Tuesday, 4/5

Today, we took a 3-hour tour around Paris to see the monuments and notable sites.

Stop 1 - Paris, France

We started our tour at the Arch de Triumphe, the largest in Europe, built to celebrate One of Napoleon Bonaparte's victories. We traveled along the Champs Elysees where we passed a large shopping district, France's version of the White House, L'Elysee, and the  Obilesque at La Place de la Concorde. 

We saw the church at la Madeleine with its 52 columns to represent the weeks of the year, and no windows, but a glass ceiling allowing the sun, representing divinity, to enter. Then, we passed the Opera, the largest in the world. It's the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera! 

We traveled down Opera Avenue and saw the uniform facades of the architecture typical of the city and continued to the Louvres and the glass pyramids build for the 200 year anniversary of the Revolution 1989. 

We took a left onto the Quai du Louvre and saw le Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, the first to be built in stone. To our right, we say la Cite and la Conciergerie, which also served as a prison where Marie Antoinette was held before she was beheaded. 

Later, we saw L'hotel de Ville, Paris's town hall. We saw iron bridges that are being covered with glass on the sides so that tourists and couples in love will not hang locks upon them. As we crossed the island of la Cite we saw Notre Dame. 

Thierry, our guide gave us our tour in both French and English. We were excited to use what we knew to show that we understood, and he was impressed with our accents, or our lack of American accents when we spoke in French.

We saw the restaurant where Voltaire died in 1778, and the D'Orsay museum.

We saw our countryman, a statue of Thomas Jefferson, ambassador of the U.S. during the Revolution as we traveled along the Seine. We also saw the French Parliment building, L'Assemblee Nationale. 

We saw Le Grand Palais used for Paris Fashion week last month before turning right down the street to see Les Invalides where Napoleon was buried.

Then the groups split into Versailles and non-Versailles. Those who did enjoyed touring Versaille while the others went on a Paris-by-day tour.

And finally, another birthday surprise!