Mes Parents Venaient á Paris!

My parents came to Paris! The middle of January isn't exactly high tourist season, but we managed to see the sights anyway. Here's my mother & I in the park next to St. Eustache church and over the Forum Les Halles shopping mall.





This is my father and I in front of the Hotel des Invalides, more on that later.

Because there's a lot of pictures, I've posted them in order but not all on the same page. To see them all, click on the list of previous posts on the right hand side of the page until you get to "Au revoir!"

The Symbol of Paris

After a nice lunch at the local brasserie, my parents and I headed to... guess where?


Paris's most famous monument. That little yellow blur inside the girders on the right hand side (squint -- it really is there) is the elevator that takes you up.


It was an overcast day when we got there, but by the time we were done admiring the view, having a look at the gift shop, and drinking some tea a cold drizzle had started to fall.

We were pretty wet by the time we got into the Trocadero metro station. This was just about the worst weather I'd encoutered in Paris, and I'd left the umbrella back at the apartment. The rest of the visit was sunnier, but not exactly warm.

Paris l'OpenTour

My parents & I got a two-day pass on a double-decker tourist bus. We got on at L’arc du Carousel near the Louvre. First stop (that we got off at) was another arch...


It was a bit chilly, but my father braved the open upper deck as we swung by the Eiffel Tour on our way to the Hotel des Invalides.


The Hotel des Invalides was built as a residence for diabled veterans and now houses the huge Musée de l'Armée. The enormous domed church is now Napoleon's tomb, a shrine surrounded by slightly bizarre bas reliefs depicting Napoleon as a Roman god.

Crepe Expectations...

with Nutella & bananas. Mmmm.

The Louvre

No visit to Paris would be complete without a visit to the Louvre, and its most famous painting. Photo courtesy of the Louvre, photography is no longer permitted in this gallery.


No, the statue isn't in jail, just in one of the enclosed interior courtyards that is being used a worskhop for cleaning and restoration of sculptures. It has the feel of a marble junkyard, where statues missing various bodies might go to find replacements.


Speaking of statues with missing body parts...


The apartments of Napoleon III, a dictator with more money than taste, apparently. This was our substitute for going to Versailles.


After the Louvre we hopped on a different l'OpenTour bus and went to Sacre Coeur where the nuns were singing vespers in the Basilica. Apparently we didn't take any pictures.