PARIS - A Few of the Sights...

Yeah, the architecture was pretty phenomenal. The most iconic of Paris sights...

 The Arch d'Triomphe.  Followed by a close-up of one of the carvings.  They liked their ornamentation.  Guess they needed something to do after they got the grapes in barrels, eh?

Les Invalides.  The hospital for vets, essentially.  The dome is the church behind, connected to it.  It's also where they buried that short guy.

The dome.  It's all about the angles.

This is yet another statue on the bridge leading to Les Invalides from some other stop.  If I recall, I was crossing the street in front of the Grand Palace, dodging crazy Parisian drivers.  This day it was a little rainy but also there was this light fog going on... hence the mistiness of this one.

And a close-up of one of the statues on the bridge...

The Louvre.  Of course.  First one is looking away from the pyramid.  The place is just huge.  The second is yet another monument.  Then of course the pyramid.

Notre Dame.

Notre Dame's front door and some flying buttresses. 

A statue on the plaza outside the front door.
Okay, look close in the pic.  See if you see anything that probably doesn't look like it belongs... There is a second shot, with an arrow... but before you cheat and scroll way down, give it a shot. 

I'm pretty sure that isn't original to the statue.  It's just a feeling.  I could be wrong about that though.

Apartments.  Just some apartment buildings I liked... the area we were in was filled to brim with them. 

The Parthenon in Paris.  Having a little work done.

The Sorbonne. 

The Bridge they got from Russia.  A bit fancy.

And some narrow streets.  The smaller one is really small, but the ones around the hotel all looked like the bigger one.  Not big, just bigger... there were some really big boulevards around though...

And lastly, some monument that I can't remember what it's for, but they pointed it out and some church near the Parthenon and Sorbonne.  I thought it would make a fine weekend cabin, wouldn't you?

The Hotel in Paris

The hotel was pretty centrally located in the midieval area of Paris (the bulk of touristy stuff).  A couple blocks one direction were the Louvre and Notre Dame, a couple blocks the other were Luxembourg Gardens and Palace.  And it was smack dab in the middle of a bunch of cafes and markets and shops and stuff. 

The room was on the top floor, and on a little courtyard.  This is the view.

And this is what one sees when walking out the front door, turning left and taking about 3 steps.

PARIS: SEINE RIVER CRUISE

While many Parisians were living up to their reputation (rude, not just tourists, everyone!), decided to get away from their wine-swilling, cigarette-smoking Parisian-ness and take a little ride up the river with 300 other tourists.  Oh, a word to that information guy at the Metro station:  Karma is gonna get you.

The Conciergerie.   Apparently those old monarchs like their palaces because they built a lot of them.   This one came before the Louvre but is now some gov't building.  Nice for offices, ya think?  I would have been happy with it.  Although it looks a bit small. The two towers are center -- just  mentally add a mirror to the other side.  ;-)

The d'Orsay Museum.  Had a bunch of impressionist work in there.  But by the time I drug it out of bed and got there, the line was down around the block.  Next time.

The obligatory Eiffel Tower shot.  (Where the cruise started.)

The French Language Academy.  This was just a couple blocks from the hotel and actually one of the first things we saw when getting out of the hotel.

You didn't think I'd forget the Louvre did ya?  This is the "main entrance" -- actually there is one of these on each side of the "U" shape - midway...

This is the tower at the top of the U, one on each side.  They match the towers seen on the inside near the pyramid.  I guess at one point 3000 of the king's friends lived here.  Okay, most were staff, details...

The National Assembly.  Another cool looking building.  Yeah, after a while I was all, " they all look alike..."  Well, except this one, it was based on the Greek temple.

Notre Dame.  As seen from the river.  It's on the left, with the pointy thing.

Lastly, some apartments.  I just liked the shot.  So now you have to suffer through it.

PARIS AT NIGHT

Okay, so I was going to put all of the Paris pix up today... but there are so many to go through and edit that it's taking longer than expected.  So, I'm just going to put them up in groups... 

The first night, did a city lights tour.  They say it's the city of lights... that's because they put a spotlight on every little thing.  Seriously though, they must buy their light bulbs in bulk by the shipload.

Taking photos at night -- challenging.  More so when you're doing it from a moving vehicle.  So, if some of the photos aren't perfectly crisp... you know why.

Eiffel Tower.  This was one of the first stops.  You can't really tell in the pic, but it has this little light show that runs every hour.  It's kinda "Vegas" in that it's a bunch of strobes all over.  It's very cool.  You can see a few white dots, those are the strobes.  And one later on the tour.

These were across the street from the Eiffel Tower.  The police are everywhere in this town and they carry assault rifles, so one doesn't want to mess with them.  The other is the museum and fountains across the street.  Forget what it's called.

The Louvre was nice.  Interesting neon inside the pyramid.  The middle one is a monument on the Louvre grounds. 

Les Invalides.  It has some sort of light show/display at night.  I wasn't really clear on the point other than it's supposed to be cool.

A few other sights including the Egyptian obelisk, Champs-Elysees, National Assembly, The Opera House (although the name says something a bit different -- repurposed), a bridge with a building I should remember what it is, but don't... and assorted other buildings and monuments.

And lastly, after the tour, out the front door of the hotel and looking left...