Day 3 in Paris - OK What Did We Do? (Monday)

We woke up early and had a great breakfast again at the hotel.


We went back to the rooms to grab our bags and headed to the check in desk to store them for the day.


Got a ride and headed to the Sainte-Chappelle. This was built in the 13th century by Louis IX, future St Louis. Luckily the lines were short we got in. 



Once in there is a downstairs part and an upstairs part. Here is the downstairs part.



What about the upstairs part says this gargoyle?


We climbed a narrow spiral staircase and…..beautiful stain glass everywhere.



Amazing right?!



Back down the steps we went.


We had to exit through the gift shop, but this guy was like whoa….do you really need a pillow case for 58 Euro!


When you leave the place is adjoined with a really cool looking government building. 


Next stop Notre Dame…..I mean Starbucks so Brienna could get her decaf creme brûlée.


Back on the walking and we came across the fountain Saint Michele.




Finally, we made it to Notre Dame which is still under restoration from the fire in 2019. Looks like they are making progress.




And the sitting begins…..😜


Next we went on towards the Pantheon. We did a lot of walking today.


They only asked me a couple hundred times how much further…or is it farther? Anyone? It is farther. 🤓 It is much farther than they wanted to walk. I don’t want anything further to do with this walking. 

There it is in the distance!


And there it is! Built from 1758 - 1790 at the request of King Louis XV and was intended to be a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve Paris’ patron saint. It is in the Latin Quarter. 




And 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣


Next on our agenda was the Hotel Invalides, but I sidetracked us through the Luxembourg Gardens. 





Once we got back out on the street we saw the patron saint of scrapping.


We arrived at the Hotel Nationale des Invalides. It was built by King Louis XIV and opened in 1674. It was built for those that served in the Royal Army because they were the guardians of France. It was a hospice, barracks, convent, hospital, and factory. Now there are many museums that tell pieces of France’s history.





We walked into the courtyard.



Inside the Saint Louis Invalides Church.




And back out to Napoleon’s Tomb.




Brienna and walked down to the 2nd level. Matthew stayed up top.



Back on the way upstairs.


And we ended our visit exploring the other wings of the armament museums.







They had all kinds of exhibits throughout France’s war time history.

 And that was that. We left and went to a local cafe Le Centenaire for a nice lunch.



Matthew had veal, Brienna salmon (again), and I tries the steak. 


The pigeon had the fries.


 After lunch we went back to get our bags and catch another ride to Gare De Lyon for the train (which I already posted about)……

It was a full day of walking. 



































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 2 in Milan - THE Duomo and Ciao Italy

Image
Today is Duomo day - our only thing to do before we go to the airport. Of course, there are MANY more things in Milan to do but we only have time for this one last thing. And thank goodness, the kids are starting to look like: Had a wonderful wonderfully snacky breakfast at Sapore which in the square of the Duomo.  I had ice cream espresso, Brienna a decaf, Matthew fresh orange juice - we all had cinnamon rolls which were fantastic.  The Milan Cathedral or Duomo was started some say in 1386 at the height of the gothic style. A long string of architects and engineers have worked on this project over the centuries - even Leonardo DaVinci had his hands in the design of the tower. After we were done eating we had to go out to queue up for entry. First we went with Matthew to the side that only goes in the church. He wasn’t climbing up to the roof.  He got past the bag check and went in. Brienna and I headed for the rooftop queue.  That’s right we are going up there! We g...
Read more

Day 1 in Florence - Late Start Good Food

Image
 As we sat on the train our dear stop Pisa Centrale looked on sadly that we did not stop and visit.  As we rolled on I got this text. Finally we made it to Florence! All of us (well maybe not Matthew) were happy to be off the trains and walking again. Notice how he has no thumbs up 🤔 We took the longest car ride to the hotel - seriously the hotel was two blocks away but my gps had not synched up until after I ordered it up. Doh! The hotel has three sets of doors no kidding; outside for building, inside for hotel, room.  The room is very nice and also has a balcony.  Matthew and Brienna wanted to know why there were two toilets. 🙄😂 Finally a hotel with a bidet!  We walked down and strolled around old town. And we came across the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Absolutely gorgeous.That is the third largest church in the world! The first stone was laid in 1296 and it was consecrated in 1436. Unfortunately we were too late to go in. It was still a sight to se...
Read more

Day 2 in Paris - Dogs are barking!

Image
 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 t...
Read more