Wed July 15 we flew from Barcelona to Paris, arriving at 9:30 that morning. Our apartment check-in was scheduled for 3pm, so after purchasing Paris Museum Passes at the Tourist Information desk, we took a bus into the city and dropped our luggage at the rental company’s office. Their office was very close to our apartment and our apartment was within walking distance of the Louvre so we headed that direction to explore our neighborhood a bit. It was quite warm and we didn’t get very far. When we arrived at the Louvre, we walked around the courtyard with the glass pyramid looking for the brass plaques of the ‘Rose Line’ (the fictional markers indicating a French Prime Meridian that is supposed to pass through the glass pyramid: see The Da Vinci Code movie); didn’t find them! Then we headed for the shade of some trees in the Tuileries. We sat on the grass, watching the ferris wheel and other fairground rides in the distance, watching people, reading our kindles, and napping. Darren texted us when they had arrived at the airport, had their lunch, and were on their shuttle to the apartment. (Text messaging was so helpful during this vacation!) We headed back to retrieve our luggage and arrived at the apartment only moments after them. The top floor apartment had three bedrooms and three baths which worked out so well for us. The top floor was the fifth but the lift only went to the fourth, so we had a flight of stairs to negotiate each day. Also, the lift was small, so only four of us could fit at a time but we had fun racing the lift down on the stairs. The kitchen had a toaster, microwave, and stovetop and we had imagined cooking dinner some nights, but it was so hot that we never used any of these heat generating devices! We mostly ate out or brought in salad fixings or sandwiches for dinner. The apartment had three fans, one for each bedroom, which we moved around to other portions of the apartment when we were dining or lounging in the living room. We were careful to close the windows and shades in the heat of the day when we were out and about and to open them after the sun started setting. This kept it nice and cool in the apartment. That first day we just got ourselves organized in the house, walked to the market to do some provisioning, plotted our activities for the next couple days, and rested up for the action-packed week.

Thu July 16 We took an early morning train out of town to Giverny to see Monet’s Gardens. It isn’t a large area – only took us a few hours to leisurely stroll along all the paths through the beautiful gardens and to tour his house. It was rewarding to see the location of some of Monet’s famous paintings. Especially memorable is the water lily pond. The trees in the garden have grown much larger over the years of course and thus our pictures on the famous bridge over the pond only show a small section of the bridge that is in Monet’s paintings. It was a pleasant morning trip. We ate a relaxing lunch under umbrellas in the village of Giverny right next to the train station before heading back to Paris. That afternoon we took the metro over to the hilly Montmartre area of town to visit Sacre Coeur. It is a beautiful church which we would see from afar many more times during our stay in Paris given its location atop the hill. From the metro stop we took the funicular which avoided some of the steps up to the cathedral. From the top of the steps at the base of the church there is a gorgeous view out over the city. Banners hung of the front façade reminded us that this cathedral has been here for over 125 years. On the steps were many vendors with their wares set out on cloths. Apparently there illegally because when the police arrived, they quickly gathered up their wares by the four corners of their cloths, slung them over shoulders, and scurried away as if practiced many times over. We had read in advance about some of the scams and witnessed one at this site. Several of us were approached by vendors selling braided bracelets – they try to tie the bracelet on you and then insist you pay for it as it can’t be removed without destroying it. But we squirmed around to make sure we didn’t get a bracelet affixed to our arms when they approached. Walking away from the site we passed through an alley chock full of legitimate souvenir vendors where Carrie purchased some placemats –those should pack well.

Fri July 17 The Eiffel Tower was first on our list this day. Carrie and Darren had arranged a tour for us. We followed advice from the guide books and approached the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero Plaza and were rewarded with good spots for photos. The plaza is very lovely with a series of wide marble steps and adorned with a variety of sculpted statues leading down to a large fountain at the base of the plaza. Our tour was ‘themed’. Our guide played 3 or 4 different roles during our tour, with his first and primary role being that of a WWII pilot. We toured the bunkers below the tower and saw where some of the communications equipment was housed when the tower was initially built as a radio/communications tower. As we followed the story of the infatuation of our ‘pilot’ with a woman he met near the tower, we also received updates on the history of the tower, including how it was saved by Mr. Eiffel from destruction following the 1889 World’s Fair and subsequently became beloved by the city. Our tour ended on the secluded roof portion of the second level and we spent several minutes enjoying the view from each side. We could even see (with zoom capability of the camera) the backside of the statue of liberty that stands at the end of one of the islands on the Seine. We ate lunch on the busy and crowded second level and even managed to get seats. The girls found a spot at the table with the unusual swing seats, which were quite popular!

