Au Revoir Paris
Our final two days in Paris have been very full ones.
On Tuesday we walked for 1 1/2 hours to get to the Hotel de Invalides. It was a long walk but there were also many stops for photos including at a fairly famous bridge where 'lovers' place padlocks engraved with their names.
The Hotel de Invalides was originally a hospital but is now the site of Napoleons Tomb. For a little fella he sure has a big tomb. Not sure if you can tell, but look at the people in the photo to get perspective, it is probably 15 feet high.
Next door was the Musee de Armies, so we went in there for a look. It was really interesting and had a lot of armour dating back to the 14 and 15 hundreds, as well as weapons etc dating back to 1000 years BC. The detail in the armour is incredible and some of the helmets just bizarre
Note the teeth in this one
From here we went by train to view the Catacombs. The Catacombs are basically an underground cemetery. Back in the late 1700's Paris was running out of room and chose to place their dead in tunnels that had been excavated for the sandstone. They moved approximately 6 million bodies from other cemeteries and stacked them here. And yes I do mean stacked
It might seem strange to have this as a tourist attraction but tours have been running through the Catacombs since the late 1800's and we had a two hour wait to get in, so it is still relatively popular. We were comparing this to Cambodia and the Killing Fields and found this far less depressing, mainly because most of these people died of natural causes rather than from violence.
From here we took the train to Sacre Coeur which is a cathedral built on the highest point in Paris. We climbed to the top of the dome (another 300 steps after going down 180 at the catacombs) for some good views, went into the cathedral to see more beautiful stained glass and walked round the nearby Montmatre village where there were lots of artists doing portraits or just selling paintings.
Wednesday we started at Musee d'Orsay with a 20 minute queue (piece of cake) to view many paintings and sculptures by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro and others. We both enjoyed this a bit more than the Louvre, partly due to the smaller crowds, but mainly because a lot of the paintings were familiar to us. The only down side was that you were not allowed to take any photos ( Tracy really struggled with this!)- though it didn't stop everybody.
Next was Opera Garnier, which is the home of Opera in Paris. It is a stunning building and the interior is opulent to say the least. Doesn't mean I liked the interior though. It is very hard because whilst we can appreciate the detail and the work involved, many of the buildings we have been to are simply over the top and not our taste. Make up your own mind.
After all this culture, Trace decided she needed some retail therapy, so we found a H&M store (no queuing) and she managed to spend 100 Euro. Tonight we are going to a cafe near Notre Dame for dinner (that Nicole from Tracy's work recommended) before getting some night shots of the cathedral. Tomorrow we leave Paris, pick up a car and head North.
On Tuesday we walked for 1 1/2 hours to get to the Hotel de Invalides. It was a long walk but there were also many stops for photos including at a fairly famous bridge where 'lovers' place padlocks engraved with their names.
The Hotel de Invalides was originally a hospital but is now the site of Napoleons Tomb. For a little fella he sure has a big tomb. Not sure if you can tell, but look at the people in the photo to get perspective, it is probably 15 feet high.
Next door was the Musee de Armies, so we went in there for a look. It was really interesting and had a lot of armour dating back to the 14 and 15 hundreds, as well as weapons etc dating back to 1000 years BC. The detail in the armour is incredible and some of the helmets just bizarre
From here we went by train to view the Catacombs. The Catacombs are basically an underground cemetery. Back in the late 1700's Paris was running out of room and chose to place their dead in tunnels that had been excavated for the sandstone. They moved approximately 6 million bodies from other cemeteries and stacked them here. And yes I do mean stacked
It might seem strange to have this as a tourist attraction but tours have been running through the Catacombs since the late 1800's and we had a two hour wait to get in, so it is still relatively popular. We were comparing this to Cambodia and the Killing Fields and found this far less depressing, mainly because most of these people died of natural causes rather than from violence.
From here we took the train to Sacre Coeur which is a cathedral built on the highest point in Paris. We climbed to the top of the dome (another 300 steps after going down 180 at the catacombs) for some good views, went into the cathedral to see more beautiful stained glass and walked round the nearby Montmatre village where there were lots of artists doing portraits or just selling paintings.
Wednesday we started at Musee d'Orsay with a 20 minute queue (piece of cake) to view many paintings and sculptures by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro and others. We both enjoyed this a bit more than the Louvre, partly due to the smaller crowds, but mainly because a lot of the paintings were familiar to us. The only down side was that you were not allowed to take any photos ( Tracy really struggled with this!)- though it didn't stop everybody.
Next was Opera Garnier, which is the home of Opera in Paris. It is a stunning building and the interior is opulent to say the least. Doesn't mean I liked the interior though. It is very hard because whilst we can appreciate the detail and the work involved, many of the buildings we have been to are simply over the top and not our taste. Make up your own mind.
Though some parts we did like.
After all this culture, Trace decided she needed some retail therapy, so we found a H&M store (no queuing) and she managed to spend 100 Euro. Tonight we are going to a cafe near Notre Dame for dinner (that Nicole from Tracy's work recommended) before getting some night shots of the cathedral. Tomorrow we leave Paris, pick up a car and head North.
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