Paris pt. 1

Originally Titled: Seine at night, Louvre, Notre Dame, Concierge and Museum of the Middle Ages

On the 26th we left you as we boarded the Eurostar at St. Pancras station in London. In a little over two hours we arrived at Gare du Nord. A hop, skip and a jump on the metro and we were at our hotel. Since I grew up in New York City it usually devolves to me to be the leader on the train. Bejing, NYC, London and now Paris have all been successfully navigated by subway.

After checking in we had a quick bite to eat at a nearby cafe. Then it was off to the Pont Neuf to get on a Seine River tour. It was quite beautiful at night but difficult to take pictures. I found myself envying those with the cheap point and shoot cameras as i tried everything I could think of to hold still. At some points I couldn't even find a point to focus on to take a picture.

The next day, the 27th, we headed off for the Louvre. Just fantastic, but a total pain to figure out how to get where you want to go. That and whole sections being closed made it incredibly difficult to get to the exhibits we had targeted.

First, just look at the size of that thing.

Detail of Napoleon's Coronation.

After lunch I made a quick dash to get  picture of the Code of Hammurabi, and stumbled upon some beautiful sculptures.

Hannibal and Julius Caeser.

I wish we had more time but there was a schedule to keep. We went back to Ile de la Cite and tried to go to St. Chapelle, but it was closed. So we went to Notre Dame.

You can take pictures inside, unlike Westminster Abbey, and it was truly grand.

After that we walked back to the Concierge and saw where they held Marie Antoinette before execution.

Then it was off to the Musee du Moyen Age. A lot of cool stuff there, I particularly liked the tapestries with the Unicorn. It reminded me a lot of the Cloisters on 181st in New York. I went there many times as a kid and we returned there with my kids when we last visited the Big Apple.

After a short rest and a beer,

we went for a walk down the street and went to the top of the Tour Montparnasse. We decided it would have been better at mid day.

Then stopped by Restaurant Kamelo on the way back and had some excellent Magret du Canard and Tartare.

The color of this photo is a lot darker than it actually looked.

With a glass of red wine it was delicious. After we returned to the hotel I felt I was duty bound to drink the other beer my wife had bought for me at the Monoprix earlier in the day.

Not French, but close.

So with that we went to bed to be off bright and early for Versailles. I'll tell you all about that at a later date as we have to get ready to meet some friends for dinner. I took over 500 pictures at Versailles, The Arc de Triomphe and the Musee de L'Armee. Hopefully some of them are decent.