Paris Day 3 & 4

Day 3

Day 3 started off with a trip to the Eiffel Tower.  I love the Eiffel Tower.  I don't know what it is about it but I love looking at it. We didn't go up this day but we just walked around it for a while. 

Shane had a special surprise for everyone.  The night before we left he had shaved his head.  And he thought it would be perfect to put it in a Mohawk and reveal it to everyone with a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower.  Of course he had to wear his AC/DC shirt for Razor's Edge.  So here are his pictures from his 'reveal'.  He wore it like this all day and then shaved the rest of it off the next day.

After that we went on a river cruise down the Seine River.  It was pretty cold so we just sat inside and enjoyed some warmth.

 

 

We headed over to the Louvre next and walked through A LOT of the the Louvre.  That place is huge.  The highlights were the Mona Lisa, of course (along with the rest of the world there to see it that day), and Napolean's apartments.

That evening we headed over to the Montparnasse building.  A tall 56 story building that you can look over views of the city.  This one picture shows a cemetery right in the middle of the city. We ate dinner and then headed home for an early evening as we were exhausted.

One funny story.  Shane took French in high school and remembered enough that he could still converse a little in French.  He was excited to try out his French but everytime he spoke French to someone, they responded to him in English.  Everyone in the tourist areas spoke Engligh.  Shane was a little bugged that they just all 'knew' that he spoke English and wouldn't converse with him in French.  haha

Day 4
We went out to Versailles first thing but apparently not soon enough.  When we got there, the line to get in was soo soo long.  They told us it would take 1 1/2 hours just to get in, but it ended up only taking 40 minutes.  However, Versailles itself was disappointing to me.  Every room was so crowded you literally couldn't see anything.  the gardens and fountains were so pretty though on the grounds. So I'll show you a few pictures but we walked through pretty fast.

Once we were back outside we hopped on a train that took us out to Marie Antoinette's estate.  That was so fun to see.  Not many people and you really felt like you had gone back in time to this little place she went and lived about a mile from Versailles.  They had this gazebo and statue called the Love statue and inside you could place a coin to wish for love.  I put in a coin in there for my sister!

After some lunch looking over the Versailles grounds we took a train back into Paris and went to the Orsay museum.  They have lots of art. Monet, Manet, Renoir, Picasso, etc.  We didn't stay super long but was fun to see some original art.  I took this picture for my girls since they love the episode of Little Einsteins that is based on this painting.  I was surprised how excited they got when I told them I saw this painting.  Then the ballerina picture I loved because it reminded me of my cute little dancers and made me miss them this day.

That afternoon we finally made the trek to stand in line and go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  It was cool to go to the top and see the views of Paris one more time.  They have a top level and then a 1st floor and 2nd floor.  The 1st floor has these glass floors that you can look down to the ground through.  Shane barely stood on it and although I don't have a few of heights, it was pretty freaky to stand there and look straight down.

 

 

That night we had to make our final trek to the Eiffel tower and watch it light up and sparkle.  It sparkles for 5 minutes at the top of every hour that it's dark, until midnight.  I LOVED seeing it.  We got a crepe and sat there watching it, pretty fun.  Then we went back to the Louvre cuz I wanted to see it all lit up at night, we got some fun pictures of the pyramid reflecting in the water.