Day in Paris, evening cruise

Well, the verdict is in, we LOVE Paris!!!!  We have been unhurried and relaxed.  Seen lots of landmarks and so many beautiful buildings.  Great cafes where we sit back and relax with a coffee, or later in the day, a cold drink.  We love wandering the streets and parks, grab a gelati or a crepe whenever the urge gets us.  All the rumours we heard about the arrogant French have come to nothing, we find them friendly and only too happy to help.

Which brings me to today, a walk around  Jarden des Tuileries, the gardens near the Louvre, checked out the Grand Palais and the Petite Palais, went into the modern art gallery of the Petit Palias and didn’t understand any of the art.  Think I’ll stick to the gardens.  Wandered along the Champs Elysee, past the American Embassy and the Place de la Concorde.  We have made friends with the staff at the Information centre near Notre Dame so they have been very helpful.

Couldn't get too close to Nortre dame today - there has been an Air France plane crash near South America and hundreds of French have been killed, everyone from American, British and French politics is present today for a memorial service, think we'll look elsewhere for entertainment today.

There were protests from Sri Lanka national at the Trocadero today so the riot Police were out in force, no issues, so no action.  Had a late lunch in the gardens near the Eiffel Tower and decided to do the night cruise on the Seine.  Boarded the boat and Pam went to the toilet, I changed seats and she couldn’t find me for 10 minutes, thought I’d been kidnapped…my life is hanging by a thread!!!

Nice cruise and great to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, don’t miss it if you have a chance!!!

Notre Dame limo full of celebrities

A less busy view

Looking up at the Trocadero

Riot Police all ready

Lunch

Base of the tower

Having a calming drink

Beautiful sight.  We watched as some young man proposed to his girl friend here.

Museum and Roden gallery

Lots planned for today – war museum and the Roden gallery, both behind the Eiffel Tower.  First up we visited the Musse de l’Armee, basically the war museum.  It is a huge complex which has been, since being built in about 1900, a museum as well as accommodation for returned soldiers.  It has collections dating back 500 years right up to current conflicts. It contains two chapels for the returned soldiers and has the tombs of significant figures in French history, including the tomb of Napoleon.    All displays were very interesting, a bit like the Australian War Memorial.

Just down the street is the Roden gallery.  Pam has been very interested in Roden since she fell in love with the painting by Klimt ‘The Kiss’.  Roden completed the original sculpture in the 1880s.  Due to its popularity, he made many more and incorporated these sculptures into other scenes.  Also at the museum is ‘The Thinker’, a famous sculpture included in the ‘Gates of Hell’ sculpture.  Lots of copies were made from the cast, just as copies of ‘The Kiss’ was made.

There are many works at the museum and we really enjoyed the beautiful gardens and relax atmosphere at the gallery.  Slow walk to the Metro and home for tea.

Entry area of the Musee Armee

Been there...done that!!!

Napoloeons tomb at the bottom of the photo

Marshall Foch tomb (WW1 French hero)

Napoleons tomb

Soldiers chapel

Armements

Entry to the Musee

Decorative bridge over the Seine

The Kiss by Roden

The Thinker

Roden gardens

Anotther Thinker in the gardens

Sculpture by Roden

The selfie and the Thinker

Another 'Hells gate' with 'The Thinker at the top.

Pond in the Roden gardens

Roden Museum

Versailles

We have Versailles Palace planned for today.  It is about a 45 minute train ride on the outskirts of Paris so we thought we would spend a bit of time out there to fill the day.  We got the Metro in to the city then had to transfer to one of the main trains out of town, lucky we had a friendly Parisienne to consult or we could have ended up in Berlin maybe!!  Made it out there and it was a 20 minute walk up to the palace.

Beautiful palace and equally magnificent gardens.  Wandered around for a few hours, went in to the town area surrounding the palace to have a late lunch before heading home.

Checking out the gardens

Nice fountain, just no water

Palace gates

Ornate ceilings

Hall of mirrors - full of tourists

Forecourt of the palace

Selfie in town

An adventure then some shopping

Well, I had heard of 'The Catacombs'. Thought it would be an interesting place to see.  I didn’t tell Pam a lot about it, perhaps I should have.  The Catacombs were developed in Paris in the 18^th century.  The buildings of the city of Paris are mostly made from stone which was mined underground, right underneath the city over many centuries.  As buildings got bigger and heavier, the mines eventually closed.  In the 18^th century the city was expanding and there were acres and acres of cemeteries using valuable land.  It was decided to dig up most of the bones and place them along the walls of the tunnels built as part of the mining operation.  Over a period of about 4 years about 6 million skeletons were dug up from several inner city cemeteries and placed in the 300 kilometres of mining shafts underneath Paris.  They are stacked neatly, in some instances patterns have been formed by the bones.  Altars have been built and ceremonies are still conducted by people inside the tunnels.  The public has access to about 2 kilometres of the Catacombs, walking along a narrow walkway surrounded by bones.  It is lit by some dodgy lamps hung with wire along the way. There is water dripping from the ceiling and the ground is white from the slowly decaying human remains.  Only 20 people are allowed in at one time because there is not enough oxygen for any more. 
Not Pams favourite place.
Needless to say she got through fairly quickly, knocking down old women and children on her search for the exit...all’s well that ends well...we lived!!!  When we came up at the end the staff member asked to search our bags, I asked him why?  He reached around and lifted up a human skull....someone had tried to steal it yesterday!!!!
Maybe an afternoon shopping may help her forget the trauma suffered at my hands??!!


As luck would have it there was a huge shopping precinct just metres from the exit of...that place which shall not be named.... Galleries Lafayette is the biggest shopping centre in Paris (five stories of homeware, four of mens wear and 10 of ladies wear) all distributed over a couple of acres – lots of retail therapy did the trick and Pam was able to eat tea that night.  Still not sure if she’ll discuss this event ever again...and if she does I’ll get the blame!!!

Entry to The Catacombs - very nondescript building, inside there is a man taking money and a circular staircase down down down.....we only waited in line for about 5 minutes and we were in!!!

Down to this....Pam not sure what she is doing here.

Looking at little altars?

Out comes the 'teapot'...oops, I think I'm in trouble.

I think I'm about to join them??!!

Out at last, just a long way from where we started!!

We have shopping!!!

We even made it home - this is our little street.