NOT Hell on Wheels
Our first attempt to get in the Louvre Museum
Carmen
Drinking coffee at a cafe ...in true Hemingway fashion.
The view from our seats
Coffee on a drizzly day...nothing better.
Basilique du Sacre Coeur and a carousel behind Nicki
Nicki on the carousel
yes....
There were about one million stairs to climb to get to this thing.
Nicki taking a break.
A postcard?
The view from atop all those damn stairs.
Nicki
Nicki and Carmen
We can't get enough.
The effing Eiffel Tower....a view from atop all those stairs...
Lamp posts for Rane.
Lamp posts and Carmen for Rane
A French crepe!!
Another postcard?
Moulin Rouge...right where we belong.
It looks just like the movie!
Coca Cola fo Joy.
This place was really cool....too bad EVERY store on the walk there was a sex shop.
EVERY store, every room of every building. Very tramatizing.
The entrance to Moulin Rouge.
A mausoleum in the most AMAZING old cemetary ever, Pere Lachaise
Nicki is excited, she LOVES old cemetaries.
So good.
Anyone home?
They had the coolest memorial statues...this one is writing the birth and death dates on the tombstone.
We think these two were brothers.
So sad.
There were so many graves that the cemetary had to be tiered.
Inside this bulding, there were hundreds (thousands?) of more graves in the walls.
Inside.
A black cat in the cemetary on a rainy day....GREAT!
Carmen loves this one.
Oscar Wilde's grave!!!
Too bad it was defaced with writing and kiss marks. Probably stupid young Americans. No, DEFINITELY stupid Americans
Another angle.
And another.
Carmen was excited to be here.
And sad.
A weird grave.
We are very nervous about the discolored part.
Glorious.
One of the greatest days of Nicki's life.
This one's for Stephen.
Jim Morrison's (or Bree's?) grave.
Poor guy.
There were some hippy teenagers at the grave who looked horribly distraught. I think they had been staring at the grave for hours.
Carmen is in mourning.
Some momentos left by visitors.
Rane?
What happened to Nicki's hands? After we dyed our hair in our Paris hotel, Nicki's hands were black for weeks.
Gertrude Stein's house! (Yeah, Blair!!)
A look inside.
We're inside! We snuck in when a couple of the residents left to take their dog for a walk...shhhh...
In the back garden...Nicki's more than excited! All the great American writers of the 1920's were right here!
Back out front.
Hemingway's Paris.
The Seine river in Paris.
Carmen on a bridge.
A government buliding across from Notre Dame (we forgot what it's called, but it's cool)
Notre Dame!
Notre Dame in black and white.
A guy singing Smashing Pumpkins in front of Notre Dame. Good times.
A gargoyle for Steve!
Don't worry...we come back to see the inside the next day.
Notre Dame is great! Look at the famous flying buttresses (the skinny arch things)
Carmen being artistic
yes.
Nicki is excited about this two-storey train.
The effing Eiffel Tower!
Getting closer to the effer...
And closer....
Closer....
We're there!
So great!
Underneath the effer.
Climbing the stairs of the effer!
All lit up at night!! Every hour it starts sparkling! So great!
Look at the sparkles!
A view from the first platform (that's as far as we got...There were a lot of stairs, Nicki is scared of heights, and Carmen had a stomachache...we're lucky we got this far.)
A Romanian atop the Eiffel Tower.
Paris
More Paris
When the tower was finished in 1899, you had to climb this spiral staircase to the top!! Scary....here is a small, perserved chunk.
A nighttime view.
The Seine river.
We are happy (and cold).
Is this structure intricate?
it's really tall, taller than you'd think.
So pretty at night! Say goodbye to the effer!
McDonald's every morning for french-style pancakes with chocolate (for breakfast!) Europeans know what's up.
Carmen putting on a beret.
In the Paris subway.
A cute,old man playing a violin for money.
Our second attempt to get into the Louvre...apparently it's closed on Tuesdays...
The store where Nicki bought Rane a really cool jacket.
Oh yes!! A crepe!
A homeless man nearly touched Nicki's crepe and asked for a bite. She said 'no' and told Carmen to give him a cookie from their bag instead. No one touches Nicki's crepe.
Back to see the inside of Notre Dame.
The famous rose stained glass...this window is 69 ft in diameter!
An old chapel in the cathedral.
A wooden replica...the real thing is better.
A model of people building Notre Dame...I'm not sure why someone would build this model.
Again, why?
An outside store that sold lawn ornaments...
Carmen writing postcards in a French cafe.
Nicki journaling in a French cafe
Carmen and Nicki in a French cafe.
Nicki dancing with the owner of the French cafe.
The owner liked to call Carmen and Nicki "America." He also made us dance to an American song we had never heard before.
Random Australian boys looking for a bottle opener at our hotel.
They began to slowly inch their way into our room.
Tom and Tom. We like to call them Tom Squared.
Little Tom took a picture of Carmen.
And an ugly one of Nicki.
Is Tom ok?
He definitely fancied Carmen.
Nicki jumping on their bed in the morning. They were supposed to meet us at McDonalds for French pancakes. When they failed to do so because they slept in, we barged in their room obnoxiously. Good times.
Carmen looks like a man. Nicki looks drugged up.
Nicki is excited about these French tarts.
Our third and final (successful) attempt to get into the Louvre. Tom Squared, Ben, and Nicki
Tom Squared, Ben, Carmen, some sandwiches, and some grandpa sweaters.
Underneath the pyramid at the Louvre.
Didn't realize a picture was being taken.
ummm...
We're finally in!
Some statues and some young Austrailian boys.
A man on a horse.
Bree and Ty.
Bree and Ty from a different angle.
This woman is holding her own head. Not exactly sure how she's still standing...
Is this intricate?
This must be famous because we say replicas all over Paris.
We like pictures on benches.
We also like when the museum building is as pretty as the art.
An incredibly large urn (Carmen or Nicki could fit inside) with babies for handles.
A view from the window.
The effing Eiffel Tower again.
A tapestry with a scene of a town ablaze.
Tom and his distant relatives.
Carmen and Ben are dating.
I think this one is broken.
Works by Raphael.
The ceiling
The Cupping of the Breast
The freaking Mona Lisa! She's behind bulletproof glass.
She is also a hottie.
Tom and the Mona Lisa
Tom and Ben
Carmen loves this painting.
Sad.
Nicki LOVES this one.
AWWWWW.....
Carmen at the Louvre.
Nicki at the Lourve.
By Leonardo DaVinci
Beautiful Paris.
One final look at the effer.
