Friday, May 2, 2014

Europe Trip, Day 6: Paris

Tuesday morning, we headed to see the Catacombs. 
At the entrance.

 
There are tunnels all over Paris, but the one's included in the Catacombs tour cover about 2km.  Most of it is just walking through dark tunnels.  This was an open area where some guy carved a few cool palaces.  Here's one. 
 
And Brian with the other. 
 
The walkway from the dark tunnels up to the entrance to the ossuary, where about 6-7 million people's bones are.  They were put there in the 18th and 19th centuries.
 
A close up of the piles.  The front is very orderly looking with long bones and skulls lined up. 
 
There are a few crosses throughout. 
 
After the Catacombs tour, we headed North with plans to go in the Louvre.  On our way, we hit Laduree for some macarons!
 
Unfortunately, because I was extremely busy with work the weeks leading up to our trip, I had somewhat dropped the ball on finishing our Paris plans.  Had I planned better, I would've realized that the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, so we just took a few pictures in front of the building and were on our way.

 
We then headed over to Notre Dame.

 
Next stop the Arc de Triomphe.

 
A brief stop for lunch at La Cantine du Troquet.  My garlic, pesto mashed potatoes were amazing! 
 
Next stop was going up the Eiffel Tower.  Here we are at the bottom.
 
A view South toward the Military School from Deck #1. 
 
A view North from Deck #2. 





 
We ended Tuesday with a night bike tour.  Up to this point, we had great weather in Paris.  Unfortunately, it was a steady downfall on us the entire night bike tour.  It was about 2 1/2 hours on the bike, and then ended with an hour boat trip up and down the Seine.  All in all it was fun, but we were pretty wet by the time we got back to our hotel around midnight.
 
Our tour took us through the St Germaine area and the Latin district over to the back side of Notre Dame.
 
 
A bridge just North of Notre Dame.  The building over the river behind my left shoulder is one of the most expensive hotels in Paris.  The winner of the Tour de France gets to stay in the Presidential Suite free of charge for a week (it costs ~$10k/night).  Rumor is that they sent Lance Armstrong a ~$420k bill for his 7 weeks of stays after he was stripped of his titles.

 
The front side of Notre Dame. 
 
One of the "Locks of Love" bridges.  Our tour only took us over 2, but I think there may be 3 of them.   
 
At night, on the hour, the Eiffel Tower sparkles.  It's really hard to tell from a still picture. 
 
A view of the tower from our boat.  You can see the rain coming down.


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