Last day in Paris

Just getting out of bed was painful! Crippled! Like a bunch of old...oh, I was gonna say grannies, but 2/3 of this trio are grannies. Debbie & Cheryl have 16 grandchildren between them! (Soon to be 18!) Yes, really! They sure don't make grandmas like they used to, eh?




So anyway - we were in pain! Whose brilliant idea was it to walk down the Eiffel Tower anyway? OW, OW, OW!

Once we got moving it wasn't so bad, but those stairs up & down to the Metro stations almost killed us. OW, OW, OW!

We decided on a hop-on, hop-off Seine river cruise. Of course, in our case, it was more of a hobble-on, hobble-off cruise. OW, OW, OW!




One of our fellow passengers. I know, right?!




The Musée d'Orsay, home to the largest collection of impressionist, and post- impressionist artworks.




Wandering around the streets in the St. Germain area.







How handy is this? A tiny little pay-at-the-pump, roadside gas stop.




A bit of window shopping.




The Musée de Rodin. The Thinker lives in the garden there.








A lover's paradise. Just noticed that he is wearing a wedding ring.
I wonder if...




There were speakers hidden in the trees, and some creepy sort of chanting that almost sounded like breathy laughter took us off guard a few times while we strolled through the gardens.




Pretty, but not a smeller.




The dome of Les Invalides peeking out from behind the trees.




Dan & I first saw this in China. People attach locks to a bridge to symbolize eternal love. It has caught on big time in Paris. This was one of several bridges that we came across.




I'm not sure how the structure withstands the enormous weight.




Both sides of the bridge were completely covered!




Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) opened in 1345.











According to Wikipedia:
21 May 2013: Around 1,500 visitors were evacuated from Notre-Dame Cathedral after Dominique Venner, a historian, placed a letter on the Church altar and shot himself. He died immediately.

Yikes, I'm glad I didn't know that when we were there. Even gladder that we weren't there in May!













Loved the stained glass.







And that was Paris! Just the tip of the iceberg, really, but we hit most of the highlights. The rest will still be there next time.

Paris, Day 2

In which we learn how sardines feel.
Only two things on the agenda today: The Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. Should've been easy peasy, right? Wrong! Unfortunately, all of the other tourists in the city had the exact same same plans.

The Louvre.




Our clever tactic of taking the Metro to a secret stop that put us right inside the Louvre, instead of depositing us outside at the pyramid with the throngs lining up for tickets, appeared to work. We walked right up to the ticket kiosk, and had purchased our admission within about 5 minutes of arriving. Yay us!
Obviously, the Mona Lisa is the highlight of the museum for most people, so we headed there first. As did everybody else.




It was hot, and crowded, and people were unbelievably rude. There was lots of pushing & jostling to get to the front of the gallery where the tiny famous painting is. Can you see it? That's it on the far right hand side of the picture below. Can't make it out? Fine, I'll shove my way through the crowd to get closer for you.




Excuse me. Ouch. Pardon me. Oomph. Hey, watch the elbow, lady...




Really, Paris, how hard would it be to put up a freakin' velvet rope to guide people past the most popular item in the whole museum in an orderly fashion? You're welcome. My invoice for consulting services is in the mail.
Yeah, yeah, she's famous. Whatever. Who needs her? We have Cheryl.








I liked this guy, though. He's made of nails, but he's behind glass, so it was impossible to get a good picture.








Next up, Venus de Milo. Again, 20 bucks worth of velvet rope could turn a gong show into a pleasurable experience. Are you listening, Paris?




Don't forget to look up. The ceilings are amazing!




Turns out I'm not a huge fan of the old masters. In fact, I question the mental health of some of the artists that have "great works" hanging in the Louvre. I took pictures of some of them, but deleted them because they were mostly gruesome and disturbing. Beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that, this beholder's eyes must be blind.
So, we made our own art: Hee Hee.












Outside. I love the juxtaposition of the centuries-old buildings with the ultra-modern pyramid.








This guy was creating some phenomenal chalk art, and his puppy knew to stay off it. Good dog!




We wandered over to Place Concorde,




then, because we were feeling a little bit lazy after all our walking the previous day, and because it looked like fun, we hired a pedicab to haul our butts over to the Eiffel Tower.
Yeah, I don't know why I didn't get a picture of him from the front, just his sweaty back. He was kinda cute too, sorry about that.




One of the gorgeous bridges we passed along the way.












Our first daylight view.




The queue to get the tickets wasn't as bad as I'd expected. It was l-o-n-g, but moved surprisingly quite quickly. But then came the crush for the elevator, then the next line up and subsequent crush for the 2nd elevator to take us to the summit. Aaarrghh! Too many people, too close!
Ah, but worth it.
















The prospect of more pushing & shoving to get back down on the elevators was too daunting. We opted for the stairs. All 3 bazillion of them.








We just couldn't get enough of this thing!












I don't remember what happened next, but I'm betting there were pastries involved. However, I do remember that I was fighting people off all night in my sleep. Thank goodness we weren't there during the busy season!
At this rate it will take a month to recount our 2 week trip. I'll try to speed it up from now on.