Paris Altogether! (new and improved!)

Fitting the rest of our time in Paris will be as easy as fitting all of Paris into a 4 1/2 day visit, so you already know that it won't be a success. Here are the highlights. Lisa and Randy, you'll get a cd with all of the photos and a long conversation to explain them- a visit even, oui?

This is where we've purchased our morning croissant every day, across from the cafe' where we enjoy it with a coffee (and where I'm sitting as I take this photo).

Here's the bum we've watched set up shop each morning getting chewed out by a local lady,... he, he, he.

Le Metro!

We're off to start our day with Notre Dame,...
Or not.
This giant crowd, news cameras, barricades, giant video screen and police everywhere do not bode well for a tourist visit.

Kate asks a policeman what's going on, and he tells her that the President of the French Republic is there for the funeral of a Cardinal. We won't be seeing Notre Dame today.

So on to Saint Chapell, near Notre Dame. Very old cathedral, (sorry, details are getting fuzzy, but the brochures are all in my bag...) with amazing stained glass windows depicting stories from the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

Stunning.

This photo's for our Emmi, Milo and Baby Blue, tee hee hee...

Waiting for a special bus to take us to Musee d'Orsay.

A train station at least through WWII, (not sure when the trains stopped running there) Orsay has been transformed into a magnificent art museum for 19th Century art.

Among many artists with whom we're familiar, we saw Van Gogh, Manet, Tolouse-Latrec,...

and Monet!

Beautiful girls in a beautiful museum.

Now to the Tour Eiffel!

too big to to fit into one shot...

The tour buses to which we are not obligated! Of course, these folks are all ahead of us in line...

It's been misty and moisty our whole time in Paris, but the view is still amazing.

Pinch me, I'm in Paris with my baby!

An ice cream afterwards hits the spot!

Breakfast next day at our regular spot- pain au chocolate with coffee, oh yeah.

Choosing our picnic for Versailles...

Where the locals shop! How cool is that?!

On the RER on the way out to the Grand Palace.

Oh, my... here we go.

Out of a million photos we must include the hall of mirrors.

wow.

And the gardens too.

our view while picnicking.

Hungry and tired people.

Louis's backyard, oo-la-la.

Marie Antoinette.

So many flowers that I recognize from my own yard- cool!

The most beautiful ones in the palace grounds...

Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette's home away from home.

Versailles mostly seen, all that we could squeeze into our brains anyway, we get back to Paris to catch up with Notre Dame.

Stained glass and sculptures.

One of the three Rose windows.

Up one side of the nave and down the other, we saw it all!

The gargoyles are each unique.

We join a million others in an attempt to see the towers, but the line is so long, moving too slow to get in before they close, and so many around us are smoking we can barely breathe. We decide that we either must take up smoking ourselves to go along with the lung cancer we are surely getting, or leave the line and see the towers on our next trip to Paris...

So we leave the line.

This is what seeing too any statues, windows and magnificence in one day can do to a girl,... don't let it happen to you!

Refilling the water bottle from one of the public fountains!

Finishing up some shopping in our quest for the perfect gifts to take home, we wind along the busy streets with a bazillion other tourists. Crowded but fun and colorful. We're not in Grove City/ Shillington anymore!

Stopping for food. After a full day and we're still speaking- wonderful!

Fed and rested, we walk along the Seine, right bank, left bank, before heading back to the hotel.

Last morning in Paris- sniff- and we savor our coffee before storming the Louvre!

Victory! Winged Victory, that is.

And the Lady herself, Mona Lisa, surrounded by her fans and conspiracy buffs.

Where to now- the Louvre is as confusing to navigate as the back streets of the city!

Four hours later, saturated with fine art and antiquities, it's time to find Montmarte and the Place Du Tertre.

Tiny little avenue of steps, there are more than a few of these in the hilly area of Paris known as Montmartre. Oh and we're just beginning!

Found it! where the artists hang out, paint, draw, and offer their work for sale. How very Paris for us! And the sun makes her first appearance since we've arrived in Paris!

What a day!

We have now made it to Switzerland, learning a lot about the train system in the process. We are exhausted, but reviving in the fresh and quiet air of Lausanne. After London and Paris it's so refreshing! I won't be able to post anymore until I'm home. Tomorrow we are off to L'Abri and the day after Gabby and I will leave for Geneva, flying home on Thursday. When next I post I'll finish the trip photos - I promise, but for now, a nap!

