Bonsoir Bloggers,
Today was the final full day of our trip to Paris. We had an incredible day of touring Paris. We even met President-Elect Barack Obama's former girlfriend :-)! The day started out with an early morning trip to the Eiffel Tower. When we arrived, there was already a line, but the most noticeable thing about this cold and rainy morning was the wind. It was key to our discussion about going to Level 3, which is the top level. The crew decided to go up to Level 2. At times the wind was fine, but there were times when the wind was incredible. Some people still made there way up to the top, but we were happy with our pictures. Riding the elevator to see the view of Paris was breathtaking.
Next, we went on a cruise on the Batobus boat. This is an enclosed boat for 85% of the boat, which was perfect on this day. The boat stopped at 8 locations, which allows passengers to exit the boat and to reenter at any point during the day. We made our only boat stop at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. We took pictures inside and outside the cathedral... of course, this is one of the most impressive churches in the world. The girls seemed to me most fascinated with some of the models of the church (see pictures) and building the church, which began in 1163 (The location had other church offices and pagan worship offices, many years prior.). 'How did they build a church this remarkable without machinery, especially with the high ceilings,' was the main question.
After this wonderful visit, we crossed the Sienne and took our boat to Musee du Louvre, where we exited and crossed back over to Musee d'Orsay. Unfortunately, this wonderful museum was closed, but they had so many wonderful pieces of art outside the museum (see pictures). We headed toward the Metro stop at Musee du Louvre. We did not visit the garden during our prior visits, but today we did and took wonderful pictures.
Now it is time to shop. We all bought shoes/boots in a great shopping area at the Goncourt stop off the 11 line. If anyone wants to do some great shopping, please go here. We found out about this Parisian gem through the owner of a Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood. Completely worth it.
Our last stop was the Galleries of Lafayette. There was some trouble finding this area when we exited the Metro, but we went into this fabulous perfume store and met two women, who rushed to our assistance. One woman was Indonesian and the other was Japanese. The Japanese woman asked where we were from... we replied, "New York" and they screamed in this huge store, "OBAMA!" The Japanese woman said that the Indonesian woman dated Obama, when they lived in Indonesia... of course, he was a kid when he lived there... we all had a great laugh. They almost walked us to the street to assist us.
We did not buy much in this area, except for picking up some escargot (Judy) at Lafayette Gourmet. This shopping district is the equivalent to Fifth Avenue in New York. The holiday shopping has begun. There is no Thanksgiving Friday in France to start the shopping. Madison was shocked to see this humonguous Christmas tree in the middle of the center. The crowd was so incredibly thick, you think this was December 24th and a Saturday, not a Monday in early November! As usual in Paris, we found wonderful people at the Galleries of Lafayette. The information desk people were amazing. There was a woman at Lafayette Gourmet, who became our personal guide around the store to help us search for some items. She was so sweet... the girls took a picture with her. I do not want to forget Vendeuse Keisha (sorry no picture), who was a beautiful woman at the Louis Vuitton store that spent a lot of time with us at the mall... again, we only recommend tons of money to burn to walk out with bags here... The three items purchased in this entire area were 2 cans of escargot, a box of popcorn, and some pastries. I know how to be a smart shopper... er, ah, buyer!!!
We concluded the evening with a goodbye to the ower of the Chinese restaurant for showing us how to get to the affordable shopping district... I am not sure if tourists are told about this area... you can tell by the lack of English speakers. The owner does not speak English either. We will have to get up early in the morning, 5am tomorrow (Tuesday), which is 11pm on Monday in the Eastern Time Zone to catch our flight to JFK.
Our final post with pictures will be tomorrow...
AU REVOIR!
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