Refueled for the afternoon, we walked over to the Rodin museum. It is under construction, but the gardens were open and the famous “Thinker” was among the many sculptures that adorned the gardens. Next we took a metro over to the Arc de Triomphe. Of course we had to climb (narrow, circular stairs with nowhere to rest and no breeze to cool us off) to the top to see the view down the Champs-Elysses with all the top fashion and other stores for those richer than us! When we climbed down to the foot of the arch we noticed that they were preparing for the daily ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier, so we hung around for that.


Sat July 18 We took the train out of town again, this time to Versailles. We spent the whole day walking around the palace, gardens, and grounds. It is a big place! We had considered taking the shuttle at one point, but we didn’t want to miss any of it and ended up walking the entire time….many of us had aching feet by the end of that day. The Palace was of course quite luxurious and filled with art works of all types. The opulence is overwhelming to some extent and after a while it becomes too much to really appreciate all the years of work that it represents. The gardens were extensive with numerous fountains. We had purposely chosen to go on Saturday as more of the fountains were turned on and some even ‘danced’ to music at designated times. It was another quite warm day and finding spots of shade in the gardens was a welcome relief. At times we were tempted to go splash in the fountains. Our Thailand souvenir fans that we had brought from the boat came in handy! We ate at a shaded café in the garden area. Adjacent to the Versailles gardens is a public park that we decided to explore and found some hidden spots of the palace’s expansive gardens to enjoy (Marie-Antoinette's Estate, Le Petit Trianon, and the Temple of Love).

Sun July 19 Dennis decided to take a day of rest as his knees had gotten a workout at Versailles. The rest of us started the day at the Louvre. We got there first thing in the morning and with our Museum Passes did not have to wait in line very long. We signed up for the English tour of the Masters, which has to be done on sight on the day of your visit. We had some time on our own before the tour which we used to visit the Egyptian exhibits. Darren and Carrie had vacationed in Egypt some years ago (before kids) and that section triggered memories for them. We enjoyed our guide. She expertly guided us through the crowds and the Louvre maze to visit some of the items considered especially unique masterpieces, for instance the ancient stone sculpture upon which was written the laws that governed Babylon, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the ornate gold filigree chest that housed Louis XIV’s gems, and ended, of course, with a viewing of the Mona Lisa. After a quick lunch we headed for the Orsay – but decided to postpone for another day when we saw the long lines, even for those with a Museum Pass. We walked across the Seine to L’Orangerie museum. On this bridge, as with many others in Paris, we saw thousands of lovers’ locks affixed to the wire mesh of the bridge. We had first been introduced to this tradition in Australia. We understand that the locks had to be removed from some of the bridges in Paris as they were adding too much weight. The primary exhibit at the L’Orangerie are the “large Monets”. We headed there first, but had no idea what ‘large’ meant – the rooms were oval with essentially 360 degrees of canvas. The paintings could have been mistaken as murals but they were actually four separate canvases in each of the two rooms. The first was the water lily pond. The second was another view of the garden, presented in different seasons with different lighting. A bench in the middle of the room allowed you to sit in awe and enjoy but because of the impressionistic style they were best observed from the furthest point across the room. So fantastic.

We were ready for an early dinner. We texted Dennis that we were headed for McDonalds right near the apartment and he decided to join us. He had a bit of trouble finding us, so we exchanged a few more text messages before we realized that although we had headed for the McDonalds, we had actually stopped at a restaurant named ‘Quick’ right next door which is modelled after McDonalds – the facility as well as the menu! We had stopped one restaurant too soon. We ended up not ordering burgers that night but instead found a neat little hole in the wall that served us a meat-lovers mix of chicken, lamb, pork and beef with some rice and salad –hit the spot after so many sandwiches. It turned out that after a few hours rest Dennis had felt reinvigorated and took a long metro ride over to Parc du Villette to visit the ‘interactive’ Science Discovery Museum (one of his favorite types of museums). So he had thoroughly enjoyed his day as well.

