Today was our last full day of touring in Paris; to make our flight on Saturday, we needed to leave at 6:30 in the morning. That early departure meant we wanted to have a mellow, and early, evening. But first, the morning.

We went back to the Louvre for part deux of our tour. Monday’s tour of the Louvre was all about statues, mostly ancient ones. Ami wanted to take a closer look at paintings, and that was the focus of our trip this time. Specifically, we looked at Italian Renaissance and French Neoclassical paintings.

Again, having the art hung together in collections was very helpful. All the Italian paintings were in the same galleries, so you could get a big-picture view of the styles. The Italian paintings focused on religious themes and subjects, at least for the most part. The French collections focused more on human subjects.

I love religious art because I understand the material so well — I know the stories the painter is painting. Mer and I even got to explain the story of the Flood and Noah’s ark to an Asian man who was wondering what the picture was showing. I may not know too much about art, but I do know Biblical narratives.

The highlight of the painting galleries for me was that the Louvre has three paintings by Caravaggio — two secular and one religious. I like Caravaggio’s style very much, so I was excited to see the paintings in person. The French paintings were less familiar to me, but almost all of them were painted on enormous scales — paintings ten feet across were not unusual in the collection, and some were over twenty feet across.

We also ducked into the antiquities gallery as we were leaving, so we could see the Code of Hammurabi stone. It is in remarkably good condition for something 3,700 years old. Ami briefly did some shopping in the Louvre gift shop, and then we went around the corner for lunch.

Ami had a friend who happened to be in Paris, and so we waited at the cafe until Kevin got there. He wanted to hang out with Ami, so he came along as we went to the Arc de Triomphe. We had never met before, but he seemed a fun and funny guy, so his company was quite welcome. We took the Metro over to the Arc, where we wandered around it for a few minutes. During that time, Mer and I got separated from Kevin and Ami, and sadly, during that time Ami got pickpocketed to the tune of about thirty euros (thirty-five or forty dollars). I’m not sure it would have helped if Mer and I had been in the group, but I was sad she lost that much money.

Ami, Mer, and I walked up the 250+ steps to the top of the Arc, since it was free on our six-day museum passes. Kevin stayed at the base and wandered around in the area. I do not like heights, so although I did make it to the top of the monument, I did not stay too long. I waited in the “attic” of the Arc, in the small museum and gift shop, until Ami and then Mer came back down.

We met up with Kevin again, and then wandered aimlessly in a neighborhood near the Arc. We found and stopped in at a bakery since Kevin had not eaten, so he ate some bread (which was still warm — he gave us some) while we all chatted. Kevin lives in New York and works in the theaters there, so we were able to talk about plays. After the bakery, we went back to the Metro, where we said goodbye to Kevin before heading back to the apartment to rest and regroup.

Since we wanted a mellow evening, we decided to walk back up the hill to Sacre Coeur. Our taxi driver had pointed out a small square where he said there were good restaurants, so we aimed for that. It felt good to walk without needing the Metro — the walk was only about fifteen minutes. With a little irony, based on my saying all week that I wanted to go to a spa for my aching neck and back, we passed a massage place two blocks away from the apartment, and they were just closing for the night. Next trip to Paris.

The restaurant in which we ate was almost empty, except for three men playing some game with dice at a table across the room. We thought we were too early for European rush hour, since we were eating around 7:00 and supper in Europe is usually at 8:00 or 9:00, but we found out as we were leaving around 8:00 that they were closing up. We were not the last table out, so I did not feel too bad about that.

We finished the evening at Sacre Coeur, which also meant that we were ending our time in Paris where we had begun it. This time, however, Ami was able to come with us since her knee was working now. We all went inside, and since there was not an active service going on, we could wander around the church some.

It is a beautiful church — it is mostly white stone inside, and what decorations there are are all mosaics. Mer and I saw some amazing mosaics a few years ago in Ravenna, Italy, and these were of the same quality, especially above the altar. The church is only about one hundred years old, so it is good to know that grand churches can still be built.

We took some time to pray up near the front of the church. We found out from a sign near the door, as we left, that Sacre Coeur is a continuous-prayer church:  they have had at least one person at the church praying, every day and around the clock, since the church opened. That is pretty cool.

That was the perfect mellow evening with which to end our trip. We walked back to the apartment, and got things ready, either for packing or for going to bed. Beginning and ending the trip with a great church was a comforting way to frame the vacation.

