Begin Day 1 - Sunday. This is the La Grand Roue during the day. It's a ferris wheel that travels, just happened to be in Paris for Christmas. http://www.theparistraveler.com/la-grande-roue-now-you-see-it-now-you-dont/
A chair in the the Tuileries Garden. I could just imagine all the Parisians in the sun in the spring time, but for now it was too cold.
My first view of the Eiffel Tower, taken from the Tuileries Garden.
Eric in one of the lean back chairs in the The Tuileries Garden. Note the shoes, we were determined to leave the tennis shoes behind and embrace the culture (at least for our first day)!
Me on the bridge.
The clock inside the Musée d'Orsay. It was originally a train station and was converted to a museum. We were able to see a traveling exhibit of Manet's painting "Le déjeuner sur l'herbe" and then a series of Picasso's interpretations.
Inside the Musée d'Orsay. (Now I'm wishing I would have snapped a picture of the plaque telling me what and who this is.)
I took this mostly to just see the detail in everything, but I also liked the winged feet.
Musée d'Orsay. I thought the use of bronze and marble was interesting. I think this is part of a series from Kenya.
Looking out towards the Seine from behind one of the clocks.
Petite danseuse de quatorze ans ou Grande danseuse habillée by Edgar Degas
The plaque that goes with the previous picture.
A jet lagged Eric, in front of Monet's "Turkeys".
Monet's "Turkey's"
"Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette" by Renoir
Vincent van Gogh - Self Portrait
Vincent van Gogh - Bedroom in Arles (Third Version) Pretty interesting read here -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedroom_in_Arles
Some pretty leaded glass in the Musée d'Orsay.
Carrie this one is for you! See plaque next picture.
No really, I took it just for you. :-)
We were sneaky. The first Sunday of each month all museums in Paris are free. We had some coffee and croissant on the back side of the museum while we waited for it to open. Then we approached it from the rear entrance behind some elderly ladies. The security guard opened the door for them and let us in as well. It wasn't until we got to the second floor that we saw the HUGE line of people it wrapped like this about 4 times and then went up the street too! Score one for Eric and Kelly!
If you know what this is, do you mind leaving a comment? I know it's Pointillism, but I'm not sure who.
Papal Palace, Avignon Paul Signac More pointillist style.
A view of the first level of the Musée d'Orsay.
Trees lit up for Christmas along the Champs-Elysees. This to me made Paris. It was so beautiful and even though it was night time and COLD there were still tons of people out.
The statue atop the Grand Palais.
A Parisian Christmas Tree. They were all sold already on a stand, and much smaller than American Christmas Trees.
Glass blown roses. All along the Champs-Elysees there were vendors set up for Christmas. I didn't buy anything but took some fun pictures.
Another night pictures of the Champs-Elysees.
The Grand Roue with the Obélisque de Luxor in front. A bit of history here: http://www.paris.org/Monuments/Concorde/
The Grande Roue. Each capsule could hold up to 8 people. We shared ours with a couple from Lebanon, that gave us recommendations on where to visit while in Paris, and told us about how the Eiffel Tower twinkles at night every hour on the hour.
again the Grande Roue
A view of the Arc de Triomphe from the Grande Roue.
A twinkling Eiffel Tower in the fog.
The joke is on me. I really thought these were some yummy French pastries. They looked sooo good. Nope not at all they are towels wrapped to look like pastries. It was one of the little shopping kiosks on the Champs-Elysees.
Same as before. Honestly, squint a little and with jet lag you can imagine them as yummy parfait's right?
BEGIN DAY 2 - Monday The tour of the Lourve Palace This of course is the interior pyramid, made (more) famous by the Da Vinci Code.
From the bottom looking out through one of the pyramids at the Palace.
Great Sphinx of Tanis more: http://tinyurl.com/sphinx-paris
Venus de Milo (Aphrodite) http://tinyurl.com/venus-de-milo
Venus de Milo. We learned that during this time in art, your body was to be 7 times the legnth of the head, and that the head was to be equal in 3 sections: head to nose, nose to mouth, and mouth to chin. It's a huge statue.
Roman statue room. Romans were second in sculpture to the Greeks. The Romans couldn't quite perfect the balance of the statues, they would always have another object or person to stablize the weight of the rock, whereas Greek sculptors were able to balance a man or a woman within their given pose.
There's an 'H' in the middle of the mantel, bet you can guess why I took this picture.
a dog, Eric asked for this picture.