Catching up the past few days...

Several days to catch up, but I'll go heavy on pictures this time- hard to resist- and keep the commentary light.

We picked Gabby up at the airport- yay!

Right away we went on a Thames River Cruise, with commentary, from Westminster Pier to the Tower of London.

Then we hopped onto the Bus tour around the whole city to give Gabby an overview of London. We hopped off at Piccadilly Circus to buy theatre tickets for the evening.

Again, sorry for the sideways photos...
Les Miz was fabulous. We laughed, we cried,...

And the next morning we were up bright and early for our guided tour of Westminster Abbey- fascinating.

The girls in the cloisters.

And all of us in the cloister garden.

Back to the tube for our next tour, but first- Big Ben!

The Tower of London! The Beefeater who gave us the tour was hysterical. History we'll remember delivered with a growl and a punchline.

Go Girls!

On the lions of Trafalgar Square. The series of shots of the girls actually getting up there is quite funny....

And an evening with Phantom, powerful music.

Breakfast in Saint James Park with the pigeons and the morning sun.

Walking back to Buckingham Palace for the tour.

In Her Majesty's backyard after a very neat tour.

The girls are rocked to sleep on the Eurostar as we pass under the Channel on our way to Paris.

Bienvenue!

After settling into the hotel we take a walk around the block and find,...

So beautiful all lit up at night, the Eiffel Tower is right around the corner from our hotel!

This morning we set out in search of breakfast.

Our chocolate croissants and cafe' were a splendid way to begin our first full day in Paris.

We join a walking tour of the St. Germain de Pres area, beginning with Saint Sulpice.

Then the 11th century St. Germain des Pres herself.

On our little walking tour we met a gentleman from San Antonio who graduated from my High School's rival, Churchill. We asked him to take our picture anyway.

Tour over, we do our own touring of some of the shops in the back streets of the area, oo-la-la!

Crepes made by a Lebanese man who has family in Virginia and was quite friendly- in a nice way. Oh yum! We didn't realize a crepe could be so filling!

Wandering among the bookstalls on the left bank of the River Seine.

Notre Dame herself.

Rue de la Huchette, filled with cute shops and eateries.

We are tired, but not exhausted, after a leisurely day wandering about the streets of Paris. We also gave le Metro a try and found it not as frightening as we feared. Learning the London underground system helped a lot I'm guessing. Tomorrow we begin using out museum passes with a tour of Versailles- oo-la-la!

Catching up the past few days...

London Day 3

This morning began with more sunshine and a lovely walk from our hotel to Buckingham Palace. We learned that other tourists will be glad to take our picture if we offer to take theirs. Everywhere we've been we see groups posing for photos, then switching photographers so they'll all make it in to at least a couple of pictures. This photo was taken by a fellow from Hungary who could only say "yes" and "thank you" in English (another in his group told us where they were from). Five minutes later we did anothr photo swap with a sweet little Korean family,... from Indiana!

After enjoying our Cornish Pastys for breakfast on a bench in Saint James's Park- yum- and sharing our crumbs with the pigeons, we walked to Westminster Abbey and then the Houses of Parliament. From there we crossed Westminster Bridge and took the London Eye for a spin! It was so peaceful and slow I didn't get a single quiver over the height. And what views of the city...

After we finished the eye we took the tube to Trafalgar Square and entered the National Gallery for what became hours of gazing at paintings as we wandered slowly from one room to the next.

Once we peeled ourselves away from the Gallery we wandered down a side street searching for the home occupied by Benjamin Franklin while he lived in London. A cool bit of American history in the midst of London. After we admired Ben's door we found a neighborhood pub and enjoyed a nice snack/meal and rested our feet for a few minutes.

We next walked back through Saint James's Park and enjoyed the afternoon breeze with the many Londoners also in the park. We enjoyed watching a group of Italian teenagers with their soccer ball as an older British man joined them and showed them some of his own moves.

Once refreshed we found that if we began our Big Bus tour right then there was just time to ride it right around the whole circuit if we didn't get off anywhere, and still have time to take Gabby on the tour again tomorrow, hopping off at a couple of the main stops, (the tickets are good for 24 hours). What a treat to enjoy the breeze and the humorous and informative commentary from the tour guide as we saw London.

Now we're back into our room early to rest up for a full day tomorrow. Gabby arrives!