Trip with Lyds

PARIS 1

Day 1: Stop one the Eiffel Tower.
Huge fireplace in the Conciergerie, a medieval palace turned prison. Housed many to-be-guillotined nobles, including Marie Antoinette.
Place de la Concorde with the Church of the Madeline down the street behind the fountain (not the two buildings on either side of the fountain, but the smaller one behind. (Yes, it lookes like a government building, and I was surprised that it is actually a church, Dior, Chanel, and lots of other designers are down the street.)
One of Lyd's favorite things was the random, fun modern art sculptures around. This one is in le Jardin des Tuileries.
Fountain outside of the Pompidou Center--sadly the lips featured in Sabrina were broken.
Very cool sunglasses purchased at a store near the Pompidou center. In discussing sunglasses Lyds told me that nerdlies have come back and that everyone on the soccer team has them. Who woulda guessed.
Traffic on the circle around the Arc de Triomphe, taken from the top of the Arch.

VERSAILLES

In the mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors.
The gardens looked delightfully misty...I love the gardens at Versailles, they are amazing, absolutely beyond words enormous, in some places awesomely formal and opulent, and in other areas wild, natural, and rustic. It was absolutely freezing and starting to rain...so we opted for going to get lunch instead of diving into them.
What can I say? It was love at first sight.

PARIS 2

The Citroën dealership on the Champs Elysées had a really cool display with mirrors on the ceiling in a star pattern, and mirrors on the floor with benches around...we had lots of fun.
Musée d'Orsay
Notre Dame--we don't know why it looks like the leaning Tower of Pisa, but both our pictures looked like that...maybe it had something to do with juggling the umbrellas.

DISNEYLAND PARIS

You'll notice that the sign reads "Main Street USA - Disneyland Paris" it cracked us up, but that it really what it felt like, good 'ole USA Disneyland plopped down on the outskirts of Paris. And also I must say that the Tower of Terror was AWESOME! I LOVE that ride!!!! I was stoked that they had it in the "Disney Studios" park.

I must say the carousel was pretty awesome...armored horses, etc.

PARIS 3

On the steps below Sacré Coeur.
We then went to see the artist's square in Montmartre. We had decided to think about getting our portraits drawn, I've always kind of wanted to and she really wanted to. The guy charged us 10euro a portrait. We stood in the street and people would stop and watch. It was really fun to watch him draw and we really like the style of his drawings.

Château de Vincennes

View of castle as you approach it from the street when you get off the metro.






















Old castle and with tower keep inside, there is also a bell on the top of the center portion above the drawbridge that I believe acted as the 1st public clock.










View of courtyard inside the castle from the mid-level.














Inside the covered hallway on left of picture above.






















Prisoner art










































Throne room ceiling









Ceiling in the Treasury
Also in Treasury






















Doors in basement area

















section of middle wall.

La Défense

From the steps of the Grad Arch

Some exciting photo-shoot


People lunching and sunning themselves on the steps of the Grand Arch

View from behind the Grand Arch

On the Grand Arch

Escalators (in the circle thing) and elevator (capsule like thing) on the Grand Arch

Side view of the Grand Arch and The Dome

Cool Thumb sculpture

Don't forget the carousel!


You can see the side of the Grand Arch in the far right hand side, and the shopping mall in the center left close to the fountain.


Taken from a the very bottom of the complex at the 2nd metro station, looks down the tracks to L'arc de Triomphe. I have realize that I didn't really take a good picture of the Grand Arch, but oh well.

Père Lachaise and Montmartre Cemeteries

Here are my pictures from the Père Lachaise and Montmartre Cemeteries. They are older famous cemeteries in Paris. The Père Lachaise cemetery in particular boasts the resting places of very many famous people from Abelard and Heloise, to Jim Morrison, to Molière, Oscar Wilde, and many more. The Montmartre Cemetery was more run down, and mostly begun in the 19th century, but apart from the Père Lachaise being on a bigger scale, having a lot bigger monuments, and many more newer tombs, they were reasonably similar. The Montmartre had a greater melange between new and old and didn't have the same level of grandeur and felt a lot more forelorn, but in other ways was more enjoyable.

The below pictures are from the Montmartre Cemetery

From the Père Lachaise Cemetery