Paris

We went to Paris for four days during the first week in April. Unfortunately I was sick (stomach flu) for one of the days but I still felt like I saw a lot; mostly stuff I'd never done before.

Going on the Eurostar was amazing. It takes less time to get to Paris that way than to get to Edinburgh on a train. We stayed at an Ibis and it was pretty well-located. The weather was good, which it often hasn't been when I was there, and we gave everybody a 3-day pass and let them loose. As a result we had no group activities and it was nice to have a bit of a break although we did run into bunches of the girls every now then. One time, about 5 of the girls we ran into had just run into Bill Clinton on the Champs Elysses and had their picture taken with him.

First, here are a few shots of Pere La Chaise. Pictures here include Dad next to the kind of tomb he wants to have when he grows up, Oscar Wilde's tomb with lipstick marks all over it, and then my favorite was a guy holding up his own face looking at it.




Another thing we did we've never done before was go to the Orangerie where a building was built for Monet's huge waterlily murals. It's a round bldg. with two circles shaped like an "8" and before you see the mural rooms there a blank, white room you enter, I guess to cleanse your pallet. It is well worth a stop. (We didn't go to the Louvre or D'Orsay this time around.)

Then we went to the Pantheon. Really cool inside with a giant pendulum and a neat crypt. We also went to the Picasso museum. It was fun too. Although they wouldn't let us take pictures I took of pictures in the anterooms of the reflections from the minimalist stained glass window. It was a remarkable effect.

Just before we left, we went clear out to the OTHER arch, the grand arch, La Defense I think. There is no way to describe it's immensity and we were too close to get a long shot, but as you probably know it echos the Arc de Triumphe but super-sized.

From the top of the steps I looked over at a huge sculpture, which from a distance looked liked like a modern mother and child. But when I zoomed and then went closer, it was a huge finger.