A rainy Sunday afternoon in Paris forced us to look for some inside activities to entertain us. Our Museum Pass was valid for the Tropical Aquarium which was just a few Metro stops outside of the main downtown area. They had lots of tanks filled with some very bizarre fish we had never seen before. They even had Mississippi alligators. Who knew they had alligators in Paris?
Our Paris Museum pass covered the Musée Rodin so we decided to go there and check out the famous The Thinker statue and The Gates of Hell. I had a Gator shirt on so it seemed appropriate for some Tebowing.
We started off our third day in Paris at Musée d’Orsay. Didn’t get to snap many pictures since cameras weren’t allowed. We followed a Rick Steves audio tour which turned into more of a scavenger hunt since the museum had moved around a number of the paintings. Mich did manage to snap this picture of van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone just before getting yelled at by a lady security guard in French!
I have always liked the Arc de Triomphe. The crazy traffic circle surrounding it, the Roman inspired arch and the beginning of the Champs-Élysées. Mich and I really enjoyed climbing up the winding stairs and getting a great view from the top.
Finally got to see a MacBook Pro Retina in person at a mall at the Chatelet station in Paris! I’m very tempted to get one now!
Well, Centre Pompidou was an epic failure for us. Mich and I have both realized that we don’t really like modern art! One installation was a set of Christmas lights strung on the wall. I think I prefer great art from the Renaissance or earlier. At least the building itself looked cool from the outside.
This gallery contains 3 photos.
On Saturday morning we went and visited the Pantheon in the Sorbonne district. Originally built as a church, the French turned it into a national burial place and a monument to man essentially. In the crypt we saw the burial … Continue reading
After Notre Dame we walked to Sainte Chapelle to see the extraordinary chapel. We got stuck in a line for a while to get through the Palais du Justice security checkpoint but it was completely worth it! The stained glass in Sainte Chapelle is phenomenal and unlike anything I had ever seen before. Mind boggling when you remember that this was completed in 1248! I wonder if Louis IX really did buy Jesus’ Crown of Thorns? He paid three times as much for the supposed Crown of Thorns than it cost to create the remarkable Sainte Chapelle built to house it!
After Versailles we headed into downtown Paris and went to Notre Dame. What a beautiful cathedral! It is amazing to go to a church originally built in 1163. Absolutely unlike anything we have in the United States. It was very inspiring to walk through the cathedral and see all the ornate stained glass and various small chapels surrounding the nave. We wanted to go up to the top since our Paris Museum Pass covered it but the lines were just way too long.
We started off our Paris adventures by heading out to Chateau Versailles. Louis XIV through XVI sure did have a taste for luxury! It was amazing to walk through the decadent castle and explore the sprawling grounds surrounding it. No wonder the French revolted against the Monarchy once they realized how ridiculous of a lifestyle the Kings and Queens had.