Blogs from Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe - page 383

So we have pretty much covered all of our bases in Paris. We went to Versailles yesterday and spent the day in awe of Louis XIV and his expensive taste....the boys liked the gardens a lot, which seemed to stretch on for miles. We took it slow today being that it is Sunday and most things are closed, except for the museums, so we went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. But I realized soon that art for the boys weakens their attention spans, so we raced through the Louvre as their appetites got the best of them. We had a picnic at the Jardins des Tuileries. The boys amused themselves while they threw bread at the pigeons that flocked the grounds. Tomorrow we are going to Caen, about ... read more

Hi So yesterday morning, at about 5 am, we left our hot hotel room with the broken shower in Milan and walked to the station, it was very beautiful, and unlike the hotel, less humid. We got a crossant with jam and hopped on our 8 hour train ride, which was very scenic, it went through the alps to Paris. Its very hot here, about 30 degrees. We walked, taking a long way, our lonely planet map was awful, to St Germain des Pres which was built in 1055, has Descartes tomb and a monument to the first bishop of New France. We then walked to Ile St Denis to try ice cream, from Bethillion, a famous and incredibly good ice cream shop. We ate it in the park behind Notre Dame and since the crowds ... read more

Eiffel Tower Day! Some people don't think that the 900 ft. view over Paris from Eiffel Tower is worth the crowds, hassle, and time and I understand their reasoning. We arrived early and fought our way to the top and then spent the afternoon relaxing and exploring French markets on the nearby Rue Cler. ... read more

Why did we visit the Museé D'Orsay on a Tuesday? The Louvre is closed so everyone is here. Inside the museum, it's all about Impressionism buffered by the Realism, Classism and Naturalism that preceeded it and the Pointilism, Primitivism, and Post-Impressionism that well, proceeded it. It's interesting and pleasing but betwen Seurat print umbrellas and Van Gogh calenders I'm at the point where I think Impressionism is hurting art as now as much as it helped it 90 years ago. We were saved fromthe crowds by some excellent sculpture by Rodin and his muse/pupil/lover Camille Claudet. Looking forward to visiting the Museé Rodin later this week. Between the bread, wine, and cheese alone, the gastro-tourism part of the trip has been fantastic. Today we ate these Egyptian oranges (oooo, ahhhhh... fascinating) that were amazing. We've also ... read more

Well, all is going well, and I'm enjoying myself. But I got off to a rather shaky start here. I arrived in Paris around 2000 hours on Friday and didn't really know where to start. But since I had all my luggage (a very heavy backpack, and a small bag), it definitely seemed best to get a room for the night asap. Common sense prevails. However, this seemingly simple process ran me into a wall, for some reason every single room was filled in every hotel I went into. This got me a little worried, and after 2 hours I was getting sore and tired, and It was getting dark. Luckily around that time (2200) I checked a hotel called the Hotel California, and they had a room available, and by this time price had ceased ... read more