Another hot one today. 31 degrees maximum. This caused us to revise our walking plans somewhat. Our initial idea of walking around all day was exchanged for an open-air double decker bus which took us to many of the sights in Paris without all the drama. Today we did the Grand Tour, which started near our hotel in Avenue de l'Opera and then took us past the Musee du Louvre, Pont Neuf, Notre Dame, Musee d'Orsay, Place de la Concorde, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Trocodero, Tour Eiffel, Hotel des Invalides and La Madeleine. There were some really great photo opportunities and we ended up with photos coming out of our photos!
We left the bus at Madeleine and ventured down through the Tuleries Gardens to our first museum stop for the day - Musee de l'Orangerie. Here we marvelled at the huge Monet waterlily paintings and many works by the great masters downstairs. This museum was well worth the visit. We then braved the heat again and strolled through the gardens heading towards the Louvre. A quick break for lunch saw us devour delicious baguettes in one of the cafes in the gardens. Rod ordered the jambon and Kym had the poulet. YUM! So good, we would happily return. Bread is so delicious and so prevalent here - French people love their bread. We can't quite work out why the French are so skinny when they are surrounded by such temptations. There are cakes, pattiseries, boulangeries, chocolat shops everywhere, yet the people remain slender. Maybe they get a lot of exercise? ;)
After lunch we headed up to the Louvre and ascended the stairs to view the obligatory Mona Lisa. There she was, flanked by a sea of people from all over the world. Rod marvelled more at the people than at the painting itself. It is an enormous museum though and we both really enjoyed a look at some of the works and objects d'art from the Renaissance and Middle Ages in a completely different section of the Louvre. The intricacy of some pieces was amazing, as was the sheer opulence and decadence of the apartments of Napolean III.
Our feet had almost given up after le Louvre, so Rod decided to get back on the bus, to save us walking all the way to Notre Dame. Big mistake! The bus got caught in a major traffic jam caused by traffic being re-routed for a Gay Pride March happening tonight. The bus was exceedingly hot and oppressive. Eventually we made it to Notre Dame and took some photos of the exterior and gave the interior a miss. We were fed up with queues (and the number of people there) at this point, so we decided to walk back to the hotel. Along the way we came across the Pompidou Centre - the museum housing modern art here in Paris. It is a kind of inside-out building with a lot of what you would normally see hidden inside a building actually featured on the outside. Even the escalators are on the exterior. We had a quick look here and then walked what seemed like miles back to the hotel. A shower and/or bath helped the healing process upon arrival at our hotel.
Looking back, we really covered a lot of ground today - perhaps a little too much, but it was well worth it.
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