On our second day in Paris the weather was a little strange, it started out sunny, and then it rained quite hard and then the sun came out again! We couldn't really decide what to do this day, but in the end we decided we would head off to see the Eiffel Tower. We walked past quite a few famous landmarks on the way, one being the Dome Church. The Dome Church was built to complement the existing buildings of the Invalides military refuge in 1715. The main attraction to see inside is now the tomb of Napoleon, his body was brought here 20 years after his death on the Island of Helena, and installed in this magnificent crypt. We didn't get back here to go in and see it, but Dad made it back on our last day and had a good look around here and in the military museum. (So ask him about it!)
I feel like I didn't really discover much of France's history at all while there, mainly because I was a bit overwhelmed by it all and there was just so much to try and take in. I also feel like I am just getting on top of some of England's History, I repeat some, and France is just a whole new story!! It also didn't help that everywhere you went the information signs looked like this.....
We continued our journey towards the Eiffel Tower and eventually made it! Talk about people everywhere! We hadn't planned on going up today, and it's just as well because I think we would have been there all day. It turns out, we didn't even end up going up at all - which I still can't believe as it's really the one thing I wanted to do - along with eating some crepes! But oh well - there's always next time I guess :-)
{Here we are standing in front of the world famous Eiffel Tower, talk about massive! It really was! The Eiffel Tower was built for the universal exhibition of 1889, and to commemorate the centennial of the Revolution. It stands at 343 m high and was the tallest building in the world up until 1931 when the Americans built New York's Empire State Building. The Eiffel Tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel. I really hope to get up there one day!
We walked under the Tower from one side to the other and jumped on a red tour bus because just as we got there it started raining. The bus was soon packed when everyone started coming down from up stairs and we didn't even get a seat. The lady said to get on and pay later, but because we didn't even get to listen to the guided tour, we ended up getting back off outside the Louvre, and didn't have to pay - so it was great!
The Musee du Louvre is just enormous, and I still can't believe it really. It was first built as a fortress back in 1190 by King Philippe-Auguste to protect Paris against Viking raids. We went in and all had lunch together before splitting off. Mum went to find the Mona Lisa and we started in the Egyptian area, which took you right under and along the base where you can see the original twin towers and drawbridge support of Philippe-Auguste's fortress. That was quite interesting actually. I didn't really enjoy the the Egyptian area as much as I thought I would and didn't get to see a mummy, which is what I went looking for!! I'm sure there were some there somewhere but it wasn't long and the time came to be meeting up with Mum again so we decided to give up (it actually feels like you are just going around in circles in there it's so big). The girls weren't coping with the Museum very well either and after a few minutes of whinging I just though "who would bring a flamin' 2 and 4 year old in here anyway - lets go!" I do know, that if you went to the right areas, and at the right time, the kids could love it but they had just had enough of everything I think! So anyway... it was a quick trip to The Louvre, but it has actually made me really want to get to the British Museum, so hopefully it won't be too long and we will get back to London and go in with fresh happy children!!
{Museums really do hold some pretty unbelievable stuff! Oh and The Louvre kind of sucked in the fact that everything, once again, was written in French! So it's not like you could read about anything anyway!!}
I can't actually remember what we did after we came out of the museum. I think we must have just headed back to the hotel.... it may have even been the day that Mum and I suggested we catch the bus back, but Mick was sure that it would be quicker to just walk... so we said, "Alright you walk and we'll go find the bus". Amazingly we found the bus stop and the right bus with ease, but whilst waiting for the bus to arrive looked over to see a taxi rank right there - we were feeling impatient and decided to go jump in one (we had Emily and Mick had Lani in the pram asleep). We actually pulled out just behind our bus anyway, but we were quite excited to pass Mick walking up the road (at a very fast pace) with about 10 minutes to go (for him). We waved eagerly from the cab window but he didn't see!! lol Poor Mickey! (He actually admitted later that it did take him a bit longer than expected - and he walks twice as fast as us!!)
Before heading back we saw the Arc de Triomphe du Carousel - this sits in the middle, at one end of the Louvre grounds. From here you can actually look straight up the Champs Elysees and see the actual Arc de Triomphe.
Cleopatra's Needle is where we waved goodbye to Mick on our big race home!
3 comments:
I actually think the British Museum is much better than the Louvre. Probably because the signs are all in English, probably because it's easier to work our what is where, probably because I liked the displays better or maybe its just that I went there first.
Lani looks SO grown up sitting on.. whatever she is sitting on....! She looks tanned too!!
Pretty impressive tower that one...you all look very tanned :) Keep typing away, I love reading about your travels and experiences, even if I feel like Im reading old news hehee, get up to date will ya.
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