Trip to France - Day 3 - Paris

One of the fun things about the metro in Paris is that all of the different stations have different seats in them. This was a picture of the seats in our nearest metro station.  We loved these seats because they reminded us of childhood.  My Grandpa Crane made chairs and stools out of old implement seats.  Yulia remembers similar seats from her childhood visits to the countryside (Soloneshnoye). 

Wednesday morning we did the Paris tourist thing.  We took the metro to the Louvre and got out.  We were there right before it opened, got through okay and spent about three hours walking around the museum.  We have been to a lot of museums.  The Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Vatican Museum both have impressive collections and are huge.  The Louvre was similar.  Of course, the Louvre is home to the Mona Lisa and so we got to experience that. 

Implement seats!

At the Louvre entrance (underground)

The Mona Lisa photobombed us!

One hallway full of priceless art from the masters.

Mary and Elizabeth - one of our favorite paintings.

Early scientific instruments

How the royals lived in France.

One of Yulia's favorite art pieces.

Taking a quick breather

Statues in a little courtyard.

The Louvre from the outside.

Look at how much fun we are having. In France!!!!

After we had our fill of museum, we exited and oriented ourselves and walked to the Notre Dame cathedral.  We especially loved the stained glass windows.  Our favorite cathedral is still the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but this was beautiful as well. We were there just a few weeks before it caught fire, so it was good timing for us. 

We found a nice little cafe and ordered Croque Madame sandwiches.  This cafe was everything we had expected from Paris from the arrangement to the demeanor of the waitress and patrons.  It was a fun experience (and one of our most expensive meals....)

Seine River on the walk to Notre Dame.

We passed this clock on our walk and really liked it. Reminded us of Prague.

Notre Dame Cathedral.

Beautiful stained glass rose windows.

Carved statues depict Biblical scenes.

Joan of Arc statue.

Inside was quite dark .

Lunch at a Parisian cafe.

Parisian views.

You may not be surprised to learn that we went to see the Eiffel Tower.  We didn't want to climb it or wait in line, so we mostly just admired the view and enjoyed the day.  We were surprised at how far from the center of the city the tower is and just how much it doesn't dominate the landscape.  It was fun to have those conceptions challenged while being in a place that was "familiar" through popular culture.

Just look at these happy kids. So much selfie fun in Paris!

After returning from our adventures we rested for awhile in our hotel room and then went out to eat dinner.  We went to a little place a couple of blocks away that was a Tunisian/Algerian restaurant that specialized in couscous.  It was truly a little hole in the wall place.  We were the first customers, but by the time we left it was really filling up.  We really loved the food and  the atmosphere.  The place also specialized in cocktails, including non-alcoholic ones, and we ordered those and just loved them.

Sauce with peas to put on the couscous.

Look how yummy that looks, and how cute the dishes are!