The Beautiful Paris

Paris gave the phrase strolling down the street its meaning. What a beatuiful city. It's full of museums and cafes. Just like the movies. Except yes, we had many encouters with very unpleasant French people. But we had enough pleasant encounters as well to counter act it. We had three completely full days of sights in Paris. If you need a sightseeing itinerary, here is ours and it served us well :)

Wednesday: Pantheon, Walking tour, Eiffel Tower, Trocadero and Palais de Challiot, and a boat ride down the Seine River!

We started out in the morning at the Pantheon. (I passed for a 17 year old and got in for free!) It is a really impressive buildling. It used to be a church but is now a burial place for the distingished. We saw Rousseau's tomb in there and several kings.

We split up in the afternoon and I went on a walking tour. A very interesting one about the graphic, gruesome French history. Quite eye opening. These people were sick. But we toured all over and had a great day. It just so happened that another friend from Munich, Cristina, was there at the same time as us so we met up and got to play all day!

Thursday: Saint Chapelle Church, Conciergerie (where Marie Antonette was kept in prison),  the Rodin Museum, shopped and strolled down the Champs Elysees street, went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, and a long walk back to the hotel (yes, we walked, for some reason).

Saint Chapelle is the most beautiful stain glass church. The entire place was covered perfectly with biblical stories on colored glass.

We went to this museum just to see the Thinker statue.

 The Champs Elysees Street leads right up to the Arc de Triomphe monument.

 There is a traffic round about of chaos and death that circle it. I wouldn't make it out of that. But the view from the top is really spectacular because several streets come in all at different sides of the circle. It is quite the 360 view.

Friday (Chrunch time): Climb the steps of the Eiffel Tower (a bucket list item, check), Montmarte district and Basillica, Notre Dame, ending at the Louvre.

Where every tourist in Paris goes to. We waited in line only 5 minutes - get there early!

 A gray day, but no rain.

This district is up on a hill top in Paris and is known to be an artist district from past and present.

All the artist have a little stand set up on the street. They were painting and making charicatures. It was really cool. Katy and Aunt Kathy even bought a painting there.

This is one of my most incredible buildings I've ever seen. Inside and out and every side of it is stunning.

And of course we had to go to the Louvre to see all the world famous art. We only had a few hours in there but we got to see a lot; the Mona Lisa of course, 3,000 year old Egyptian works, and endless halls of historical paintings. We stayed until closing at nearly 10pm and had a great time even though it was a little rushed.

This city is amazing! But I'm ready to go home to Texas!

Saturday: Airport.