Roseyland

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Welcome to day 6. You are probably a little tired of all this by now, but we still have a lot to see, so suck it up and let’s go. This is our first full day in Paris. I tried to learn a little French before going to Paris, and in the process, I started following a few Parisian Tweeters. One of the people I followed was @ParisHeather who runs the Secrets of Paris blog. Heather is an american travel writer who has lived in France for the past 11 years or so, and she also gives small group tours of Paris. On a whim, I signed us up for one of Heather’s walking tours. She gave us a quick tour of Ile de la Cite, which contains Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, and the Conciergerie. Then we took the Batobus up and down the Seine, while Heather pointed out various landmarks, gave us tips, and told us stories about living in France/Paris. The tour ended with a walk through the St. Germain des Pres district and the Latin Quarter. I thought the tour was well worth the money. Beyond the tour itself, it was also nice to talk to an american who really knows Paris and could answer all of our silly tourist questions.

A quick side track. While searching for Parisian tweeters, I also found the Katia and Kyliemac blog/podcast. Katia and Kyliemac are an Australian and a Michigander (as in person from Michigan) who live in Paris. They have a podcast about their lives as expats and also shorter podcasts with tourist tips and quirky French phrases. If you are going to Paris, I strongly reccomend checking out the Katia and Kyliemac podcast. Their podcast is also good if you want to live vicariously though people whose lives are far more interesting than yours

Okay, enough talking, here is Notre Dame.

This is the inside of Notre Dame. Most of the churches we saw on our trip had rules against taking pictures inside, and Notre Dame was no different except that everyone ignored this rule. So I did too. Besides, I don’t speak French, how am I supposed to know what a picture of a camera inside a circle with a line through it means?

Here is Notre Dame from the side.

This is the Batobus that we took with Heather up and down the Seine. It’s a fun way to get around, and a cheap way to take a Seine river cruise. They even pretend to give onboard announcements in English.

This is a street in the St. Germain des Pres district. The streets here are narrow with lots of cafes and markets. We had excellent gelato and crepes in this area. One of Heather’s best pieces of advice was to try a banana and Nutella crepe. Nutella is a chocolate hazelnut spread and it goes great with bananas. I had never heard of Nutella before, but it’s actually really easy to find in american grocery stores. It’s by the peanut butter. You can also try a Nutella banana crepe at the City Coffeehouse & Creperie in Clayton. As far as I could tell, the Clayton version taste as good as the French version, but it feels weird to eat a crepe on a plate. Crepes should really be street food.

Here is a video of the inside of Sainte Chapelle. I always forget that my camera can take these videos. It’s not the greatest quality, but it is a nice way to show more than you can in a single picture. Anyways, Sainte Chapelle is a chapel with amazing stained glass windows and it is located inside the Palais de Justice. The Palais de Justice contains the the head courts of France or something like that.

We spent the afternoon at the Louvre. Which of course is the world famous art museum. I’m not a huge art fan, but I love the Louvre simply because the building is amazing. In my opinion, even if you don’t like art, you must see the Louvre if you are in Paris. Here is a picture of the area outside the Louvre, notice the glass pyramid in the background.

Here is Mary Magdalene’s tomb inside the Louvre.

Here is a hall inside the Louvre. This space was amazing.

Here is the Mona Lisa. There were only about 1000 people trying to take her picture.

Another hall in the Louvre. See the sculpture through the entryway in the distance. It’s famous. I don’t remember what it is, but lot’s of people were taking its picture. Here is a closer look from my flickr set.

I think my favorite art in the Louvre was the Egyptian art. If you know me, you shouldn’t be surprised that I liked this cat.

Here is a sphinx. This is a good example of what I think is so great about the Louvre. They don’t just throw a bunch of art into a big building, they make sure that the space complements the art inside it. It’s hard to describe, but you really should see it someday.

Here is the entrance to the Louvre under the big glass pyramid.

This was my favorite room inside the Louvre. It’s a courtyard covered by a glass roof with sculptures everywhere. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but it was amazing.

Here is the famous Louvre glass pyramid up close.

Another picture of the area outside the Louvre.

After the Louvre, we headed towards the Eiffel Tower. Here is a picture of the Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cite in the Seine. I wish you could stick your head inside this picture and look around. The scenery is tres impressive.

Here is the Eiffel Tower as seen from across the Seine on the Palais de Chaillot. I would have loved to go up the Eiffel Tower, but in the summer the lines are hours long. I wasn’t willing to waste that much time. Next time I will go to Paris in the off season. From here we walked down underneath the Eiffel Tower to the park on the other side. There are a lot of those immigrants selling miniature Eiffel Towers in this area, especially on the bridge across the Seine. When we were crossing the bridge, the Police came by to do a sweep, and they all went running. It was crazy, like 100 people went running in all different directions, and they were fast. I didn’t see the police even try to catch them though, it’s like they just wanted to scare them or something.

Here is a view of the Eiffel Tower from the Parc du Champ de Mars. People like to have picnics here and they gather in this park before sunset to see the Eiffel Tower’s lights turn on.

Only two days left. Tomorrow might be my favorite day of the trip. We take the train to Caen in Normandy and tour various D-day related sights. You will love it. You can see more pictures and a few videos from my trip here.