Sunday, June 17, 2012

Thursday Night-The Moulin Rouge!

After more sightseeing during the day, we went back to the hotel, showered, rested (very quickly) and then headed out for our night on the town!!
I have to admit, this was one part of our trip that I was really looking forward to!  The Moulin Rouge! Home of the famous Paris Can-Can dancers!!  Our original plan was a dinner/theater combo.  We would have eaten in Montmarte, tour the artist district and Sacre Cour Cathederal all prior to the show.  During the booking process, we found out that the tickets where limited and that this was not going to happen.  We were bummed, but determined!   We where able to get tickets though the Moulin Rouge site, without all of the other extras added-which turned out to be the better of the deals!  With the hot weather and all the walking the 1st deal would have been too much.  Instead, we had a wonderful steak dinner at our favorite Cafe on our corner, then headed out to the show!!  And p.s-if you are in a group of 5+ you have to take more than one cab-they only allow four per cab.  We were all in heels and nice clothes, so we opted to take the cabs;-)
Me in the cab line with the Moulin Rouge in the background

The only picture I had inside the theater was the one below-they took your camera before you entered the show!

We were a little nervous once we got there because of a very very long line!  I knew for sure that we would have horrible seats-boy was I wrong!  The way the theater is set up there is no bad seat!!  We were up close and enjoyed the Champagne!!  It was the most entertaining live show I've seen.  Was very happy that it turned out better than I could imagine!  Parisian women don't believe in plastic surgery-lol.  There was a mix of topless and fully clothed women, and the topless where not enhanced!  It was actually nice to see women embrace their natural size;-)  The show was not only dancing, there was magic, animals and comedy.  Highly recommend a night at the Moulin Rouge!

Since we were in the "red light" district, lol, we took in the local sights ;-)
This was definitely a seedier section of town.  We did not check out that store, but we did find some good souvenir shops.  I found a cute hat that night! 

After the show, cabs were a little difficult to find.  The cabs don't pick you up just anyhere, they have taxi lines.  We met a nice Indian couple from Canada.  It was there 1st encounter with Texans-they loved our accents!!  This part of town is very club like, so there where a lot of loud clubbers in the area-a few tried to steal our cab-but we set them straight!

Thursday-We meet Mona Lisa!!

Thursday morning we made our way to the Louvre.   We headed over early and had breakfast at a cafe by The Louvre.  Best way to start the day before site seeing..



Can you tell I really enjoyed the food??? LOL

 Again, can't stress how much the Paris Museum Pass helped out!  Skipping the long line at the Louvre was so worth the cost of the pass!!  The Louvre is such an awesome huge place!  We saw it all lite up at night, but it is so impressive to walk up and see the big Pyramid at the entrance!

Made me think of the Da Vince Code ;-)

Once inside-the very hot Pyramid-we made our way to find the Mona Lisa before the crowds got too big.  On our way to the Mona Lisa, I was so overwhelmed by the paintings-the fact that we were seeing such famous artists was so surreal.  Some of my faves were the Bottacelli's and Raphael.  At the top of the stairs before we entered the gallery, we encountered our 1st famous sculpture.....

The Winged Victory of Samothrace
Greek Goddess Nike

But we were on a mission-find the Mona Lisa!!  We found the signs directing us to the Mona Lisa-stopping quickly to look at the other famous paintings-which we would make our way back to eventually;-)

Our mission was a success....
There she is-the most famous lady in the Louvre!  Most people are shocked at the size of the portrait-I felt it was exactly what I expected.  The room was pretty crowded, but so worth it!  It was and still is very surreal to me that I was actually there and seeing all this famous historical art!!

So, what about all the other famous things in this great Museum???  Where was the Venus de Milo? Where was the Cupid statue?  And why did we not see signs directing us to these famous sites??  We asked ouselves these questions as we found ourselves exiting the Louvre....this is where the Paris Museam Pass came in very handy.  We headed back to the entrance, skipped the lines and found ourselves staring at the signs directing us to all the other great works of art, signs we just knew were no where to be found on our first go round!!!  That's what happens when you are so focused on not missing the Mona Lisa!!! 

