Here we are at the Arc de Triomph. I personally believe that from atop here you have the BEST view of Paris. Some say Sacre Core but it's so crowded there and it's hard to see the layout. I LOVED it here!!
Trying to look triumphant...
The Arc is in the middle of a rotary or traffic circle as some would call it so you have to go in a tunnel under the road to get there. It is a SUPER busy rotary too!!
Of course the Arc was massive!
The view of the streets below from the top. It's a long climb. We waited here until sunset so we could see the Eifel Tower lights up.
You can see how the streets are designed in diagonals that meet at the arc. I guess they have a building restriction on how tall buildings can be so the Eifel Tower really sticks out. There are some bigger buildings in downtown but not in this area.
And the tower lights up! This was 9pm so we had a ways to go!
Me with Darlene and Carly. They were also from our tour and so much fun. They were from Canada. They stayed a few extra days in Paris too so we kept running into them in the most random places. It was hilarious!
And then when it gets really dark the tower sparkles on every hour. Now...I'm thinking oh yeah some lights go on and off. NO! This thing SPARKLES!! It's like a big time light show. It's pretty cool!
Still waiting for it to get really dark so you can see what I mean. SPARKLE SPARKLE
The streets below.
So....we have SO MANY pictures of this tower it's rediculous!
The stairs down and down and down the arc. I got really dizzy. And of course it's high so I got even dizzier when I looked down. I was taking it pretty slow and we got pushed past. Ahh...gotta love the Parisians!
This is when it's sparkling at about 11pm. It's so bright when it sparkles! The poor people who have to try and sleep near it! But it sure was pretty!!
Trying to avoid all the people trying to sell us stuff!
This is what it looks like at night when it isn't sparkling.
And I think this was my favorite shot taken from one of the bridge across the Seine River.
Here we are at a French outdoor market. Yes...that is pig's feet. We bought some olives, hummus, and sun dried tomatoes from this market. They were so good!!
And this was a normal grocery store. I'm not sure what these are called but they are little lemon filled cakes with sugar on top. OH MY GOSH!!! SO GOOD!! The French pastries...don't get me started. AMAZING!!
We thought theses shopping carts were so cool!
So...when the French gave us our Statue of Liberty for our indepence..yeah...this is what we gave them back for theirs...pretty small...the Australians thought this was the real size of the one in New York. I was trying to explain that it's like 10 times this size.
At this point in the trip we were really missing America.
Up close and personal with the Eifel Tower at the park it lives in.
I had to almost lay in the dirt to get the whole thing in.
Saint Chapelle!!!! I have been wanting to go here for SO LONG!! Thank you Mr. Fleming for introducing me to this amazing place!
When you walk in you just see this simple chapel. Then you walk up these stone spiral staircases and...
You see the most amazing cathedral known for it's AMAZING stained glass.
The colors in here are so amazing! Especially when the sun shines through. I'm a big fan of dark vivid colors so this place was like heaven on earth for me!
Another rose window.
I was in heaven here!!
Exiting the chapel.
This picture is a little out of order. This is the Van Gogh famous Fox Glove picture. It was Chris' favorite for the story too because he had acute angina (a heart condition) and this is the fox glove leaf that was prescribed to him by his doctor in his hand. It is also what made his eye sight see a yellowish hew which you see in some of his paintings later on in his life.
And of course his famous self portrait. These paintings are in the Muse d'Orsay which you will see in a couple pictures from now.
And what museum is this?? Not a museum. It's a mosarium (spelling?) for Napolean. Yep...that is his tomb. Go figure...
And this is his casket. Yes...that is just for him. Not for him and his entire army. Wow!
The entire building was just for him and had sculptures of some of his greatest accomplishments.
And don't forget...it came complete with his own gold dome.
And here we are at the Muse d'Orsay which I LOVED. It was really cool because this museum was the old Paris train station. So it has a lot of character and charm besides what it holds inside. It reminded me of some of the train stations you see in Boston and New York.
The museum has two HUGE clocks and this is from the inside looking out.
You can see Sacre Cour in the background on the hilltop.
Fast forward...this is us at Sacre Cour. This is the view of Paris from the steps.
And here is the cathedral from the steps. It's a very very busy place with LOTS of crowds. We had some very interesting experiences here. Someone grabbed Chris and the organist inside the church was playing the CREEPIEST music!! It wasn't church music. It was more like what you would here in a haunted house. It was very strange. But it was very pretty inside!
This guy was performing to Micheal Jackson and doing these AMAZING tricks with the soccer ball. He had incredible control.
And next to Sacre Cour is this beautiful peaceful square called Monmartre where you can see all kinds of artists doing portraits and paintings. It was really cool. We particularly liked this piece.
And here is a musician playing music. He was REALLY good and the music was very piecful and pretty.
And we thought this was really funny. People in france carry baguettes like luggage. It's so funny to just see people walking around with these random baguettes. No wrapping. Just bread. And MAN was that bread good too!!
Our master.
