Eiffel Tour And So Much More

I begin this post with the request that you please forgive all my typos... I'm using Annette's laptop (I'm a PC... Annette is a MAC, and yet somehow we still remain friends) and I struggle sometimes with the keyboard.

We began our day with a quick visit to the Louvre. Although we previously visited Paris, the Louvre was the one place that both families choose to miss last vacation so getting to see a few of the famous works was AMAZING!

I have always been fascinated by Greek mythology and Greco-Roman history and I love statues so it was really nice for me. Matt and I walked around with our guide Amanda while the kids sort of went their own way.

This ist he Winged Victory Statue found in Turkey.

We continued our day with a walking tour of Monmarte. This is the home of the Moulin Rouge AND the "red-light" district. It is also the home of many artists. As well, in an attempt to clear the riff-raff, the Sacre-Coeur was built.  We walked to a new area behind the large church... for info on Sacre Coeur see our previous blog. I wanted to talk about the new find! We saw the last remaining vinyard (it's tiny) and one of two remaining working windmills but the BEST part for me was to see the artists, some of whom sell their art in the vending booths along the Seine, were actually working on their paintings. They are BEAUTIFUL (some of them anyway. And I absolutely fell in love with one Paris Street painting being completed by an Asian French artist named Kenny. I would have loved to have had his painting but they were WAY more money because of course they are properly mounted and it would have been much too difficult to transport it home. It was a gorgeous scene and I would have loved to see it hanging in my dining room.

As you can see it was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day. Looks like the only nice day for weather for our whole trip.

This is me at the middle of the hill leading down from the artists district back into the bottom of the barrel ... I mean the less neat, clean and tidy area overrun by thieves, beggars and gypsies otherwise known as Montmartre.

We took the metro back to our hotels to freshen up before our group dinner. It was yummy - I had chicken and it was so tasty... :) I love Paris! I love the food, the atmosphere, the culture, the attractions, museums the cobblestone streets, the old architecture... I could do without the drunks, which I will tell you about in a moment, but I do love this city and hope to be back some time just to take it all in again three days is just not enough time to really enjoy Paris.

We had our group dinner. As i mentioned it was tasty...then most of the group went off to the Eiffel Tour while I stayed behind to ensure the sick student could get there if she needed to. Turns out all is good, she is healthy again and was just fighting a bug - for that we are ALL very thankful. Anyway, the group had gone on without me and Matt said he'd meet me under the tower so I hurried my way there with my student in tow. We arrived (quite late) to the tower and I was afraid we'd missed our group. It wasn't very busy at the tower and I didn't see them, but as it turns out, they were JUST getting ready to load into the tower so we made it just in time. And As promised, Matt was waiting for me with three tickets to take me up the tower.

I have to say, I loved the view from the Arch de Triomphe. It was beautiful and breathtaking...but being at the top level of the Eiffel Tour has brought me to tears TWICE. I don't know what it is but the experience just knocks my socks of. I'm just crazy about it!

As you can see it was PRETTY WINDY up there - a warm day but a chilly wind. The view just took my breath away!

The evening ended with a long walk to the Metro and a couple of trains/transfers to our hotel in Chatelet but it was fun and I'm so glad the student was finally well enough to take in some of Paris's sites.

We have bed checks and packing to do as we leave for Avignon in the morning nice and early on the TGV 6111. :) I'm excited for that.