Tennis, Towers and Water Lilies


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Europe » France
November 26th 2014
Published: July 7th 2017
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Geo: 48.8566, 2.35097

This morning was all about Matthew. He wanted to see Roland Garros stadium, which is where the French Open is held each year. I discovered there was a museum and stadium tour, so we had reserved spots on the 11 am tour and headed out to be there when the museum opened at 10. First we had to stop for breakfast of Nutella covered gaufres, or waffles as we call them. They were a chocolate mess and a great start to the morning! Roland Garros is very easy to find. We took the metro from near the Eiffel Tower, had to change trains once and then a short walk to the stadium. Matthew went into the museum while Renee and I waited outside (we are not that excited about tennis!) and enjoyed the quiet. Our tour started promptly at 11 and I was surprised by the number of people that were there, maybe 15ish. I guess a tennis stadium tour is more popular than I thought! Our guide was very nice and showed us around the complex, first with the Suzanne Lenglen court, then the press area and winner's interview room, the men's locker room and then the Philippe Chatrier court. Matthew was pretty excited to sit in the same seat that Roger Federer has sat in and to sneakily touch the red clay court. So that was the tennis tour. Oh, on our walk back to the metro, a lady on a bike went past and she was pulling a little wagon with a big fluffy dog in it! Super cute!

Back on the metro to the Eiffel Tower. Today was a cloudy day and we had hoped it would have cleared up some, but the top was still shrouded in clouds. It was a lot less busy than the previous time we were there. After a quick lunch, we got in line to head up. Renee and I took the elevator, while Matthew took the stairs. The 2nd level offers some pretty good views, even with the clouds. The wind was pretty chilly though. We couldn't find Matthew and figured he wasn't there yet. After awhile, we thought maybe he went all the way up to the top without us so I went up to look. He wasn't there and it was pretty cloudy. I could faintly see the ground, but it was pretty far and scary so I went back down. Turns out, he had been on the 2nd level all along, just on the upper part and we hadn't seen him. Yet another fun vacation adventure! We all took the stairs down, stopping on the 1st level to see about braving the glass floors. Our feet only made it a small way out before we stopped and that was enough. We finally reached the ground level, where it was much warmer than up in the air and a bit misty.

Back on the metro to our last sightseeing stop of the trip, the Musee de l'Orangerie. This museum is located on the edge of the Tuileries Garden in a much smaller building than either of the other art museums we saw. This museum houses 8 panels of Monet waterlilies, which were painted here in rooms that Monet himself helped design. I thought there were going to be more works by Monet here, but the 8 panels are very large and are in two circular rooms where people are very quiet and you can enjoy the paintings. When we got there, there was no line to get in (it was after 4:00) and this is again part of the Museum Pass. There are also works by Rodin, Picasso and others on the lower level. And again there is no photography allowed.

Our way back to the hotel was back up the Champs-Elysees through the Christmas Market. It was much busier than Monday due to the later hour. We walked along slowly and enjoyed the sights and smells. I envision a Christmas Market as selling lots of Christmas things, but many of the stalls were Paris souvenirs or scarves or phone covers or food. Not a lot of Christmasy things. But the music is Christmas music and the lights were twinkling and the mist was misting and it was cooler than all the other days.

Our last dinner was at the same cafe we ate the other night when we had escargots. We did not order them again! I was just happy to sit down. The day started out with my legs feeling much better, but then we were standing around at Roland Garros and that seems to be the culprit. Tomorrow we have about 11ish hours total in airplanes, which will be too much sitting but welcome after all the walking and sightseeing we have done on our trip! We did about 7.9 miles today.



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26th November 2014

Great day. Have a safe trip home! The dogs will be happy to see you all.
27th November 2014

Sounds like a wonderful trip! Can't wait to see you Friday, so get lots of sleep on the plane!

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