Even though it was only 52 degrees, it was sunny for our last day in Paris!
We took the Metro to the Place de la Concorde at around 10:00 this morning and walked from there to the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs Elysees. Interesting that many, if not most, of the shops on the Champs de Elysee were American-The Gap, Banana Republic, Adidas, and others.
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| Beginning of the Champs de Elysee. |
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| Getting close to the Arc de Triomphe |
We climbed over 200 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and were rewarded with beautiful views of all of Paris.
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| Sacre Couer |
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| Modern Paris |
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| Bottom of the Arc |
After lunch at a small cafe, we headed for the Georges Pompidou Museum of Modern Art. The entrance is a series of escalators with windows on the exterior of the building.
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| Like riding through a giant tube |
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| a juggler from the window of the escalator |
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| an interesting art cave |
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| a different take on Manet's Olympia |
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| really modern |
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| a sofa sculpture-would be cool in the living room |
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| inside the sculpture |
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| dan taking a break |
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| Dan looking at exhibit |
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| one of my favorites at this museum |
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| I was trying to figure this one out-either a flock of people with silver raincoats bending over in homage to someone or lots of air vents. what do you think? |
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| After the museum, we just walked around the neighborhood heading to Ile de St. Louis. |
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| Everywhere you go in Paris, it's beautiful. This is going over the bridge to Ile de St. Louis. |
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| Book sellers are everywhere along the Seine. I didn't see anyone with an e reader. They still read real books over here. |
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| Ah, Paris. Must we go? |
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| I want to stay. |
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Deep sigh.
After a short break it was off for dinner. We decided to stay close to the hotel, so found a little Italian restaurant, Le Petit Italien. The people there were very friendly and we were hungry, so we forgot to take pictures of the food until we both had a bite.
And after the meal the waitress brought us a couple of small glasses of Lemoncello. Susan liked hers and asked what it was, so the waitress brought her another glass!
Then we went outside and it was raining! It wasn't supposed to rain this evening, so I hadn't brought my pack with the umbrella in it. But it wasn't too bad and we made it back without getting soaked.
Tomorrow we fly to Toulouse and start the car journey portion of our trip.
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One of the pictures you took from the Arc de Triomphe showing the Eiffel Tower and a large office building nearby reminded me of something our guide told us while we were in Paris.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Eiffel Tower was proposed many Parisians did not want it built "for artistic reasons." They were mollified by the fact that the original permit for the tower said it would be torn down in 20 years. (So much for government promises.)
Then in 1972 the Montparnasse Tower (the big office building) was opened. Once again the Parisians were outraged. So much so that two years later a law was passed to prevent skyscraper from being built in the city center. Now all such buildings are bunched together in the "downtown" business area.
Since then the Parisians refer to the Montparnasse Tower as "The box the Eiffel Tower came in."