You say it's your birthday....

Yep, I'm another year older. Wow, do I look like a little boy in that pic or what? Good thing it was a pink jumper!

Day 5: Versailles

Moving right along with our Paris trip....



On our 5th day we took a trip out to visit Versailles, which was a 30 minute train ride outside of the city. The palace was immense and a bit overwheliming with all the ornateness. My favorite part was the grounds, which seemed to go on as far as the eye could see.



Inside the palace, we toured the private apartments of the king and queen.





It seemed like the beds were so small!

We also went through the hall of mirrors.







We couldn't go inside the chapel, but I got a good photo.



Once outside we walked down to the great canal, then over to the Petit and Grand Trianon, "smaller" palaces (if there is such a thing).



It was a lot less crowded there, probably because most don't make the 20 or so minute walk, although they did have bikes for rent.



The Petit Trianon was a favorite of Marie Antoinette, who had a little hamlet village recreated on the property.





This was called the Temple of Love.



Once we got home, we rented the movie Marie Antionette because it was filmed on location at Versailles. We enjoyed seeing the palace again through the movie.

Day 4: The Marais, Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower

It has been 2 months since my trip, but I'm only on day 4!! To speed it up, there will be less text and more pictures.

On our 4th day we ventured through the Marais, visiting the Place de la Bastille, the Promenede Plantee and the Place des Vosges. We walked through the Ile St-Louis and Ile de la Cite and toured the Notre Dame. Later that evening, we went up to the Eiffel Tower. We only went up to the 2nd level, as the 3rd was closed.

Day 3: The Louvre, Tuileries and Arc de Triomphe

Day 3 started at th Louvre. We walked around the beautiful museum grounds and the Tuileries before heading into the museum.







Inside the museum, we visited the "must see" exhibits.





We could only get about 20 feet away from the Mona Lisa, and even then I had to hold the camera up over my head to get a photo.

Later that evening, we visited the Arc de Triomph, one of my favorite things we did. We planned to go in the evening to watch the sunset and see the Eiffel Tower lights go on. What we didn't realize when we headed out about 8:30pm, is that the sun doesn't set until very late - it was nearly 10pm before the sun dipped down. But that was ok, we enjoyed hanging out on top of the Arc.















After we came back down from the Arc, Jeff was standing on one of the uplights that lit the Arc in the evening.



As we walked home down the Champs-Elysee, we crossed the Seine on the Pont Alexandre III bridge, and I took what has to be my favorite photo from our trip, this view of the Eiffel Tower.

Paris Day 2: Invalides and Sacre Coeur

After walking through the Rodin garden we headed over to the Invalides, where the main attraction was Napoleon's Tomb. Jeff was fascinated with Napoleon and we couldn't get over the scale of the room and how massive the tomb was.



They also have a very good WWII museum on site and beautiful gardens. It was interesting to get a European perspective on the war, and to understand what happened in Paris when they were occupied.





Later in the day we went to Monmarte to walk around and visit the Sacre Coeur. Monmarte was a lot of fun - small, winding streets with lots of shops and food vendors. Did I mention how hilly it was? We stopped for some crepes before making the final climb up to Sacre Coeur. There were a ton of people all around Sacre Coeur, its got great views of the city and its a beautiful church.







The metro stop near Sacre Coeur is one of the few remaining in the original Art Nouveau style.