Day 2 in Paris - Dogs are barking!

 Day 2 is in the books. We are back at the hotel after another late night tasty snack at Le Paradis du Fruit….I know I know - the same place two nights in a row?! Brienna wanted it and Matthew hadn’t tried it soooooo. Plus it was a different location (escaped the don’t eat at the same place twice rule on a technicality). 

Brienna had avacado toast with smoked salmon and Matthew had a salmon burger with pootato wedges. Me? Fruit pancakes with chocolate nutella with a watermellon lime drink. 



The end…bonne nuit!

Wait, what did we do all day? OK here we go! We woke up early for a fantastic breakfast at the hotel. 



We had to get out early because we needed to make it to Versailles by 9:40 for a tour. It takes around 30 minutes or so by car plus I wasn’t sure where we were meeting out guide exactly. We needed to get there by 9ish. We were doing great on time and the weather was a cool 58 (sorry Texas)! I ordered up our ride and we were on the way. Or so we thought until the car arrived. 😳

Kidding of course, there was some car rally happening in Versailles and I saw that little guy on the way. 

We got to our tour group on time after walking around in circles a couple of times trying to find the meet up place 🙄.




Brienna wanted Starbucks but the line was too long 😭.

We headed in around 9:50 with Isabell our guide. Here she is giving is our instructions. 


We walked across the street to get to the gates. Just amazing.




We got there and queued up to go in. 

Once inside we toured through various chambers, all incredible to see. Here are some highlights:














Matthew wanted to know if he could take a quick snooze in the king’s bed…


More to see:






That last pic is the famous hall of mirrors!


The queen’s chambers.


And more:








And the it happened - the dreaded gift shop…..Brienna could not resist. 😡💰😜

Next we went out to tour the magnificent gardens.  



And that was as far as Matthew made it. Brienna and I trooped on with he held guard at the upper level staircase.










We saw some fish swimming in the the fountain water.


If you go make sure not to get in or too close the water though.


We walked back up and Matthew was back in the game!


We hailed another car and headed back to Paris for lunch and to go to the Louvre.


5 minutes into the ride, someone needed some sleepy time because her brother kept her up late sawing logs.


We got to Paris and everyone was hungry. We ate at a wonderful little cafe near the Louvre called La Cooperative. Matthew had a steak. Brienna had a salmon sammie (I learned that she really likes salmon). I had duck (not sure if it was Donald or Daffy, but it was delish).





Now off to the Louvre!






No idea what Brienna was doing with that pose!
Next we went inside:









And of course we wanted to see the Mona Lisa mosh pit….I mean Mona Lisa. Yeah that is as close as we got and that pic was with a fully extended selfie stick (thanks to a generous donation from EnviroDetox).




And a few more pics of art stuff:



And this:


I convinced them to walk over to the Arc de Triumph, but first Matthew wanted to take a break and lounge a bit in the Jardin des Tuileries  right outside the museum. His dogs were barking. 



Along the way we walked through a park and up the Champs Elysees. We saw a fountain Matthew liked, this cool tower, the Grand Palace, the Louis Vitton store, and…..another dreaded gift shop! 







Finally the Arc de Triumph!



We walked through the tunnel so we could see it up
close.


And here we are.



Wait, where is Matthew you ask?!


And there it is! Day 2 in Paris. Brienna said no way no how were we walking back to hotel, so we ordered up a car and went back to hotel after our late evening snack.















































































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