Lucky for us, we slowed down and enjoyed the rest of the museum-and laughed at ourselves in the process!!  Here a few of the things we saw on our 2nd trip.....


The lovely Venus de Milo-so pretty in person

One of the Cupid sculptures-this was my favorite!


Loved these-the artist used fruits and vegetables to create the faces and bodies

Here are a few more of my faves-can't show them all-you'll just have to go visit and see them all for yourself!




I really recommend if you visit the Louvre-give yourself a whole day if you can-we had a lot crammed in and missed more than I like to think about-but tried to hit the hightlights!


Monday, October 10, 2011

2nd Night in Paris

After our busy day in Versailles, we decided to unwind with a sunset cruise down the Seine River.  We purchased a Museum Pass-best bet for your money.  You skip the lines at all major museums and we got a lot of extras included-Seine River Cruise was one of those!  My night pics on the cruise did not turn out that great, but the lights of the city reflecting of the river were gorgeous! The song "La Vie en Rose" played a few times while we cruised-couldn't have been anymore French if we tried ;-)  We strolled through the Eiffel Tower area heading to our boat.  The dock was right behind the tower-I really always pictured a park all around the tower-but right behind it is a very busy intersection and a bridge leading down to the river.  But at sunset, the Eiffel Tower looks awesome-right before it lights up for the night, it looks like this......


I have to say, I never got tired of looking at this awesome site!  From time to time I would look up and see the Eiffel Tower and I still couldn't believe I was in Paris!!

The cruise boat was packed....

But once we got started, we were able to get up and walk around, much easier to see everything.  We were hoping for cooler weather, but the breeze was nice.  It was very neat to cruise under the many bridges along the Seine.  Each bridge had a story-wish I could remember them all-but I'm sure I could Google it;-)  Here are a few......


I really need to invest in a better camera for night shots-the bridges were so pretty! 

After our cruise, we headed to a cafe On the Champ Du Mars.  It was a busy corner cafe with a great view of the Eiffel Tower......



I decided to be a little adventurous at dinner.  Karen ordered some Escargot-yep-snails!  I'm not that big of an adventure eater, but I decided to give one a try.  I was a little disappointed-Karen said they should taste like garlic and butter-this one tasted like grass!!!  But hey-at least I tried one!!


But the best was yet to come.....

My Croque Madame!!!  Best sandwich ever!!!  Karen and I split a plate of fries-awesome dinner!!  Thank goodness for all the walking!!  After dinner, we walked around and checked out the many souvenir shops on our way back to our hotel.  We must have worked up an appetite, because we found ourselves back at the Cafe Roussillon for a nightcap and dessert!  Champagne and Creme Brulee are a perfect way to end the night!!  Sweet dreams......


Saturday, October 8, 2011

Day 2-Versailles

Our 2nd day was pretty busy.   We took the RER-train to suburbs-out to Versailles to see the "Sun King's" Palace.  The train ride was uneventful going to Versailles-we all got off at our stop-lol poor Brenda took and extended stop on the way back ;-)  If you have ever seen the movie "Marie Antoinette" by Sophia Coppola, you have seen part of the palace.  A lot of the movie was filmed there.  I really didn't expect the area to be that populated and built up.When we exited the train station, we saw this to our right....


Yep....a Tex Mex restaurant!!!!  Who knew??  After a Creme Brulee latte from Starbucks, we were on our way.  Just down the street to the left was the palace. 

Versailles was built by King Louis XVI-he really enjoyed the good life!
Here is me and Louis ;-)

  Versailles is a beautiful palace-the gold decorations on the building were almost blinding in the sun!