Oh — and for those who wonder what vacations in Europe look like with us, we ended up walking 51.6 miles in five full days, at least according to the pedometer on my watch and by my tired feet. It almost balances out the hot chocolate and pastries.

We set off around 9:30 am, heading to the Musee d’Orsay. I knew almost nothing about the museum, other than that it was an art museum and had a lot of Impressionist painters. I like Impressionist painting, so I was happy enough going to the museum, but I was not prepared for what I saw when I entered the building. It was beautiful. The museum is housed in a circa-1900 train station, which was made for some special, show-off-Paris exposition, so it was made to be top-notch. The ceiling is arched and six stories tall, made of iron with decorative flowers between the girders, and the top is made of frosted glass. The space is about 190 yards long, and the museum had the foresight to leave the middle of the station open to the ceiling, so the space is vast and uncluttered. The main floor in the open gallery is filled with sculpture, which not only suits the space, but is my favorite art form. Between the building itself, and the art contents being my favorite forms, the Musee d’Orsay is hands-down my favorite art museum (sorry, Cleveland and Chicago).

Ami had a good plan for the museum, and we followed it. We started with the main floor of sculpture before we headed up to the fifth floor, where the bulk of the Impressionist paintings are. The fifth floor also has an observation deck, which I checked out with a little reservation, since I don’t like heights. The entrance to the galleries also had one of two glass clock faces from the original train station, and that was REALLY cool to see through the back side of a giant clock. The Impressionist galleries themselves are more or less laid out to show the progression of Impressionism, which I found helpful. There were still variations in the galleries, so that I saw a near-photographic painting next to a clearly Impressionist painting from just nine years later.

We took lunch then, more for pacing purposes than for hunger. We got to eat under the second of the two glass clocks, which was a great place to have lunch.

We headed back down to the second floor, where we were supposed to see some later-Impressionist works, but first I got distracted by an enormous and elaborate ballroom, which was lit to the hilt with decorated strings of lights and gilding everywhere. Ami’s opinion was that it was much better than the ballroom at Versailles, and I agreed. It was warmer with the lights, and was slightly bigger.

We hunted around for the post-Impressionism works, but we could not find the major works. It turns out they had been relocated for a special exhibition, which we found after asking about it right before we left. In between, we toured a wing dedicated to Art Nouveau, which included a lot of furniture, including one impressive entire room, including carved wooden panels. I have new decorating ideas for home.

So, the Musee d’Orsay was a major success. I would happily go back there again, if and when I got the chance. After the museum, we decided to go back to the apartment for a rest break for an hour. Naps may have been taken. Sometimes you have to recharge the touring batteries.

After the nap session, we headed down to the Seine River, and walked along the river, admiring the views, until we came to the Bateaux Mouche company, where we bought tickets for a one-hour river cruise. One of the great things about traveling “off season” (November) is that you often get a lack of crowds. As such, we had only thin crowds on the open-air second deck of the boat, so we had great views of everything. The down side to traveling off season is that we froze our duffs off. The temperature was in the high forties, on a body of water, with a pretty good wind. C’est la vie.

The boat tour starts just upstream from the Eiffel Tower, and starts by heading upstream. It took us past all the major river sites, with the multi-language commentary pointing out various important buildings, plus indicating where the very wealthy Parisians lived. The best part of the upstream portion was passing right next to Notre Dame, and seeing it from river-level. What a magnificent church. We continued upstream for a few minutes past Notre Dame, to the edge of the modern section of Paris, which is steel and glass and uninspiring after all the beautiful stone buildings of the historic section. The boat turned there, and we headed downstream, past where we started, to just past the Eiffel Tower, which was lit up and resplendent. After we turned just past the Tower, Mer and I headed downstairs into the heated section (Ami had gone there a little earlier). Seeing Paris from the river was grand, and I recommend it — just make sure you have the correct clothing!

We headed over to the Champs Elysees area, which was our ultimate destination, since they were having a several-blocks-long “Christmas Village” fair. We grabbed supper first at a sit-down restaurant before we dove into the bright lights of the big city villages. It was booth after booth after booth of fair food, Christmas lights, jewelry, and other wares. We found out that French fair food includes large chunks of salami, various sausages, crepes, and waffles with Nutella. Cotton candy is called “Daddy’s beard.” Holiday cheer includes the Thriller ride, with three floors of zombies, who were dressed in Santa outfits. We HAD to ride that ride, which was wonderfully ridiculous, and was much fun, especially since Ami screamed (on purpose) every time an animatronic monster jumped out at us. Ho ho ho.