Mon July 20 We had originally identified a handful of major sites where we would give them each their own day and then fill in with other more ‘minor’ sites as time allowed. This day our selected site was Notre Dame. We really wanted to walk up the Tower and had heard the line would be long. So again we set out early in the morning to camp out in line. Even with our advance planning however, we still had about a 2 hour wait. There was a small park behind the Cathedral so we took turns walking in the park and browsing the nearby souvenir shops while one of us held our spot in line. It was another bit of a hike up a narrow spiral staircase but the view (yes yet another view) was beautiful and we got a closer look at the gargoyles, architecture, and adornments near the top. No, we did not see the hunchback but we did hear the bells several times. We took a break for lunch nearby before returning to visit inside the Cathedral (much much shorter line). The architecture, sculptures, dome, and stained glass windows were beautiful. Virginia lit candles for her sister Paulette, mom, and dad. We walked over to St. Chappelle as we were told that the stained glass windows of the upper level were not to be missed….but had to give it a pass since the line was already several hours long. Instead we headed across town to the modern art museum - Pompidou. It is called the ‘inside-out’ building as the architect designed it such that all the pipes and other pieces of operational structure that are normally hidden behind walls in a building are clearly visible and brightly painted on the outside of this structure. We decided to do a quick tour of some parts of museum, but we got hooked and didn’t surface for a couple hours. Behind the Pompidou is a plaza with the Fountain of St. Sebastian. We love fountains and figured that this one, being so close to the modern art museum, might be interesting. It did not disappoint. There were many colorful artistic water elements within the fountain. It was a nice ending to a very full day.


Tues July 21 Only two days left! By this time we had perfected our skills of locating and catching the correct metro train (thank you Darren) and standing in line. We put both to good use as we headed out early for the Catacombs. Standing in line we were entertained by a group of some very tiny mice munching on bread crumbs or whatever else they could find that had been left behind by the prior day’s tourists. A bit later the birds arrived and took over the scavenging, sending the mice into hiding. The entrance is on a roundabout island and when we arrived, the line was half way around the island. Before we entered, the line had looped around itself! We enjoyed the coolness of the catacombs. Although very sobering (the remains of over six million people were relocated to the catacombs), it was fascinating to see how they had layered the bones in quite a decorative way as to afford as much respect as possible to the dead. In one area there were some wall sculptures carved by one of the workers. After lunch Dennis headed back to the apartment to make final arrangements for the next leg of our European tour, while the rest of us went to Luxembourg Gardens. The gardens are beautiful and of course are adorned with some nice sculptures and fountains. But the highlight was the pond where the girls sailed toy boats. These were not fancy remote-controlled items. The sails were set for you when you selected your boat and then you were given a stick to use for directing the boat when it came close to the edges of the octagonal pond. There were moments when you thought your boat would not come back to the edge as it would get becalmed or hung up on another passing boat (or two or three). But somehow the wind would catch the sails and it would return to you for a push back out into the middle. Then it was back to the apartment for a rest as Darren and family had a late night planned. They went out after dark (and it didn’t start getting dark until after 9:30pm) to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. We decided to stay back at the apartment and take advantage of the washing machine as we would be continuing our European land trip for a few more weeks after Paris and the laundry was piling up.

Wed July 22 Finally our last day arrived and we still needed to do the Museum Orsay so we started out early again. As it turned out there was absolutely no line. After hearing Virginia rave about the large Monets, Dennis opted to skip the Orsay and headed to L’Orangerie and a second science discovery museum. The Orsay is in a converted historic train station, so the building itself is quite interesting and beautiful. As with all the other Paris museums, we had to pick and choose which sections we would visit – including some sculpture as well as some paintings. One exhibit that seemed to especially excite our granddaughters was a model of the Opera House. Our apartment was in the Opera area and we walked by that beautiful building every day at least twice as we started and ended our days. But we never did make time to tour it. The model was cut in half so you could see the inside of the Opera House and it looked like a huge dollhouse! A very interesting display. The floor of that area of the museum was glass and under it was a model of the city where we located the Opera House and the street of our apartment. We all met up for lunch and then a cruise on the Seine River, which was a nice ending for a wonderful week. It was a beautiful day and we got a last look at so many of the sights we had visited that week. That night the two of us went to Tracadero Plaza to catch the festivities and see the sparkling Eiffel Tower. Darren and family had enjoyed it so much that we decided we should see it ourselves. The flame thrower that had been there for them was missing, but there was tango dancing on the Tracadero, the fountain was flowing, and street performers entertained. We also walked down to the island on the Seine where we could see the Statue of Liberty up close. Darren and family stayed back at the apartment to pack.


Thu July 23 Virginia held back her tears, momentarily, as we said our goodbyes to Darren, Carrie, Kira, and Devin. They were headed to the airport for a nonstop flight from Paris to LAX. What a wonderful week it had been – a family vacation we will always remember. We checked out of the apartment (the rep thanked us profusely for leaving it so clean) and headed to the train station for a 1 hour ride to Brussels and the start of our next adventure.