Day One in Paris

Slept in today, nice breakfast at the Marriott is included with our room. Then we headed out to begin our exploration of Paris. First stop: the top of L'Arc de Triumphe. Bought 2-day Museum Passes here, these are the best value in France! After climbing lots of stairs, we made it to the top, and had a great view of Paris. Never realized how big this city is, the business district, called La Defense, creates quite a modem sky-line. 

View down Champs Elysees to The Louvre

La Defense

Then we walked down the Champs Elysees to the Louvre. This museum is enormous and totally overwhelming, so we only did the wing with Italian painters so we could see the Mona Lisa. There were massive crowds all around trying to get pictures, luckily Kevin has the new camera with a super zoom lens (and he is tall) so he was able to get a really good shot.

From the Louvre, we walked along the Seine to Ile de la Cite. 

We went into Saint Chapelle, something we probably would've skipped without the Museum Pass, but it was really unique and beautiful, and I would recommend it to everyone. It is a small chapel completed in 1248 by Louis IX with fifteen enormous stained glass windows that tell the biblical story from Genesis to the Apocalypse. 

After Saint Chapelle, we went to Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a gothic cathedral dating back to 1163. This is an amazing cathedral, but unfortunately we were there too late to climb up to the top of the towers for a look at rooftops of Ile de la Cite. After Notre Dame, we needed a break…so we had a glass of wine at a wine bar / restaurant set up on a river boat across from Notre Dame.  

We took the Metro to Le Tour Eiffel and walked through the nearby park. Since we've both been up on the Eiffel Tower before, and there was a really long line, we decided to skip going up. There is some construction going on so good photo ops were minimal…bummer. 

Then we headed back towards the hotel and stopped for dinner at a nice little restaurant Le Petit Marius with lots of seafood dishes. The restaurant is in a really nice neighborhood. Then back to the hotel…we were exhausted!