It was delightful to see Parisians at play. The place was busy without being mobbed, and everyone I saw seemed to be having a good time. The oddest thing we came across was a display of dinosaurs, including one display that was just a leg, which was cut away on one side to show the anatomy. Yule-tide cheer!

The lights and the festive crowds and the different foods and displays all made me happy, and we had a blast, such that it came as some surprise to us to see that it was 10:00 pm. We quickly used Ami’s cell phone and some friendly directions from a man in a booth to get us to a nearby Metro stop so we could get home.

Today we started out a little later, heading out around 9:45, heading to Napoleon’s tomb and the Army Museum. It is yet another huge and impressive building, about the size of a city block, with a huge church as part of the complex (which includes a functional veterans’ hospital). The church was built by Louis XIV (of Versailles fame), but was co-opted to become the final resting place of Napoleon, along with some of his brothers and supporters (in more modest side-chapels, of course). Napoleon himself is inside multiple coffins, for reasons that escape me, but what you can actually see is a huge red stone tomb. You look down on the tomb from the second floor, where you enter, but you can go down to the tomb level, after you pass impressive stone statues depicting military and social governing. Napoleon is not wanting for good PR — his tomb is surrounded by friezes depicting him doing amazing and wonderful things, like dispensing justice, conquering other lands, making peace, and building things, all while dressed in the robes and laurel of a Roman emperor. Oddly, no mention of Waterloo anywhere.

We ducked into the complex’s chapel, which is large and simple, with what we think are flags flying from various military campaigns of France. There were staff people in the church setting up a nativity scene, which had a very French-looking Joseph.

We then proceeded upstairs to the second floor of the museum area; we went through the World War 1 display, which actually laid the foundations of the war by starting in the 1870s. I would have found the WW1 information interesting, but we did not have time to see it all; plus, most of it was written up in French.

We stopped in the World War 2 display, which was laid out on three floors, each of which showed a couple of years of the war, and focused on France’s role in the war, especially regarding the French resistance fighters and the free French army outside of France, with a strong section on the liberation of France, including D-Day. Many of the exhibits were in French, but the summaries of each section had a good English translation, and there were also supporting films and photos that did not need too much explaination. The museum is well done, and it is very understandable that it focuses so much on France. The parts of the exhibit that I understood about occupied France were interesting in that I did not know much about the resistance movement or about the tenuous “free” French state in the south of France.

We headed over toward the Rodin Museum, where we were going to grab lunch at a cafe near the museum. We first had to make our way through the edge of a small protest group surrounded by automatic-weapon-wielding riot police. That does get your attention when you have to walk past that many guns. None of us had any idea of what was being protested, and after lunch, the plexiglass-wielding officer let us go by when we said we were headed to the Rodin Museum. Very odd, and a little unnerving.

It was well worth it, though. I love sculpture, and Rodin is one of the best sculptors who ever lived. The museum exhibits show not only his finished work, both inside the museum and outside in the grounds and gardens, but also Rodin’s sketches and plaster work that led up to the final pieces. The museum had many of Rodin’s most famous works, including The Thinker, The Kiss, The Gates of Hell, statues of Balzac and Victor Hugo, and more. They are almost all laid out such that you can walk around them to see them from any angle. We even paid the four-euro fee to see the exhibit on the designing of The Gates of Hell, which included many sketches and mock-ups that evolved over ten years while Rodin planned the work. It was facsinating to see the evolution of his ideas over such a long time.

We closed the museum out, leaving around 5:00. Ami was meeting an old friend at 7:30, so we had time to wander. We stumbled across an inviting street that was well-lit with Christmas decorations, and so we took the road. It had a pastry place, so I hopped in and we bought some baked goods. We were a few blocks from the Seine River, so I wanted to eat them there, where I could watch the boats go by. As we came across the river, Ami got excited at our proximity to the new Paris Ferris wheel, the Roue de Paris. She, and Meredith, wanted to go on it, so after we ate, we walked over and saw that there was almost no line. In we went. I am scared of heights, so it was a little rough for me, but I made it by closing my eyes for the highest parts. It also helped that while we were near the top of our second rotation (you go around twice), the light show on the Eiffel Tower went off, and that distracted me fairly well. It is pretty to see a city lit up at night, especially one with as many famous sights as Paris.

