Paris May 9-11, 2007

On May 9th we took the chunnel to Paris and arrived there in the afternoon. The sites we saw that day included the Bastille, the Place des Vosgas, where Victor Hugo lived, Pompidou Center-a modern building with the pipes on the outside of the building and each external pipeline painted a different color. The steel skeleton, as well as the stairs, corridors, lifts are also outside the building. We took the Elysee Montmartre walk. Our first look at the Eiffel Tower was in the evening. What a magnificent sight. We took a boat cruise at eleven that night and got back to our hotel after midnight. What an experience we are all having. We slept a budget hotel called Mary's Hotel. The first night we had two rooms, the second we shared a room with five beds. When I got up to take a shower that first morning, I got in the shower-and started by shower and the water went off. I woke Katie up and she went and investigated. She was told to wait a few minutes and then there be water again. I waited in the shower with shampoo in my hair until the water indeed came back on. Wade had the same problem. Needless to say we all took showers in the evening after that. The next day May 10th we went to the Eiffel Tower again and went up to the top. It is quite a view, but if we had gone to the first stop it would have still been beautiful and taken us less time. We then went to the Louvre--talk about a huge art museum. One could have spent a lot of time there, but we didn't have a lot. Michael had done some research and so we went to certain areas of the museum. Some of the famous pieces we saw were the Victory of Samothrace, Venus of Milo and of course the Mona Lisa. It was smaller than I thought. From there we went to Sainte-Chapelle which is quite famous for its stained glass windows, especially the Rose Window. From there we went to Notre Dame - toured it and walked up to the bell tower. From there we went to the Arch of Triumph and walked to the top of it. We did a lot of walking. I had fallen and hurt my knee while crossing the street to Saint Chapelle and it hurt, but I think actually walking helped it by not letting by knee tighten up. We saw sights I never dreamed I would see. The next day we went to the Palace of Versaille. We fell in love with Marie Antoinette's hamlet and spent a lot of time there. It was so picturesque. That would be one place I would visit again.