Les surlignages de nos vacances parisiens !

My how time flies!  We now only have 11 days until we arrive in the City of Light!
 

La vue sur le Musee du Louvre de dessus l'Arc de Triumphe.

  Colin and I have been furiously planning our Parisian excursion.  It's more difficult than it would seem to decide what to see, do and eat while abroad.  Since our special guests will only be with us for the first week, we've had to condense our heaviest hitters into the first 6 days since we want them to experience the biggest and the best that this ancienne belle grande ville has to offer, while not completely overwhelming them!  It's a very delicate balance!

We, of course, would welcome any suggestions or recommendations that you may have to offer, just leave a comment below!  

So, in planning this trip, I've spent minimal time on the specifics, instead painting broad strokes through the most intriguing neighborhoods.  

Here's our rough outline with a few highlights:

Day 1:

Montmartre

 

There are three options when trying to access the historic and beautiful neighborhood of Montmartre.  

1.  Snake up the hill through the narrow neighborhood sidestreets.

2.  Take the stairs...a great way to work off the damage being done at the Patisserie each morning!

3.  Take the funicular 

Once up there, our choices of what to do and see are so vast, that you'll just have to stay tuned to see what happens and what we discover!

Day 2:

Le quartier latin

It is believed that this area was first established in about 250 BCE by a Celtic tribe called the Parisii who built a small fishing village on the banks of the Seine, (pronounced sehn).   

 

The Latin Quarter got its name from the language that was once widely spoken in its streets when Latin was still the international language of learning during the Middle Ages.  Notice the narrow, medieval streets. 

Definitely on the agenda for this day is a trip to

  Le Musee du Cluny
This National Museum of the Middle Ages holds a number of pieces dating back to before the Middle Ages, illustrating the varied roots of medieval artistic creations.  The building itself used to be a Roman Bath House, dating back to the 3rd century CE!

Day 3:

Versailles

This amazing Chateau is located only 16 miles to the SW of Paris.  In his horse-drawn carriage, it took Louis XIV a whole day to travel between the capital city and the nouveau chateau.  He moved into the newly finished Chateau de Versailles in 1678. 

Interesting Fact:

The Chateau is one of the largest palaces in the world.  It has more than 700 rooms, 2000 windows, 1250 fireplaces, 67 staircases and more than 1800 acres of detailed landscape.

It was in the Hall of Mirrors, that the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919, after WWI. 

There are 357 antique mercury mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors.

Day 4:

Le musée du louvre and SHOPPING!

The Louvre is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument, built in the 12th century.  

The museum's 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 652,300 square feet!

 Did you know? 

During WWII, the museum removed most of the art and hid valuable pieces in order to keep them safe from the Nazi invasion.




And now that we'll been cultured and art-ified it's time to hit the stores!

Les chic magasins parisiens

  
We'll be heading straight to Boulevard Haussemann in order to look around the famous stores found in this elite arrondissement.

Les Galeries Lafayette

Day 5:

L'Arc de Triomphe

This day will be made up of two Grandes Arches. The first one dates back to 1806. It is over 50 meters tall and 45 meters wide! If you have the leg muscles, you can also climb to the top for a spectacular view of Paris! You may have already seen a replica of this much adored monument since copies can be found in New York, North Korea and Las Vegas!

L'Arche de la defense

This arche was completed in 1989 marking the bicentennial anniversary of La Revolution Francaise.  It was constructed to have the approximate shape of a cube; it has been suggested that the structure looks like a hypercube projected onto the three-dimensional world! The Arche is placed so that it forms a secondary axe (axis) with the two highest buildings in Paris: La tour Eiffel and La tour Montparnasse.

J'ai pris cette photo de l'Arche de la Defense de dessus l'Arc de Triomphe

Not everyone thinks to take the train to the end of the line 1 in order to visit this super cool, super modern area, but I really like it!  It's full of weird sculptures, like the thumb shown below, and offers a MASSIVE movie theatre to its visitors.  Le ciné is even equipped with several bars!  

  
Day 6:

For this last full day together with our fabulous guests, we've got some ground to cover!  But, we've saved the best for last and are going to end this part of the trip with a band, well actually  it'll be more of a twinkle!

Le musée d'Orsay

This beautiful building, which houses a mind blowing collection, dates back to 1898, when it was used as a train station.  The collection held within dates from 1898-1915, which covers the entire impressionist movement, Degas, Gaugin and SO MUCH MORE! 

 

La tour Eiffel

I'm an absolute sucker for this one.  It's completely touristy and fabulous!  There's nothing like taking the elevators, which run diagonally up each leg, in order to take in the view of Paris from 1063 feet up!  Judge me if you'd like, I will go up EVERY time I'm Paris! 

It's even better after sunset when the tower twinkles like it's made of diamonds.  If you find yourself nearby during the tourist season, when the twinkling starts there's a whole army of trinket sellers who rush out with their blankets already preset with over-priced goodies, who then quickly disappear as the ten minute show comes to an end, only to repeat the pop-up process every hour; what a sight to see!

Quelle belle vie!