Paris est TRES BIEN!!! (Blog Post 2 of 2)

Wednesday, we didn't wake up until about 9:30! We took our time getting ready, then headed to Notre Dame. We visited the cathedral on our last visit, but it was during that "jet laggy" first day, so weren't as enthused about it's gorgeousness as we should have been.

We started with a trip to the catacombs, which, last year, I thought were tombs, but which turned out to be a REALLY cool museum documenting the villages and groups that were on the isle de la cite before it officially became Paris...Celts, Romans, and, eventually French villages were built on the site, and, during excavations foundations, artifacts, and remnants of roads were uncovered, and preserved as a jumble of cultures built on top of each other...very cool!

Here are some photos of Notre Dame (all from Duane's camera...since my battery died the day before...!):

After Notre Dame we went on the hunt for Shakespeare and Company, and old, eclectic bookstore that I TRIED to find on the last trip to Paris, but couldn't.  This time, with Mapquest map in hand, we searched, and searched, and researched, and FINALLY found it CLOSE to where Mapquest said it was, but it WAS Mapquest, after all.  Apparently, "close" is good enough for them...

We also had a chance to search through the bookstalls along the Seine...where you can find everything from tacky magnets (of which I found a DOOZY to give to my brother-in-law in our continuing quest to give each other the TACKIEST magnets we can find on any trip on which we go)(we BOTH have QUITE a collection at this point!).

After the bookstore and the bookstalls, we headed to a LOVELY restaurant that had a variety of tarts in the window.  I had an AWESOME curry beef tart, and a rhubarb tart for dessert.  Duane had a spinach and chevre tart, and a blueberry tart for dessert.  It was TRES BON!

After lunch, we headed to the Musee de L'Orangerie, a museum that had an exhibit of eight large panels that Monet painted of his gardens at Giverny.  I'm not a huge fan of impressionist art, but they were very cool.  I DO appreciate how, up close, they just look "scrawly and frantic", but, as you get farther away from them, end up looking serene and cool.

The eight large panels feature parts of the garden at various times during the day:

                           

A quick visit to the obelisk at Place de la Concorde, another walk around the Montparnasse neighborhood near the hotel, dinner at a pizzeria up the street from Le Meridien, and our day was complete. 

We were in bed by 9:00, as we had to get up at 5:00 to catch the shuttle back to the airport.

Again...I LOVE Paris, and can't wait for our next trip to see the stuff that we STILL haven't had time to see!

Here's hoping YOU were able to revisit a favorite place recently, or that YOU had the chance to experience the thrill of another culture!  Vive la France!!