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| A small, private walkway separating two rows of incredible homes near my hotel |
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| Park near my hotel |
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| Park near my hotel |
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| Park near my hotel |
What a lovely day despite the rain and fog and cool breezes. I started out at 10:15am having spent the morning doing some computer work.
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| Arc de Triomphe |
I headed in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe which was about 40 minutes walk from my hotel. But along the way I stopped at the beautiful park near my hotel and then at the Parc Monceau which was such a surprise with its seemingly ancient Egyptian and Greek or Roman architectural artifacts scattered about. Although it turns out that they're not original and just part of the garden architects purposeful design. "Parc Monceau is a public park situated in the 8th arrondissement, at the junction of Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. At the main entrance is a rotunda. The park was established by Phillippe d'Orléans, Duke of Chartres, a cousin of King Louis XVI, fabulously wealthy, and active in court politics and society. German landscape architects named Etickhausen and the architect of the Duke, Bernard Poyet were hired and the intention of the garden was to surprise and amaze visitors. This goal was clearly stated by Carmontelle: "It is not necessary for gardens or nature to be presented in the most agreeable forms. It's necessary instead to preserve the charm that one encounters entering the garden, and to renew it with each step, so that the visitor in his soul will have the desire to revisit the garden every day and to possess it for himself. The true art is to know how to keep the visitors there, through a variety of objects, otherwise they will go to the real countryside to find what should be found in this garden; the image of liberty. The garden designed by Carmontelle was finished in 1779. It contained a miniature Egyptian pyramid, a Roman colonnade, antique statues, a pond of water lilies, a tatar tent, a farmhouse, a Dutch windmill, a temple of Mars, a minaret, an Italian vineyard, an enchanted grotto, and "a gothic building serving as a chemistry laboratory," as described by Carmontelle. In addition to the follies, the garden featured servants dressed in oriental and other exotic costumes, and unusual animals, such as camels."
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
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| Parc Monceau |
From there I had a simple lunch at a local bakery/cafe filled with local workers picking up take out lunch and my tuna sandwich on French baguette was the perfect snack to give me energy to continue my long walk. I love that unlike many European cities the French bring you a carafe of tap water instead of requiring you to order bottled water which can get so expensive. The water in Paris is tasty and they have lots of public water fountains making drinking water accessible pretty much everywhere.
The Arc de Triomphe was as beautiful as ever and so many visitors climbed up the arc to enjoy the views. Needless to say with my fear of heights it wasn't an option to go up there so off I went to continue my walk.
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| Sculpture on the top of a corner of the Grand Palais |
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| View of the Grand Palais front entrance from the first floor gallery of the Petit Palais |
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View of the Grand Palais front entrance from the first floor gallery of the Petit Palais
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| Grand Palais columned side passage with gorgeous mosaics |
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| Roof of the Grand Palais |
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| The Grand Palais on the right and the Petit Palais on the left and the Museum of the Army in the distance |
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| Entrance to the Petit Palais |
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| Petit Palais main entrance cieling |
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| Petit Palais Rotunda |
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| Petit Palais Rotunda |
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| Petit Palais glass and ceramic gallery |
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| Petit Palais glass and ceramic gallery |
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| Grand Palais - An exhibit of art supplies by Ernest-Jules Renoux |
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| Staircase in the Petit Palais |
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| Courtyard of the Petit Palais |
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| Courtyard of the Petit Palais |
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| Courtyard of the Petit Palais |
I'd wanted to visit the Palais museums which are right off the Seine River and in two beautiful buildings built originally as temporary structures for he 1900 Universal Exhibition. The Grand Palais, the larger building has a huge glass roof and open interior space where the Petit Palais is more like a small royal palace now the home of the Museum of Fine Arts. I visited the Petit Palais today which only takes about and hour and half but well worth a visit and offers free admission which is great. They have special exhibits as well that charges a fee but I was happy to just do the main exhibitions.
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| Alexander III bridge with Eiffel Tower in the distance |
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| Alexander III Bridge |
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| Alexander III Bridge and our tour guide |
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| Alexander III Bridge with our tour looking on |
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Park with a memorial to Armenian Priest and with flowers
laid out for the commemoration of the genocide of April 24, 1915 when 1 million 500 thousand
Armenian's were killed |
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The Flame of Liberty which is also a memorial place for
paying respect to Princess Diana who died in the tunnel
just below this spot. A young girl was drawing or writing something as I took the picture |
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A garden wall on the Primitive Art museum.
