Bob and Jan's Travels: Paris June 4, 5 and 6, 2013

We left at 8:30 am on another high speed train which brought us from Arles to Paris in 4 hours. We arrived to bright and sunny skies. After settling in our hotel (Hotel de Flore) in the Montmartre neighborhood up the hill in Paris, we took the bus to the Champs Elysees and walked from the Place du Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe (with a short stop for lunch). The Arc de Triomphe is situated in the middle of a gigantic traffic circle with 12 different exits - you have to walk undergound to reach it. We were told at the hotel to take the bus or subway (Metro) as the distances between places are too great - they have underestimated the Zechels! We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance and debated taking a taxi as we had no idea what bus or metro line to take. We decided to walk part of the way to get away from the craziness and traffic around the Arc de Triomphe and ended up walking all the way to the Eiffel Tower. We sat in a park across from the tower by some fountains for about an hour and then walked up to the Eiffel Tower - we debated going up (even a couple of levels) but decided that the heights issue would keep us grounded. We decided to take a taxi from the Eiffel Tower to our hotel as we were actually quite a distance - a bit of a mistake as traffic was terrible and it took us almost an hour. Our taxi driver was great and only charged us what it should have been. We resolved to learn the Metro system as this would alleviate the traffic issues. Interesting to note the traffic situation - for those who have been to New York and know the craziness with traffic - well add 1,000,000 motorcycles and bicycles to the mix and you have Paris traffic.

We got up relatively early and attacked the day and Paris. We took the Metro to Place du Concorde and then walked through the Jardin des Tuilieres (really an extension of the Champs Elysees) to the Louvre. Beautiful. We toured the Louvre for several hours seeing the Mona Lisa and other paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Chagall, Degas and numerous other masters. The Louvre is massive and we only saw a portion, but it was very interesting. We then crossed the Seine River and bought a lock and locked it to the Lovers Bridge (see pictures below). We had bought some fruit and bread for lunch sitting beside the Seine and then headed to Notre Dame. It was also amazing. We climbed the the viewing deck (about 300 steps) and had a great view of Paris (the heights issue existed but we did ok). We then walked to the bottom and realized that we could have ascended up another 100 or so steps to another viewing platform. Oh well. We then did a little walk around the area including the Latin Quarter, Church of Saint Chappele, Flower Market and back to the Louvre. Oh yeah, we stopped for coffee and a crepe on a river boat. We stopped at Jardin des Tuilieres for a quick nap in the park and then back on the Metro to our hotel area. We had a great dinner and flopped into bed. We were on our feet for about 10 hours today. Great day and because we powered through a number of sights, tomorrow will be a relaxing day probably around the hotel neighborhood of Montmartre.

We slept in and walked to Sacre Couer Church which sits on a hilltop overlooking Paris. Walked around the Montmartre area and found many shops and restaurants and painters. Had a leisurely day and went back to the hotel for a siesta. We went back to the Montmartre area near the Sacre Couer in the evening for dinner and a coffee. Today we had French Onion Soup, Croquette Monsieur and Quiche Lorraine - lotta french stuff! We then went back to the Sacre Couer steps to see Paris at night - pretty great view with a few thousand people around. Bought a beer from some guy and drank the beer on the church steps looking at Paris at night. Bonsoir Paris. Tomorrow we are off to Switzerland.