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We began our last day in Paris at the Eiffel Tower, which we walked to from the hotel (it was about 15 minutes away). We decided to go all the way to the top, but hadn’t planned on Paris being so cold on the ground, let alone up high. We then walked to the park across from the Eiffel Tower, Park du Champ de Mars, for some photos. Read more »

For our sixth day in France we booked a guided tour via a mini-bus (mini van) to the Loire Valley, which is about an hour and a half drive from Paris. It turned out that we were the only ones that had booked the tour, so we had our very own private tour. Our driver/guide was very knowledgeable about the history surrounding the castles/chateaus that we were visiting and gave us the history prior to reaching each site that we visited. Read more »

For our fifth day in France we decided to take the train to Versailles to see the palace and gardens. We got there shortly after the palace opened and had to stand in line for tickets, then stand in an even larger line for ticket holders to actually go into the palace. We toured around the state apartments and chapel in the morning; then after a quick bite to eat in the cafe (we hadn’t had breakfast yet) we went to the dauphin and Mesdames Apartments.

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On our fourth day in Paris we began our morning by going over to the Musee d’Orsay. We thought that the museum opened at 9 A.M. so when we showed up at the gates 20 minutes past 9 and saw the rather long line of people waiting for the doors to open, we decided to come back later on in the day. We hopped the Metro up to Sacre Coeur, Read more »

On our third day in Paris we began at the Hotel des Invalides, where Napoleon’s Tomb is located. We toured through the museum which had one of the largest displays of armories (they claim that it’s enough for a low tech revolution). Along with the armory display there was also a chapel and then the tomb of Napoleon, both of which showed some of the beautiful French architecture.

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On our second day in Paris we began with a trip to the Louvre Museum to see some of the famous works of art on display there. We saw Aphrodite (Venus de Milo); Michelangelo’s The Dying Slave and The Rebellious Slave; Psyche and Cupid; and The Winged Victory of Samothrace. Paintings included da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Madonna on the Rocks as well as some of his other works; Gericault’s The Rath of the Medusa; Veronese’s The Wedding Feast at Cana. Additionally we saw some of the works of artists such as Raphael, el Greco, Goya, Van Dyke and Donatello. Read more »

We traveled from London-Waterloo to Paris-Gare de Nord this morning, via the Chunnel, arriving in Paris around noon local time. From the train station we took a taxi to our hotel. After checking in to the hotel, we went to a nearby cafe for a quick lunch (by which it was about an hour). After lunch we went to the Metro to set ourselves up with a week long pass for the subway system. This proved to be more of an adventure than expected. Read more »

Our first vacation in three years starts today! Check back for regular updates throughout our trip.