I woke early to be able to have a conversation with the Concierge who has been so busy and I wanted to make sure that I was able to get us tickets to the French Open. It turns out that it is the hardest event I have ever tried to get tickets to. Can't seem to get any online and they only come available after 5 pm and then are sold out before you can even try and get them and scalpers are selling them for as much as a motorcycle! The concierge was very helpful and he said he would try several ways to get tickets and I gave him a price range I was willing to spend on the athletes we wanted to see. I also picked up some museum passes which allows us to skip some lines and get right into several museums we had plans to visit. We spoke about a reservation for dinner with the Hartsfields we found out were in Paris too and then the GM was so delightful and was kind enough to insist on returning our rental car for us, since it was not in the place it was supposed to be and down in some parking structure. Was worried about a 10 min excursion taking an hour. It was a productive morning and then we were off.
We chose as a group to hit the Louvre first. It is overwhelming and HUGE but you have to do it. We made a game plan, we rented the headsets so we could have some information about the paintings and sculptures we hoped to see. The device was pretty handy. We made our first move to the 0 floor and the Venus de Milo sculpture. It was found actually in a field with no none artist but considered one of the most beautiful sculptures and intriguing without arms. Off to Leonardo's Mona Lisa but on the way I noticed paintings that I remembered from an art class. They were lovely and as we walked over to take a look they were three of Leonardo's other works. Really beautiful and honestly they do stand out from the rest. The devices were handy because we could listen to info about each work.
As we began to wander other areas of the Louvre and there were thousands of people in the museum honestly we literally bumped into my cousin's daughter Michelle. She was there with her friend just having come from London and between heading to South of France. No idea she was in Paris on a graduation trip and it was so fun to see her and meet her friend. What a coincidence...although I believe there are never coincidences. We wandered around other parts of the museum and then finished with the Royal Apartments which were lavishly decorated and home of Napoleon. Need to do some more research about Napoleon because it seems ironic that during the French Revolution they overthrew and beheaded Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette but then 100 years later they have an emperor and living lavishly again in a palace...hmmm.
We left Louvre very tired and hungry and hopped on a Cyclo and took a nice ride over to Notre Dame. Sam has been craving a banana nutella crepe for days and none of the creperie's have had banana but I recall this one place that sold crepes on the corner by Notre Dame that was delicious and have been there many times of the years. After lunch at a neighboring restaurant, where we also ran into Michelle again walking by!!- we picked up a banana nutella crepe and it was delicious!
The line going into Notre Dame has about 100+ people in it but surprisingly the line took only 5 mins and we were able to go inside and admire the amazing huge rose windows and many other smaller rose windows.
Sam decided he really needed his bird fix, so the boys located a bird/pet shop near by and we went strolling to find it. Along the river there was an area that had about 3 pet shops and the last one was huge with the largest selection of birds I have ever seen for sale. There were all different breeds, sizes and colors. Sam was in heaven and they had tons of little dogs and cats, some we all (even I who is not a cat fan) adored these little grey fluffy kitties.
We hopped on bikes and decided to explore. We rode down to the Eiffel Tower partially along the river where they had some fun exhibitions going on where we played a form of paddle ball/tetherball. At the Eiffel Tower they had some temporary tennis courts set up where they had young tennis matches happening and on the lawn they had a megatron and were showing live tennis from Roland Garros. They had a both that had a speed radar to tell how fast your serve was. Sam and I stood in line and took a turn. I surprisingly had a faster serve than Sam and registered 118 mph. Sam had 114 mph serve. We rode back to the hotel through Concorde Square and it is just an incredible open area with statues and fountains. The gilded Oblisque that stands in the middle was a gift from Egypt that we learned about when in Cairo and the Egyptians were proud of the gift they had presented but ticked, yes a pun, when the clock they were given in return from France didn't tick.