We walked Ami over to her friend’s place, and then Mer and I went to dinner at a cafe for no other reason than it had the same name as a friend of ours – Mucha’s. After supper, we took the Metro home, where we got in at a fairly early 8:30.

We went to Versailles today. That’s it. A nice, simple day.

Ha!

Versailles is mind-blowingly big. Huge. Immense. Gargantuan. There is nothing even close, at least as far as I have seen. We spent over six hours there, from around 10:30 until closing at 5:00, and while we saw all of the highlights of the palace and grounds, we did not come close to seeing it all, and several of the sights were closed because it was off-season or because of renovation.

We took the train out to Versailles, about forty minutes away. We had simple directions (turn right from the station, turn left at the first intersection), but I was commenting that it seemed dumb that there were no signs to the palace; then I looked left at the first intersection, and it was obvious why there were no signs — the place is unmistakable.

Everywhere you look at Versailles, it is jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring. The palace is huge. The gates and the roof line are gilded. The grounds are vast, varied, and verdant.

Even though it was off-season, and there were not mobs of people, there was still a healthy line to get into the palace, so we started with the grounds, which was our plan anyway. We went around to the left side of the house, and there was an impressive garden there. It was formal, and Meredith read from her guidebook that King Louis XIV, who greatly expanded Versailles, had one thousand orange trees growing in greenhouses, and they could be wheeled out and placed around the garden when he wanted orange trees. Then we came around to the back of the house, and I realized that what we had just seen was a garden patch.

The park at the back of the house lines up with a long view of manicured and fountain-rich lawns. Oh, and there is a mile-long canal that was created so the guests could have actual, imported-from-Italy gondoliers gondola them about on it. You can still rent boats to go out on it today, but not today, since the boats don’t run off-season.

To save some walking, we paid to take a tram out to the far-flung parts of the grounds. Since Louis wanted to escape the pressures of politics in Paris, he expanded Versailles. When that became a nest of politics, he built a smaller, remote palace on the back-forty called the Grand Trianon. We stopped there to tour it. It was much smaller and simpler than the chateau, but still big, and the inside was pretty sumptuous. It was, after all, where the king stayed when he wanted to get away, and it was where his mistress lived (his wife lived in the palace). The Grand Trianon has its own formal grounds and gardens, and according to the guidebook, the gardeners changed out the flowers daily for the king. We did not have time to see the grounds there, since we wanted to spend more time at the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette, the full-scale play peasant village of the wife of Louis XVI.

We walked over to the Petit Trianon, the smaller remote palace where Marie-Antoinette lived, to tour that house. It was a little confusing in that the palace did not seem all that luxurious, until we went up to the second floor and realized we must have been down in the servants’ area. The second floor was okay — decked out in finery, with huge windows overlooking more gardens, including a “small” outbuilding where the guests would go to play cards or chat (while listening to live musicians, of course). We had lunch there, about 1:00.

We wandered down to the lake and the Greek-inspired Temple of Love, which all fashionable escape palaces have, before heading down to the play village, following the small man-made river that winds through the grounds. The play village has several buildings, including a lighthouse (what?) and a working farm. Marie-Antoinette had a huge house there, but it was under renovation, and so under wraps (literally — I assume it was covered to protect it from weather during the renovation). The renovation was partly being sponsored by Dior, so to our amusement, on the covering, there were severe, cutting-edge-fashion pictures of models set in formal gardens. It was incongruous.

We wandered the village, which was very pretty. None of the buildings were open, and it is certainly possible they never are, but they were definitely closed in November. We kept strolling through the grounds, heading back toward the Petit Trianon, and swung by the artificial grotto and alpine area, where the architect had built a stone waterfall next to a huge gazebo, as one does. That took us back to the Petit Trianon, where we caught the tram over to the Grand Canal, from whence we wanted to walk back up to the chateau.

The view of the main grounds is always-changing, and it is hard to know when to look up at the house and when to look back at the canal. Both views were spectacular. We ambled over to a Greek-style colonnade off to one side of the grounds, but it was locked off. The off-season has fewer crowds, but fewer sights as well.

We walked up to the gilded and impressive Latona Basin fountain, which is, like everything else, huge and over the top. That left the touring of the house itself, which we went to, noting with some smugness that there was now no line. In we went.

