Paris

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Paris is a beautiful city, full of old and beautiful architecture. Full of beautiful people too! We couldn't get over how good looking, and well groomed everyone was! Male and female both, they were definitely pleasing to the eye - good to know that all those rumours have some truth to them!

And there were designer stores everywhere!! Certainly not something we see too much of in lovely, down to earth Perth 😊

We saw the famous Moulin Rouge (French for 'Red Mill'), nestled on the streets of the Red Light District (though a show there was out of the question on our backpacker's budgets as a standing ticket alone was over 100 euro!!)..

We did a da Vinci Code Tour walking through the city - definitely recommend it regardless of if you have read the book or not! We started outside the oppulent Ritz Hotel, where the book begins... Mercedes and Bentleys pulled up at the entrance as we watched..

The walk took us through Tuileries Gardens near the Louvre - one of the first gardens which were opened to the public apparently, and which has served as a prototype for many public gardens across Europe.

Onto the Louvre - what can be said about the Musee du Louvre? It was originally a royal castle which was started around 1535. Now it is known throughout the world as one of the largest and most important (not to mention most reknowned) art galleries in the modern world. It houses some great arts of work like Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (which unfortunately cannot be photographed) and Virgin of the Rocks, and Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Millo.

I must say, the Venus was spectacular. Mona Lisa though.... how can I say this?... was a little bit disappointing. Throngs of people surrounded what you can only describe as a tiny painting - no larger than A3! Maybe it was due to all the jostling and the security guards screaming 'NO PHOTO!!', but somehow the magic of what is one of the most well known paintings in the world was lost on me... shame..

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Photos

Paris by dusk..
Lots of little cafes and restaurants spill out onto the street as the French, and visiting tourists, watch the world go by...

Gare du Nord
A magnificent building? Yes. An important building? Well, if you call a train station an important building :)

Karl Lagerfeld shop...
Don't even look in the window! You can't afford it!!!

Cartier...
need i say more?

Tuileries Gardens
a glimpse of a corner of the Louvre

Musee du Louvre
It is near impossible to get this ginormous structure into one shot... it is breathtaking and awe inspiring all at once

Venus de Milo
A marble statue of the Aphrodite (known as Venus by the Greeks), the goddess of love and beauty, she stands slightly larger than life size at just over 2m tall

The Inverted Pyramid
..the alleged location of the Holy Grail, according to Mr. Brown