For dinner we joined our friends the Hartsfields from Utah who saw we were in town and met up with Andrew and Jen and their two boys, once of which is around Sam's age. We enjoyed dinner at Montmartre and then wandered up to the Basilica where musicians gather and folks congregate to watch the sun go down and enjoy the view. It is a beautiful view and the moon was shining directly above the city and centered on the Basilica and seemed like a painting. As we wandered into the church, which is all aglow on the mountain top with grand staircase leading up to it, there was a mass going on inside. We listened for a bit, because intermittently there would be a nun I believe sing parts of the program and the organ would play and it was magical. As our friends hopped a cab back we wandered down the steps and strolled a bit more looking for a cab and then thanks to Sam called Uber and caught a car back to the hotel. Around 11 p.m. at night we heard from the Concierge at the hotel that they were fortunate enough to get us tickets to the tennis match! The woman helping us honestly had been working all night. We are so appreciative and we can't wait to go tomorrow!
As we began to wander other areas of the Louvre and there were thousands of people in the museum honestly we literally bumped into my cousin's daughter Michelle. She was there with her friend just having come from London and between heading to South of France. No idea she was in Paris on a graduation trip and it was so fun to see her and meet her friend. What a coincidence...although I believe there are never coincidences. We wandered around other parts of the museum and then finished with the Royal Apartments which were lavishly decorated and home of Napoleon. Need to do some more research about Napoleon because it seems ironic that during the French Revolution they overthrew and beheaded Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette but then 100 years later they have an emperor and living lavishly again in a palace...hmmm.
We left Louvre very tired and hungry and hopped on a Cyclo and took a nice ride over to Notre Dame. Sam has been craving a banana nutella crepe for days and none of the creperie's have had banana but I recall this one place that sold crepes on the corner by Notre Dame that was delicious and have been there many times of the years. After lunch at a neighboring restaurant, where we also ran into Michelle again walking by!!- we picked up a banana nutella crepe and it was delicious!
The line going into Notre Dame has about 100+ people in it but surprisingly the line took only 5 mins and we were able to go inside and admire the amazing huge rose windows and many other smaller rose windows.
Sam decided he really needed his bird fix, so the boys located a bird/pet shop near by and we went strolling to find it. Along the river there was an area that had about 3 pet shops and the last one was huge with the largest selection of birds I have ever seen for sale. There were all different breeds, sizes and colors. Sam was in heaven and they had tons of little dogs and cats, some we all (even I who is not a cat fan) adored these little grey fluffy kitties.
We hopped on bikes and decided to explore. We rode down to the Eiffel Tower partially along the river where they had some fun exhibitions going on where we played a form of paddle ball/tetherball. At the Eiffel Tower they had some temporary tennis courts set up where they had young tennis matches happening and on the lawn they had a megatron and were showing live tennis from Roland Garros. They had a both that had a speed radar to tell how fast your serve was. Sam and I stood in line and took a turn. I surprisingly had a faster serve than Sam and registered 118 mph. Sam had 114 mph serve. We rode back to the hotel through Concorde Square and it is just an incredible open area with statues and fountains. The gilded Oblisque that stands in the middle was a gift from Egypt that we learned about when in Cairo and the Egyptians were proud of the gift they had presented but ticked, yes a pun, when the clock they were given in return from France didn't tick.
For dinner we joined our friends the Hartsfields from Utah who saw we were in town and met up with Andrew and Jen and their two boys, once of which is around Sam's age. We enjoyed dinner at Montmartre and then wandered up to the Basilica where musicians gather and folks congregate to watch the sun go down and enjoy the view. It is a beautiful view and the moon was shining directly above the city and centered on the Basilica and seemed like a painting. As we wandered into the church, which is all aglow on the mountain top with grand staircase leading up to it, there was a mass going on inside. We listened for a bit, because intermittently there would be a nun I believe sing parts of the program and the organ would play and it was magical. As our friends hopped a cab back we wandered down the steps and strolled a bit more looking for a cab and then thanks to Sam called Uber and caught a car back to the hotel. Around 11 p.m. at night we heard from the Concierge at the hotel that they were fortunate enough to get us tickets to the tennis match! The woman helping us honestly had been working all night. We are so appreciative and we can't wait to go tomorrow!
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