We started our tour by walking past the Royal Chapel, where the king would worship (while the nobles faced him!) with the daughters’ apartments, where King Louis’ daughters lived. Each room was sumptuously outfitted, and each had a ridiculously high canopy bed. Mer commented that if the curtains were drawn, it would feel as if you had fallen down a finely-lined elevator shaft.

The walk then led us into the king’s quarters, which included a ballroom, a reception area, a throne room, an official bedroom (the king had more than one bedroom), and some other rooms for the king’s use. Each room had a huge mural on it, usually of a Greek or Roman god, since the king styled himself the sun god. These rooms all led to the large Hall of Mirrors, which is still impressive today, with floor-to-ceiling mirrors facing each floor-to-ceiling window, built at a time when mirrors were rare and expensive. Normally, you could tour the queen’s quarters, but they are under renovation at this time, so our tour ended, which worked out okay since it was 5:00 and the place was closing for the evening.

We walked into town for supper, stopping several times as we went to look back and admire Versailles in the sunset. It is an amazing building, and the town is quite nice too. The bistro at which we ate was very good, and the waiter told Mer that she was the only American he had ever heard speak French. We stopped on the way to the train station to pick up a few pastries for the trip, and we headed home.

We sneaked in one quick walk down a couple of blocks near our apartment to look at Christmas lights strung along a street. It had the added bonus of allowing us to come across an open store where Mer and I could find chocolate and Dubbs could buy Earl Grey tea.

On a funny note, in light of her knee injury, Ami had asked that we not walk as far as we had on Monday, when we went 10 miles (20,300 steps). She forgot to be specific, as we did not walk that much — we walked a fair bit more, putting in 23,500 steps for about 12 miles. We were pretty tired. On the good-news front, Ami’s knee was much better, and she only used the cane for support on rough ground.

After grabbing take-out breakfast from a pastry place across the street and eating back in the apartment, we got launched on our touring day a little after 9:00. Dubbs had been in contact with her insurance folks, and they said she could get crutches to help with her twisted knee at any pharmacy around. Happily, we saw one down the street when we came out of the apartment, so we got her mobile with a single cane-crutch (a cane with an arm extension for stability). With Dubbs mobile again, we hit the Metro (subway), where we bought a six-day pass. Mer and I like those passes because then we never have to think about jumping on a subway.

The first stop of the day was the Louvre, maybe the best art museum in the world. Dubbs wanted to visit twice, once to see Greek and Roman statues, and once to see paintings. Today was to be the statues. We entered the Louvre, not through the famous glass pyramid entrance, but through the Metro entrance underground. It was impressive — there is a huge underground high-end mall, then the main reception area of the Louvre. We went to stash our stuff in a storage locker, when a Louvre staff member came over to Dubbs and led her over to a locker for those with handicaps. For free. Yay for the cane!

We walked over to the Greek wing, but there were staff members there turning people away. We figured something was wrong, and turned around to go to another escalator, but that one was blocked by staff too. We saw one in use and started that way, when an announcement came over the PA system telling all guests to please leave by the nearest exit. No explanation why. We went to get our stuff, and we left by the glass pyramid exit. We decided that since we did not know what was going on, or how long it would last, we should go to Plan B, which was to head over to the Isle de la Cite via the Metro, to go visit Notre Dame.

We got off the Metro on the island in the Seine that makes up the Cite, and Meredith noticed that Sainte Chapelle was nearby. Sainte Chapelle was a private chapel constructed by King Loius IX, who built it to house some Christian relics that he had bought from the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, especially the crown of thorns that was put on Christ’s head. Sainte Chapelle is considered one of the finest Gothic period buildings, and is very beautiful. So, we decided to go see that first before heading over to Notre Dame.

Our guide book was not wrong. We entered the first floor, which is where the servants worshiped, and even this level was impressive. It had vaulted ceilings that were used to support the chapel above, and very fine decorations in the red, white, and gold colors of St. Louis (Louis IX). There is also a statue of St. Louis at the far end of the chapel that is considered a decent likeness of the king. We wandered up the servants’ stairs (a narrow spiral staircase) to the king’s chapel. Coming up a spiral staircase was actually a good thing as it persevered the view of the chapel for an all-at-once reveal. And what a reveal it was — I have never seen anything like the inside of the place. There are huge stained glass windows everywhere, to the extent that there is more surface area of stained glass than actually stonework holding the building up. It seems the Gothic architects were excellent at pushing weight load to specific spots, so it allowed for huge open areas for glass. The result is spectacular. The windows not only take up most of the wall, but are also about sixty feet tall, and have vibrant colors. The front altar is tiered, with a canopy that covered the relics, which are no longer there (some were lost in the Revolution, and the crown of thorns went to Notre Dame); however, the altar is still impressive. The full result is a grand mixture of awe-inspiring visuals with a very clean and simple church. We had audioguides that explained about the church and the windows, and so we spent over an hour there.

