Luckily, Kelly was not the least bit interested in fighting massive crowds at the Louvre, so we blew that off, and instead went shopping.
Category: Paris 2014
Palais Garnier
Day Eight In my opinion, one of the most spectacular sites in Paris is the Opera House, better known to locals as Palais Garnier. I’d rank it higher than the crowded Palace of Versailles.
Latin Quarter and Champs Elysee
Day Seven We did a walking tour of the Latin Quarter, and later in the day we walked along the Champs Elysee, which had a huge Christmas market about a mile long, and is where I did much of my street photography. By now, we’ve become quite comfortable using the Paris Metro, which is convenient…
Paris Street Photography
According to Wikipedia, Street Photography – which is not always shot in the street, but which is nearly always black & white – has its roots in Paris. What better place then, to try to master the craft? Luckily, my new Fuji x100T may be the best camera available for the genre. It’s perfect because…
Christmas Day in Paris
Day Six It’s Christmas! The timing of the day’s activities was perfect, as we arrived at Notre Dame during a gorgeous Christmas mass. Aside from the mass, the day felt pretty much like any other. None of the usual Christmas misery. Just fun exploring new places. What a great day! In the afternoon, we strolled…
Auvers Sur Oise
Day Five We visited the last home of Vincent Van Gogh, and stood on the very spot where several of his paintings were made. We learned that he made more than 70 paintings in the last 70 days of his unhappy life. We also got our first glimpse of the sun today, which lasted about…
Les Andelys
Day Four Les Andelys is a town of 9000 people 60 miles from Paris, which makes it close enough to be considered a suburb. Much of the population commutes from here to Paris. Naturally the town has a large church named Notre Dame where we enjoyed a beautiful organ concert.
Rouen
Day Three Our third day finds us in the unpronounceable city of Rouen. Eighteen year old Joan of Arc was burned alive here. A chapel was erected in the 1970’s near the exact spot of her death. This prosperous city of 107,000 people and 70 church steeples is also home to many wooden and stone…
Palace of Versailles
Day Two After a tasty welcome dinner on board the River Baroness, we cruised a short distance up the River Seine to the 700 room Palace of Versailles and it’s jaw-dropping opulence. We inspected one of the enormous “apartments” used by royalty of the period, and toured room after room filled with gilded walls and…
Christmas in Paris
This year we decided to avoid the depressing spectacle that is Christmas in the US by traveling abroad for the holidays. This turned out to be an even better idea than we thought it could be. The usual guilt and stress of our most dreaded holiday melted away, and we pretty much forgot about the…