I love history, and being in a place as historical as this still blows my mind! I remember learning about it in Mr. Brown's sophmore history as well as Ms. Keene's FrenchI and II classes.  I had to keep reminding myself that I was in an actual Palace in France!  The rooms and artwork were magnificent!  The gardens were pretty too-we did not see the fountains-they are set to music on the weekends only.  I missed some of the gardens while I waited for the rest of the ladies to use the restroom.  I was waiting by one exit while the exited the other!!  Not a great time for cell phones to no be in service area!!!  Needless to say, they went looking for me in the gardens while I waited for them to exit the restrooms!!  LOL  But my favorite things were the Hall of Mirrors-pictures don't do it any justice...

My other fave was the Hameau de la Reine-the Queens mini Austrian Hamlet-a reminder of Marie Antoinette's Austria-it was a  little section on the grounds with replica's of an Austrian village....



It had a very fairytale feel to it.  The palace itself was absolutely fantastic, but this quit section on the grounds was the best for me! 


                                                                                   

1st night in Paris

After a much needed shower and nap, we were off to explore Paris!  Karen, her Mom-Mercedes and I headed to the corner cafe for some cheese and wine while Brenda and her Mom got ready for our night out.  We had our first of many evenings at Cafe Roussillon!  Here we sat in the corner with a street view-great for people watching.  We had some wine and a cheese plate-the cheese was very good-only one I didn't try was the blue cheese-not a big fan!



No- I did not drink all of these!  LOL  I only had the red that night ;-)

Our table was the last one on the right-this was just 3 builidngs down from our hotel.  Great location!!  We also met Nickolai-our waiter every night!  Very nice place with great staff.  Karen fell in love with the hand dryer-can't believe we did not get a pic with the waiters or the dryer!  The hand dryer was in the restroom and you placed your hands in the opening and hot air blasted out to dry your hands-Karen was very impressed by this!

Once we met up with Brenda and her Mom, we headed out to our Open Bus Night Illumination Tour.  It was a tour on a Double Decker bus that went by all the famous sites light up by flood lights.   This was the only time we needed our coats.  The sites were so pretty to see at night.  Especially our favorite-the Eiffel Tower! 


The Notre Dame-not a great shot-the night pics didn't come out so great...


Crossing over the Seine River

Me on the bus

Brenda on the bus...

We also had some awesome desserts that night at a great little cafe around the corner from our bus tour.  I had Profiteroles with ice cream and hot chocolate sauce-yummmm!!!  So good!  We needed the energy for our long hike back to the hotel.  We were staying on the Left Bank-Rive Gauche-and the bus tour started/stopped by the Louvre-on the Right Bank-Rive Droit.  We walked a lot that night!  I guess in our excitement, we didn't stop to think about transportation to and from!  But the walk was awesome.  Paris really never sleeps.  There were so many people out that I never felt unsafe walking around.  But we needed our rest because we had our trip to Versailles the next day.....

Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Grand Hotel Leveque!!


So, we finally arrived to our hotel the Grand Hotel Leveque on Rue Cler.  This street is exactley what you think about when you think of Paris!  Cobblestone streets with every shop you would need-flower, baker, fish, cheese, wine and so much more!  The only bad thing about our location was that the Cheese and Fish markets were located across from one another and right next door to our hotel-not a good smell combo ever!!!  The flower shop would have been a better choice!




I was warned that the hotels in Paris and most of Europe are small-but it was still surprising to see just how small!  The entry was a long hallway with the reception desk on the side.  The elevator was a 2 person max glass enclosed lift.  Was a challenge with our luggage!!  Of course we were on the 5th floor-which innvolved a very steep winding staircase.  But once we got to our room and saw our view, the crazy elevator and stairs were no longer an issue!!

That would be the elevator in the background with the "Out of Order" sign.

But when we saw our view.......
Yep-that is the Eiffel Tower in the back!!  I could literally see it from my bed!!!