Bienvenue a Paris
Given
SFO777 excellent recent Paris TR, this section is pretty pointless. But here it is anyways, though a bit brief as far as the commentary goes for my standards.
As we waited for our room, my mom and I walked down Boulevard Haussmann to check out the Arc de Triomphe. It was an impressive sight.
France’s tomb of the unknown soldier is located just beside the Arc.
Feeling adventurous, I paid €19 for the privilege of climbing of climbing up 5 stories worth of steep and winding stairs to the top of Arc de Triomphe. I’m sure my mom wanted kill me for dragging her up there midway through climb, but she powered through it and made it to the top. The view was very nice from up there. Though, our time at the summit was cut short by showers moving through the area.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a la boulangerie for a pain un chocolat pour my mom et croque-monsiuer pour moi. Absolutely delicious. While the walk was long, the weather was pleasant after the shower and it was a good way to take in the sights.
We did stop at Galeries de Lafayette. Fortunately, I have to pick up the tab for the damage my mom did there.
At any rate, Galeries de Lafayette was the most absolutely most beautiful and classy store I’ve ever been to. Quite frankly, it makes the Galleria in Houston and Dallas look like a shack. Check out this glass dome in the center of the store.
After resting a bit at the hotel, we walked down to Louvre which took about 15 minutes or so. Had I known cameras were allowed in the museum, I would have brought my nice camera. But I was very jet lagged, so the pictures probably would have been as crappy as the ones I took on my iPhone. As impressive as the exhibits ere, I was way too tired to care. I pretty much was on autopilot the whole time we were there. But I did make sure we saw the Louvre’s most famously lady, which was far less impressive than I thought it would be.
The next day was colder and windier than the day before, so we opted for an indoor activity: exploring the Palace of Versailles.
Working hard or hardly working?
As our tour bus took us back to Paris, we passed by the Statue of Liberty’s French twin.
My mom was really tired after Versailles, so we called it an early night. But we were back it by 8AM the next morning.
Wonder if Societe Generale is hiring more traders.
Might as well get an obligatory shot of the Opera House while I’m here.
We then headed over to Notre Dame via the Metro, which was very easy to use.
Notre Dame is by far the most impressive gothic style cathedral I’ve seen in person, which admittedly isn’t a lot. We got there in time to attend 11:30 mass (we visited on a Sunday). Mass was said in French, so while I didn’t understand what was said I did understand what was going on. I managed to grab a few photos after mass was over.
After we left Notre Dame, we headed down to Champs-Elysees to the Laduree flagship store to pick up some macaroons for a friend back home.
Fantastic parking job buddy.
That night, we went to Paris’ most famous monument:
Paris is a great city, and I would definitely love to return sometime soon. Most importantly, my mom got some much needed down time and really enjoyed the trip.