Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Paris

For our first trip to Europe we spent a weekend in Paris! We began our trip with an early Eurostar train trip under the channel and spent three days exploring the city.


The river Seine.


Our first stop in Paris was Notre Dame.


The church inside is magnificent.


Kelly lights a candle.


Out the back of Notre Dame.


A cheese shop window on the Ile St-Louis.


A bit of nudity. We decided to get some stone carvings done while we were in Paris! What do you think!


It is a long way down the side of the Eiffel Tower.


We made it to the top. Apart from being windy there are great views across all of greater Paris. We found it good to go up the tower last thing in the trip so that we could have a look at all of the places we had been to.


The view up from the second level.


Having fun around the Eiffel Tower!


Us at the top of the Arc de Triomph.


The Eiffel Tower by night. At around 8.30 pm the tower puts on a sparkling light display - it was stunning to watch.


The view of Arc de Triomph from the Eiffel Tower.


The Arc de Triomph, in the centre of Place de Charles de Gaulle. Napoleon built the arches so that his men could go home beneath triumphal arches after battle.


Oh, if only we were cycling along this. The Champs-Elysees (the road leading up to the Arc de Triomph) is a 24 hour busy thoroughfare for traffic and a shopping / dining strip for the rich (a bottle Coke nearly costs as much as a bowl of pasta). Some of the shops include Cartiers, Peugeot and Loiu Voton.


The Arc de Triomph by night.


The Champs-Elysees by night, from atop the Arc de Triomph.


The Louvre is one of the main attractions of Paris - even more so with the ever-touted Da-Vinci Code book and soon to be movie. It is, however, interesting to link the scenes of the opening chapters of the books with the galleries in the museum. On the first Sunday of each month entry is free the national museums in Paris, luckily we were there on one. The queue for the Louvre stretched all the way around the courtyard of the Louvre and for the time that we queued it was raining. The museum is very interesting and even with a lot of people in it, it is easy to get around and see all of the famous items. It is also very easy to get lost inside the maze of corridors and rooms.


"Mmmmm... Gummy de Milo", oh Homer, we understand how irresitible you found her. We found the somewhat hardened version of her with Venus de Milo.


The Place de la Concorde. The large round-about is at the bottom of the Champs-Elysees. This square is very large, covering a total of 8 hectares.


Like the Louvre, the Musee Rodin was free for the first Sunday in the month. The museum has very nice gardens that host many of Rodin's famous sculptures, such as The Thinker aka Liam(pictured), The Gates of Hell, with Adam and Eve.


Jardin du Luxembourg, looking over the Octagonal Lake to Palais du Luxembourg. The park is one of the most popular in Paris.

1 comment:

devongirlie said...

The Eiffel tower by night is also a glorious sight. Much better I think than the Arc De Triomphe (OK I know I spelt that wrong, but its late and my brain hurts)