Paris and River Cruise

Kelly and I were going over to Paris to watch the last stage of the Tour de France. Since we had already had a trip to Paris we were hoping to take it easy. We flew into Paris on Saturday morning and went to our hotel. Kelly had seen the outside of the Opera house in her trip over with Karenlea and wanted to see inside, so that was our first stop in the afternoon.

As you can see from the photos the Opera house is really quite grand, but it doesn't have that self-important feeling that comes with a palace building. We also visited La Madeleine, a church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. Not only is the interior eerily beautiful, the building itself is huge and looks directly down a hill to the Place de la Concorde. It is one of the best best buildings in Paris.

That night we decided to take a dinner cruise on the Sienne and see all of the sights of Paris from a different angle. It was a wonderful cruise - a full three course meal, champagne, red and white wine, glass top boat and a nice sunset. I had an escargot spring roll for entree, Kelly politely refused my offer to share. The cruise lasted for 3 hours and went from the Eiffel Tower, up past Notre Dame and back again. In between meal courses you could watch the sights go by or stroll out to the back deck and look at the people going past, enjoying a summer's evening.

After the cruise we walked back up through Trocadero and sat and watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle. We enjoyed our day in Paris and were looking forward for the Tour de France stage the next day.

Paris