We then wandered over to Notre Dame, mostly to see the inside of the church. We wandered around the perimeter of the inside of the church, checking out the various small chapels and some of the artwork. Once we made a circuit, Mer and I decided we wanted to do the tower tour, on which Dubbs passed, since it involved many stairs. She decided to visit the small gift shop, and then said if we were not back, she would be sitting in the main section of the church, praying.

Mer and I went outside to get in the line for the tower tour. We got a snack from a local crepe stand, mostly to break a fifty-euro bill. For some reason, ATMs in Europe always dispense fifties, which are about as welcome here as fifties are back home — a lot of money to hand over for a two-euro purchase. It started to rain a little, which let us take delight in the “drooling” gargoyles of Notre Dame; when it rains lightly, the various rain-spout gargoyles look as if they are drooling. We find that pretty amusing. After about twenty minutes, the line had moved very little, and so we gave up on the tower tour. We went back inside to find Dubbs, and when we did not find her right away, we sat up at the front of the church to pray a little. We then got up, and Dubbs saw us. She told us she got to chatting with some young missionaries from England, and they prayed for her knee to heal, which was very kind.

It was then time for lunch, despite the crepe Meredith and I had eaten thirty minutes before. Dubbs had not eaten, so we took her back to where we had gotten the crepes, and we went inside the attached restaurant, where we ate and rested for the better part of an hour. During that time, we decided to try the Louvre again, figuring it could not still be closed.

We were right. We went back in through the same Metro/mall station, and we stored our stuff in a free handicapped locker, again thanks to Dubbs’ cane. We set off for the Greek sculpture gallery, and this time we got in.

The Louvre is ridiculously huge. It was originally a palace, so in addition to the art housed there now, the building itself is beautiful to see. Almost every ceiling is painted elaborately, and many of the hallways stretch on for long distances, allowing you to see the architectural harmony. Dubbs had our visit planned out to see specific works, as well as anything we happened to see along the way. As such, she took us to see the sculpture Winged Victory, and the Venus de Milo, and a statue of Aphrodite, as well as one of a huge woman representing the muse of tragedy. We swung by to see the Mona Lisa, just to make sure I saw it, since it was my first visit to the Louvre. It was mobbed with people, but I got a fairly good look at it. We saw a famous painting of St. Sebastian, and we finished the quick tour with seeing the Italian sculpture of Cupid and Psyche (a famous one of them about to kiss).

That took us about two hours, and we were meeting a former student, Grace, for supper over by the Eiffel Tower, so we had to go. It took us a little longer than expected, since we had to change three trains to get there, but we found her waiting for us, around 6:20 pm. She took us to a small restaurant a couple of blocks away, on a road with a spectacular view of the tower. We ate a leisurely meal, and then headed back to see if we could go up in the tower itself. There was a slight wait, and it was already after 8:00, so Grace excused herself; she had to work the next day. We pressed on, and it turns out we all were going on separate tours of the tower. I am scared of heights, so I did not want to go higher than the first level (about 300 feet up). Dubbs wanted to go up to the top, but anyone with a cane is not allowed to go higher than the second level (about 490 feet). Mer wanted to go to the top (about 1,010 feet). That is pretty much what happened. I toured the first level, which has some information on how the tower was built, as well as some glass floors for thrill seekers, that I studiously avoided. Dubbs and Mer did the second floor together, and then Mer went up while Dubbs came back down to the first floor. I was already on the ground at that point. Mer said the top was thrilling, but very cold in the windy evening. Meanwhile, I got to see the tower light show at the top of the hour (10:00). We all met back up at the bottom.

It was sufficiently late that we decided to take a taxi back to the apartment. That got us back home a little after 10:30. I have a pedometer on my watch, and we had put in 20,300 steps, which is about 10.1 miles walked. We were a tad tired, and went to bed pretty quickly.