The outside walls of the building are literally earth with
real plants and flowers growing out of it. |
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| Tour guide giving us lots of fun facts on Paris |
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| Man from San Francisco |
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Market area for this district. We were told that every district must hold an open
air market with veggies, fruits, meats, cheeses, etc. twice each week. So no matter
how long you are in Paris you should be able to find a market to visit.
It was very cool biking under those canopy's |
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| Okay, yes, bad hair with the rain and my plastic poncho is just so not fashionable but it kept me a little dry. |
From there I walked along the Seine River bank to the Eiffel tower where I was meeting a bike tour which I had booked online at Viator.com which I used in Croatia for tours and am still very impressed with them. The tour was with a local company Fat Tire Bike Tours which is operated by a group of young people, all of English speaking countries like England, Ireland and America. Our wonderful guide Valle, is from Vancouver, BC and living in Paris for the last year trying to learn French.
The tour was incredible and despite the rain, hard at times and the chill in the air the 3 hours we were out exploring the city or having lunch near the Louvre was amazing. To see the city by bike it ideal if you love to ride and not as scary as I thought it would be. I really loved everything about it and would recommend it to anyone. You stop every 5 or 10 minutes to hear a detailed, but fun explanation of main attractions as well as little fun tidbits about the city and it's people.
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| Tuileries Garden |
The Tuileries Garden is a public garden located between the Louvre Museum and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Created by Catherine de Medicis as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was first opened to the public in 1667, and became a public park after the French Revolution. In the 19th and 20th century, it was the place where Parisians celebrated, met, promenaded, and relaxed..
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Arc across from the Louvre Museum and if it wasn't so foggy you'd see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance.
Napoleon was married to his second wife here but because he had only divorced his first wife
because she couldn't give him a child he told this second women he was only marrying her womb.
Not a romantic man clearly and he didn't actually attend the ceremony at the arc, he sent a proxy
but he did attend the party afterwards. |
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| Louvre Museum |
I learned that street signs have at the top a listing of what district you are in which I hadn't noticed before but on my way back to the hotel I noticed it a lot.
There's just so much to see in the city but on the bike you really get around pretty quickly. We started with the Eiffel Tower which we learned is a She and every 8 or 10 years they paint her which takes over a year and half and they paint her brown but in varying degrees of darkness. Darker on the bottom which would be, if she were a real women, her legs and the base of each leg her high heels. In keeping with her being thought of as a women the middle of her going up from the base is painted a little lighter and then the top is even lighter than that. The guide said it is to make her look slimmer as most women would certainly prefer.
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| Shopping Street Rue de Cler |
We also learned that Eiffel Tower was only suppose to be a temporary exhibit (or entrance to the world fair like event) and a competition was held to see what the large structure would be and the only requirement was it's height (at least 300 meters) and that it be maid from iron. One of the submitted plans was for a 300 meter high guillotine. Thankfully the judges chose Eiffel's wonderful tower instead. But we also learned that Eiffel, after finding out his design was chosen, that he was responsible for paying for it. To pay for all the costs he decided his design should have stairs to walk up to the viewing floors and he would charge for visitors to climb up. He made back his money pretty quickly and now the fees they collect now go to the city.
We also stopped near what is now Napoleon's Tomb and originally a church for the royalty. "Les Invalides officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the burial site for some of France's war heroes, notably Napoleon Bonaparte (lists below)."
It was a fabulous day and although we were all very cold and a bit wet by the time we got back to the bike tour's office it was well worth it and we had the nicest group; a couple from England, a man from San Francisco who owns a company that cans tomatoes for restaurants
on the West coast and who's wife had decided to stay at the hotel and forgo the tour, a young couple from Seattle, Washington and a very young couple from Holland.
I walked around a bit after the tour and stopped at the charming shopping street our guide had told us about which is a small street, Rue de Cler. Lots of small shops and restaurants and stands selling fruit, meats and flowers.
Being a bit tired by now and cold I took the subway back to my apartment and had a little snack at the bakery near the hotel before coming back for a warm, refreshing shower and much needed as I was a bit muddy.
It was a fabulous day and although we were all very cold and a bit wet by the time we got back to the bike tour's office it was well worth it and we had the nicest group; a couple from England, a man from San Francisco who owns a company that cans tomatoes for restaurants on the West coast and who's wife had decided to stay at the hotel and forgo the tour, a young couple from Seattle, Washington and a very young couple from Holland.
