Paris ReCap

 Alright, this post is way picture heavy. I couldn't decide which pictures to post and which to not post.

We took the train from London to Paris. It was awesome and I highly recommend the Eurostar; very smooth ride, and two hours later we arrived in Paris.

 After arriving, dropping off luggage, and taking a walk, we met up with our bike tour. We loved the tour! It was a great mix of big touristy stuff and quirkier little things that are just fun to know.

 See that black dot above the window? Yeah, that's a cannon ball from the French Revolution.

 There is a street artist who puts up these Space Invaders all over Paris. They've just left them up. Mostly because they're cool.

 Back end of Notre Dame. It got Photo Bombed. Sorry about that. So the first half of the tour was amazing. But then it started pouring rain and it got a bit miserable. We finished it, we went off to Musee d'Orsay, where many Impressionist Paintings are housed. We couldn't take pictures there, but I definitely recommend it. 

View from our Hotel Balcony

 Our second day in Paris, we went out to Versailles. It was very busy, but very cool. So much history and art there, but I won't put up a bajillion pictures of everything in Versailles.

 After returning from Versailles (which was about an hour outside of Paris), we walked around and did some shopping in St. Michel (see the above fountain. It's St. Michel).

 During our walk, we found a sweet crepe place right by the Pantheon. After enjoying a wonderful crepe, we went to the Pantheon.

 The Pantheon was unexpectedly cool. Voltaire and Rousseau are buried there.

 That evening, we saw the show "How to become a Parisian in 1 hour". Unfortunately, we had lots of trouble finding the theatre and we missed the first 15 minutes of a 1 hour show. It was very funny though, so I'm glad we eventually found it. After the show, which was in the Montmarte area, we walked to the Opera Garnier (the Paris Opera House). Did you know this is the Opera House that the Phantom of the Opera takes place in? We didn't go in because it was late at night, but it was still awesome to see.

Stained Glass in Notre Dame

 Our Third day in Paris we went to Notre Dame. The church is very beautiful, but I was disappointed in the lack of reverence in it. I did enjoy myself and very much enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful stained glass and sculptures inside.

 After Notre Dame, we went to Sacre Couer, which sits up on a gigantic hill. It is a very beautiful church, and there was still some reverence in this one. No pictures inside, but we took lots of the outside. We went all the way to the top to get a great panoramic view.

top of Sacre Coeur

After climbing to the top, we just walked around Montmarte, got some lunch at a crepe place, did some shopping, and just...strolled. We spent a lot of time just enjoying the quaintness of the neighborhood.

Mondrian

 That evening we went to the Centre de Pompidou, which houses lots of Modern Art. We didn't have a ton of time in the museum, so we took a ton of pictures. I love modern art, so this was one of my favorite stops.

Our last day in Paris was spent doing some last minute exploring and shopping. The way our travel fell, we had until 3pm before we had to get to the airport to fly to Rome. Brad really wanted to go to the Arc De Triomphe, and I'm so glad we did. Not only was it just cool to look at, but it had a great view of the city. We still had time to kill, so we went and looked at the Moulin Rouge (we did NOT go in). Then we went back near the Arc De Triomphe and did some shopping before heading back to the hotel and off to the airport. Stay tuned for Rome!

View from Arc De Triomphe