Day 3 - Paris in a Nutshell, River Seine Cruise, Eiffel Tower & Les Invalides

The pressure was on... Could we get to the meeting point on Rue Rivolli before the tour bus left? Teresa, you would have died!! We had to walk 10 minutes to a train station that would get us to Tuilliers station which was the closest to our meeting point. We had to be there by 8:45 for a 9am departure. We left our apartment at 8:30! Oh well, we made it, all be it with minutes to spare - but at least we weren't the last ones to get on. Always a good save. It went something like this:
Ben: We're going the wrong way
Lee: No I'm not, I Google Mapped it. This is the way
Ben: We're going to be late
Lee: Kids, watch the dog shit

I'm telling you, for such a proud clean city, there is SO MUCH dog poops everywhere! I feel like I'm walking through land mines! Hence, the Quote of the day was born "Oooo that's a Mother Load ..." - Nic (who else?)

So the bus took us around a quick little highlights tour

The World Famous Ritz

L'Opera

Bastille

The Peoples assembly
"parliament"

The Obelisk on Place de la Concorde

Arc du Triumph

We all know what this is called

From our River Cruise as it departed

Absolute perfect day in Paris 

The Pont Alexandre 111

Nic enjoying the view 

Who's that good looking bloke with Lee 

Hotel De Ville

From the first floor of the Eiffel Tower after we had lunch at 58.

When the tour guide asked our group if anyone knew why the restaurant was called 58, none of the adults answered. Nic pipes up with "Because we are 58 meters up?" - YEP!

Even a long way up from the first floor

From on top of the Eiffel Tower

Sydney is 19,962km that direction

Les Invalides - a war museum and where Napoleon's tomb lies

"Ready Aim Fire"

And everybody thought the Koutas were excessive

oh ho ho - Mon Cherie

12 hours later we got to see the lady in her evening dress

and she really is spectacular!

Quote of the day:

"That's a Mother Load of light!"

x

Day 2 - Place de Vosage to The Louvre

Why is it that even Vegemite on toast tastes better in Paris? I'm telling you, these people know how to make bread! You see Parisians walking around munching on baguettes all day long. With all those carbs, why are they so thin???? 

We set off mid morning to the Louvre. We decided we would wind our way through Le Marais and enjoy the half hour walk there which ended up talking up 3 hours. On our way we stopped at the Place de Vosage, which is a beautiful garden which must have once been the private gardens to the Palace that surrounds it. 

Victor Hugo that wrote Les Miserables lived here for a while.

 The park was lovely and there was some play equipment that the kids had a ball on. We met a tour group of teenagers from Wisconsin, USA who fell in love with the kids. One of them even got Nic & Liv to sign her sneaker!

The Boulangeries have the most enticing window displays, I swear I'd love to eat my way through every item on display, but for now I have been happy to feast my eyes (I'm not sure how long that will last...)

 Even the Easter displays are wonderful.

The Louvre is so awe inspiring. When you are surrounded by the grandness of the buildings, you just can't even fathom the opulence and the riches that these palace owners possessed.

So, when you walk through room after room of magnificent paintings, some of them unbelievably huge and then you finally get to the Mona Lisa, it's a bit of an anti climax I reckon. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's got a wonderful almost lifelike quality to it, but the sheer size of it in comparison to a lot of the other pieces is almost funny. 

 On one end of the room you have this 'tiny little painting' and then you turn around 180 degrees and on the totally opposite wall has a painting so huge, it's laughable that everyone is jostling to see the magnificence of this tiny painting and barely noticing the brilliance on the other 3 walls.

 ...but then again, I'm no expert... but I'm happy to share my ignorance with the world.

 Room after room, wall after wall, FULL of unbelievable art work and all Nicholas wants to know is what does he need to do to get one of his paintings up on the wall? 

 Claude Monet

Just a warm up for Disneyland on Monday.

Got a big day tomorrow. Meeting at 9am for our Paris in a Nutshell tour, River Seine Cruise and Lunch at the Eiffel Tower. Must go get some rest.

X

Quote of the Day:

When the waiter said to us after dinner "I'll see you tomorrow maybe" in his French Accent, Nicholas answered "If I get out of mai pa-ja-mers" in his French accent.

Too funny.

Oh, I missed yesterday's quote of the day:

"Check out the daggy ankles on THAT horse" (see below)

- -