Day 3: Paris

Today is day 3 in Paris, our last full day. We started out our day walking to visit the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, a few blocks north of the river across from our apartment.

The first thing we saw along the way was the Conciergerie. This former royal palace was converted to a prison during the French Revolution and housed famous prisoners such as Marie-Antoinette.

Then we passed this Gothic tower which we later learned was called the Tour St-Jacques and is the only remaining part of a church that was destroyed during the revolution.

We also passed by the Centre Pompidou which has a very industrial style.

At last we made it to the Musée des Arts et Metiers. Kuba was too busy playing with all the tech things inside (I think they're for kids Kuba... :p) so we didn't take too many pictures. There was this really cool "plane" designed to fly like a bat. Not sure if it ever worked....

Avion III by Clément Ader

Isabel standing in the hall of great flying contraptions - located inside the museum's church

After leaving the museum we took the metro north to the beautiful neighbourhood of Montmartre.

Église Saint-Jean de Monmartre

The hilly neighbourhood is famous as it was once the artistic center of Paris where lots of artists lived and worked. It's also where you can find the Moulin Rouge.

We didn't go inside the Musée de Montmartre, but this building at 8-14 rue Cortot which was home to many artists including Renoit.

Musée de Montmartre

Moulin Rouge

Lunch time in Montmartre

Montmartre Water Tower

Eventually we made it to the main attraction in Montmartre, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica.

Walking down the steps from the basilica

Sacré-Coeur basilica from the bottom of the hill

Once we got to the bottom we got chocolate-banana crêpes!

At the end of the day we made our way to the Canal Saint-Martin. It was much longer than we expected so we didn't walk the whole thing, but it was a very nice stroll along the water. There were also lots of people sitting along the banks drinking beer and wine.

Canal Saint-Martin

A nice garden by the Saint-Louis Hospital.

This is as far as we made it along Canal Saint-Martin, but this nice fountain looked like a good stopping point.

We then took the metro back to the Latin Quarter, and walked south to the Panthéon. This is currently used as a tomb and memorial for certain famous french people. It appears to be under construction at the moment, but we get the idea of the impressiveness of the building.

We continued walking through the Latin Quarter, and saw several interesting churches and buildings - including la Sorbonne university!

Église St-Étienne-du-Mont

Université Paris-Sorbonne

Latin Quarter at night

Tomorrow morning we are taking the train to the south of France to visit Cynthia! We are very excited!!

Day 2: Paris

This morning we went out for breakfast (crêpes!), then we walked around the neighbourhood Saint-Germain-des-Prés. We found this polish bookstore!

This is the church Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which is the oldest church in Paris (6th century according to our guide book).

Saint-Germain-des-Prés

We then walked to the Musée d'Orsay. We had to wait in line for a long time to get into the museum, but fortunately it had stopped raining by then. Once inside, we saw a lot of beautiful artwork. The museum houses artwork dating from 1848-1914. We particularly liked the galleries with Naturalism style paintings. We weren't able to take any pictures inside the galleries, but the building that houses the museum is also very impressive. It is an old train station, that has been converted to a museum. There are two large clocks on the outside and a large ornate clock inside (seen below, behind Kuba)

Interior of Musée d'Orsay

View of Sacré Coeur basilica from behind the clock in the Musée d'Orsay

Exterior of Musée d'Orsay, Isabel very pleased with baguette sandwich

We then took the metro to l'Arc de Triomphe, and crossed underneath the road to get a close view of the arch. There was a ceremony taking place beneath the arch at the time. L'Arc was commissioned by Napoleon to celebrate his army's victory in 1806. It is the largest triumphal arch in the world.

Ceremony beneath l'Arc de Triomphe

We walked back from the Arc along avenue des Champs Élysées. There was a lot to look at here... we forgot to take pictures! But there were a lot of famous chain stores. Along our walk, we saw le Grand Palais, which currently holds art exhibitions. 

We reached the Place de la Concorde, which is where the Jardin des Tuileries start. This is also where the Obélisque stands - it is originally from Egypt! We also had a beautiful view of the Eiffel Towel, back across the Seine. From there we walked through the gardens, to the Louvre.

View of Eiffel Tower from Place de la Concorde

Entrance to the Jardin des Tuileries

View of l'Arc de Tromphe and l'Obélisque along Champs Élysées

We continued to the river, to take another boat tour - at night this time. We saw this little rat running around beside the river!

The pictures did not work very well at night, but the view from the boat was very nice. The bridges especially look impressive when lit up. This is the view of the Eifflel Tower from the boat.

Soon we will be posting about our last day in Paris...it went by so quickly!

Day 1: Paris

We have arrived in Paris for the beginning of our 5 week trip! This will be a quick post because we are both very tired from the trip. Our first act was to get crêpes from a café around the corner from our apartment.

(click on the pictures to enlarge)

After dropping off our bags, we went for a walk around the Latin Quarter near our apartment. This is Fontaine Saint-Michel.

Just a couple minutes from our apartment is the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Despite its humble appearance, there is a plaque beside this tree that says it's the oldest tree in Paris, planted in 1601.

Lots of bridges over the river are covered in locks placed there by couples.

We bought tickets for the Batobus river boat which stops at several main sites along the Seine. We got off at the Eiffel Tower. By this point it started raining, so the rest of our walk was a little wet.

This is Pont Alexandre III.

A little local advertising humour.

Musée d'Orsay, located in the former railway station Gare d'Orsay. We plan to go inside the museum tomorrow.

The night life in the Latin Quarter is a lot more vibrant than other parts of town.

Tomorrow we plan to visit some museums since it will probably be raining most of the day.