitte again to visit the Louvre.
We walked to the Louvre to take some pictures of the outside, and enjoyed beautiful fountains and gardens surrounding the area.
We then began our never-ending search for public restrooms, finally finding some (in working order, that is) along the Champs-Elysees.
We walked along a little farther and chose a small cafe to have lunch. I was feeling a little under the weather, so I only ordered some french onion soup. Bryan got some chicken and french fries. After lunch, we walked the remainder of Champs-Elysees to the Arche de Triumphe. It was really quite impressive.
The streets of downtown Paris are all very pretty and well maintained. They also have managed to keep a very similar style of architecture; tall, rectangular buildings made of white or light grey stone/bricks, and blue roofs. It was funny, because we weren't the only ones who noticed the striking similarity to "The Paris" in Las Vegas!
After the Arche, we made our way back to Rue de Rivoli to meet the rest of our group to go to the Louvre. Brigitte was our guide for this as well.
We visited only the "major" pieces of art during our almost two hour visit.
We were told that if you spent just one minute viewing each piece of art, you would have to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for SIX MONTHS to see everything!
We got to see the Mona Lisa, as well as daVinci's other works.
The streets of downtown Paris are all very pretty and well maintained. They also have managed to keep a very similar style of architecture; tall, rectangular buildings made of white or light grey stone/bricks, and blue roofs. It was funny, because we weren't the only ones who noticed the striking similarity to "The Paris" in Las Vegas!
After the Arche, we made our way back to Rue de Rivoli to meet the rest of our group to go to the Louvre. Brigitte was our guide for this as well.
We visited only the "major" pieces of art during our almost two hour visit.
We were told that if you spent just one minute viewing each piece of art, you would have to spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for SIX MONTHS to see everything!
We got to see the Mona Lisa, as well as daVinci's other works. We learned that the Mona Lisa was once stolen by an employee of the Louvre who fell in love with her! He kept her rolled up under his bed for three years!
We saw the famous Winged Victory of Samothrace, also known as the Nike of Samothrace (who's also missing it's head). It's also the emblem for Rolls Royce.
We saw some sculptures by Michelangelo, as well as the apartments of Napolean III.
They were very opulent, with too many chandeliers to count!
We would definitely like to visit the Louvre again to see more, but it was nice to have someone take us to the main exhibits in the time that we had.
We saw the famous Winged Victory of Samothrace, also known as the Nike of Samothrace (who's also missing it's head). It's also the emblem for Rolls Royce.
We saw some sculptures by Michelangelo, as well as the apartments of Napolean III.
They were very opulent, with too many chandeliers to count!
We would definitely like to visit the Louvre again to see more, but it was nice to have someone take us to the main exhibits in the time that we had.
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