We had been planning, or at least talking about, going to Paris for Thanksgiving ever since we had seen really cheap airfare last year at this time. The cheap airfare came though again, so we set off this morning with our friend Ami (“Dubbs”) around 10:45 am, heading for Toronto for our direct flight to Paris.

The drive to Toronto was uneventful, except for a gas pump being weird that was not working right, and probably cost us money in that it would not let me cancel the transaction and I think the next guy got a free tank of gas. C’est la vie.

Our flight was at 8:45 pm, so I was hoping to be at the airport by 5:45. The border crossing into Canada and the traffic around Toronto can both cause delays, so I build in extra time. As such, we were at the airport at 4:30. We also got though security much faster than when we went through last June on our way to Austria, so we were at our gate before 6:00. So, for the first time I can ever remember, we went to a real restaurant in the airport and ate a sit-down meal, because we had time. That was actually fairly pleasant, and a good break from the typical airport routine.

The plane left a few minutes late, but since it was a direct flight, that did not matter much. The flight went well, and I even managed to get an hour or an hour and a half of fitful sleep on the plane. I also got my butt kicked in three games of trivia against Mer and Dubbs, using the plane’s entertainment system. I tried watching one of the Harry Potter movies, but I gave up on it after about thirty minutes when it was not grabbing me. Mostly, I read a book and tried to sleep some.

We got to Paris a little after 10:00, went through the border control, and got our luggage. We hiked the 17.997 miles to the airport train station, and we transferred across a couple of metro lines, getting to our little Paris apartment around 1:00. In all, it was about 20.5 hours, door to door.

Meredith and I always nap as a way to fight jet lag, and so we slept for about three hours, and Dubbs even managed to grab about an hour and a half of sleep, which is rare for her. Meredith and I showered, and so we were ready to hit the town about 5:00 pm. We headed out, and got to the bottom of the stairs in the apartment building. The last step was not carpeted, and it was a different height from the rest of the stairs, and it was dimly lit, and so, sadly, Dubbs missed the step, and twisted her knee badly. Since she has had injuries to her knee before, it was fairly serious. She was in some pain and could not do stairs very well, but she was still game to go out, so our compromise was to get a taxi to take us to Notre Dame instead of taking the Metro (subway), which would have involved a ton of stairs.

That turned out to be a blessing. Meredith’s plan for the evening was to use a taxi to go around the main sights of Paris, to see them all lit up at night. For some reason, the taxi driver, who was a very nice man, took us a short way up a hill to Sacre Coeur, a church that is a Paris landmark. By the time we got there, Mer had decided we should just use him to take us around Paris, so that worked out well.

Mer and I ducked into Sacre Coeur to see the inside of the church. Dubbs passed on it since it involved stairs. Inside the church, we experienced another one of those magical travel moments. The Sunday evening mass had just started, and a nun was singing, and it was beautiful in the acoustics of the massive hall. We listened to the end of her chant or song, and then we had to get back to the taxi. It was beautiful, and unexpected, and those moments are why I love to travel.

For the next two hours or so, our taxi driver took us around Paris, which really is a gem to see lit up at night. Meredith loves to get an overview of major cities when we visit them, and this was a good way to do just that. We saw a ton of sights, but some of them that jumped out at me included:
– The Moulin Rouge, which is the red-light district of Paris, and was still very busy even on a Sunday evening. Oddly, when the driver asked if we wanted to stop for a few minutes, Meredith said no.
– A huge new-to-Paris Ferris wheel at one end of the Champs Elysees, which lines up beautifully with the Arc de Triomphe and is impressive with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
– The Champs Elysees was lined with a “Christmas village,” which featured well-lit booths set up along the street for the Christmas season. They were magical-looking with all the pretty lights.
– We circled the Arc de Triomphe, which is impressive as a monument, but also interesting with the free-for-all multi-lane traffic circle around it.
– We drove by the Eiffel Tower, and we were lucky enough to be there at the top of the hour when the five-minute light show plays on the tower. It was impressive.
– We swung by the Louvre art museum entrance, and drove around the huge building.
– We stopped at Notre Dame to see the outside of the church.
– We finished the tour by driving slowly by impressive window displays showcasing animatronic and whimsical polar bears.

Our taxi guide dropped us at a restaurant about half of a block from our apartment, and we went inside, where we ate an excellent and leisurely meal. That wrapped up our first day in Paris, and we were all pretty pleased with how it had turned out.