Man holding child. (Again wishing I had taken a picture of the plaque)
The Large Pyramid
Guilded ceiling at the Louvre Palace
Winged Victory More: http://tinyurl.com/Winged-Victory
Caroline, our tour guide, told us about Her legend, and how you can see that she was part of the bow of a ship, and then she delightfully reinacted the scene from "Titanic" where Leo says "I'm king of the world". Recently they discovered her hand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace
Guilded ceiling, from a room that Louie XIV had built, prior to building Versailles.
The "Sun King"
fleur de leis
The symbol of the "Sun King"
Virgin of the Rocks - Da Vinci What is sad, is that because of the type of oil Da Vinci used (Caroline told us it was nut based) that as time goes on this painting gets darker and darker, and in maybe 20-30 years will be so dark you can't see it. Also, Caroline told us, that a few years back they took an xray of this painting and discovered many many fingerprints in the paint, it seems that Da Vinci painted with his fingers. More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_of_the_Rocks
The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wedding_at_Cana This is opposite the Mona Lisa, and is HUGE!!!
The famous Mona Lisa. Pardon the flash above her head that looks like the moon. Amazing, to see it in person. There were many stories behind the painting. See the Louvre site for more: http://tinyurl.com/Mona-Lisa-DV
From our bus tour, I just thought the babies were cute. This was a full size bill board on a store front.
Not sure what this is, but it's typical architecture.
Paris is cold in December, and Eric and I were amazed at how many flowers were still in bloom.
We didn't see many children in Paris. I would imagine most live outside the city. But this group seemed to be enjoying the afternoon outside playing.
The Bastille
Eiffel Tower
Arc de Triomphe from the bus. I was too tired to remember how to turn the flash off on my camera and turn the shutter speed up, thus the big nasty orange glow... bummer.
Arc de Triomphe
Cool building.
Night view of the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero
Night view of the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero. Now only if we were in focus. Oh well, I tried to use the self timer.
A twinkling Eiffel Tower.
A twinkling Eiffel Tower
Begin Day 3 - Palace of Versailles
Here is a staircase in the Palace of Versailles. Pictures were very limited, you were not allowed to use a flash (which I observed most of the time).
Palace of Versailles. Yes that is snow, and yes we were freezing.
Chapel of Versailles More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapels_of_Versailles
Guilded face in a fireplace mantle.
So perhaps this ruined the Palace of Versailles. Inside the Palace were various art installations by Jeff Koons. Personally we thought it kinda runied the Palace. More: http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/6109915/Koons-wins-Versailles-court-case
Me in the Palace of Versailles.
Palace of Versailles, symbol of the sun king, Louis XIV. More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France
The detail in the Palace was amazing. This is a tie back for drapery.
Yep that's more snow in the gardens at the Palace.
Guilded and painted ceiling at the Palace of Versailles.
Me decked out looking like a tourist. The Palace had free headphones for a guided tour of the Palace.
More snow.
The famous Hall of Mirrors. It's quite amazing how old this Palace is, to think that French royalty danced in this hall.
Statue in the Hall of Mirrors
Jeff Koons installation in the Hall of Mirrors. Kinda wrecks it, don't ya think?
Another ceiling in the Palace of Versailles.
Guilded Lion, an ornament in front of a large fireplace.
The wall above the fireplace where the lions guard the actual fire place (previous picture).
More snow, I bet this place is beautiful in the spring.
The canopy over Marie Antoinett's bed in the Palace. Not sure why I didn't take more pictures of the room itself, perhaps Eric had the camera.
Eric 'holding' up the marble wall.
Me by the staircase.
Outside view of the Palace.
The Jeff Koons installation outside I didn't mind so much. Here Eric is balancing it on his finger, quite a talented guy! More: http://www.jeffkoonsversailles.com/en/
Eric said we had to see the gardens while we were here, this is honestly about as far as we got. I was too cold.
All wrapped up and still freezing!
Good shot of the exterior of the Palace.
Another exterior shot of the Palace.
Even the water access pipes tell you your at the Chateau du Versailles.
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris. We had to get very creative in taking these photos, due to the low lighting, we took turns balancing the camera on each others heads. We must have looked like crazy american tourists. But hey it worked!
More Notre Dame
The opposing view of Notre Dame. Beautiful skyline this night.
Are you sick of this yet? Sorry too many photos of Notre Dame. I am thinking that this might be our christmas card for next year.
The Christmas tree outside Notre Dame.
Interior of Notre Dame. A bit blurry due to low lighting.
Interior view of Notre Dame.
One of the 'rooms' along the sides of the main chapel. This one struck me as particularly beautiful. Most of the others did not have color like this.
The steps up to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. There were also steps after this!
Sacré-Cœur Basilica
I think this is a Roberto Cavalli window from the Avenue Montaigne.
Valentino along the Avenue Montaigne.
