Tara, Billy Bob Thornton and Military Vets

If you've read my blog then you know my husband is a soldier. We are well-acquainted with the sacrifices that our men and women make. Anything that will benefit them, especially our wounded, deserves special attention. So, please visit my friend Tara's website to hear all about how American Airlines and Billy Bob Thornton are helping out our wounded vets with these ibots! Cool stuff!!


When Tara Met Blog

Paris, Notre Dame, Louvre

So, we left off at St Michael.

Very near to St Michael, basically across the river, is Notre Dame.




After going to St Peter's in Rome, we thought we had seen the pinnacle of Catholic Churches. Right? Well, we all LOVED Notre Dame. I know that I much prefer Gothic architecture.







We spent the next 45 minutes trying to figure out how to get back to the hotel by train. It was much easier than we thought. LOL But now we feel like experts on the trains. Okay, so not experts but we can get where we need to go. LOL

The next morning we headed back to Paris for The Louvre. We hit the highlights. David wants to explore more, so I told him that we'd go back another time. I do want to go to Versailles.




Much of the people depicted in the art, particularly the statues, are very androgynous. So, Charlie said, "you can tell which are men b/c they have the wankers." LOL (I can't remember if he actually said wankers, but it was some penis slang LOL)

The Slave by Michelangelo




Venus de Milo



Winged Victory



Mona Lisa



Charlie had a little notebook and he walked around taking notes.




After an outrageously expensive lunch in the Louvre cafeteria, we walked toward the gardens, "jardins." During the spring I'm sure it's beautiful, but not so much in February. :) But David wanted to walk down to where an obelisk is, that marks where the guillotine used to be. Yes, same one where Marie Antoinette met her fate.




We then headed back toward the train station. Along the way we did a little shopping in the little touristy shops. We also had a crepe, nutella and bananas. Sooo good!






Au revoir, Paris!

Paris

I still have not blogged/journaled about our trip, so I decided to get busy.

Heavy pic spam!!


We stayed at a hotel 30 min outside of Paris right next to Paris Disneyland. I had no idea of which hotel to stay at in Paris. And, so many people freaked me out about driving in Paris, as well as trying to find a hotel w/ parking garages that also were big enough for my van. So, I picked the Disneyland Hotel b/c it was right on the trainline. Which we had to learn how to use. :) We bought our tix, the French guy was totally not in the mood to be helpful to us ignorant Americans. LMAO But we managed to find our way to the train.














When we got off the train a bathroom was needed. We got a kick out of the bathrooms...there are no big bathrooms. Literally you open the door right along the halls/corridors and the toilet is right there. Like a port o' potty in the wall. LOL



When we got off the train we walked up the stairs to the street and there was the Arc de Triomphe. It was built in honor of Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz in 1806. It was completed in 1836, just in time for Napoleon's body to be carried through in 1840. It is also here that The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of WWI was placed. The Tomb has an eternal flame which inspired Jacqueline Kennedy to place one at Pres Kennedy's gravesite.




Around the Arc de Triomphe is the world's most famous traffic circle. Since it's near to impossible to cross that to get to the Arc, there is a pedestrian tunnel.






Here is a pic of the traffic. There are NO marked lanes, seriously. But people seem to know what to do. LOL




Cory and the boys went up into the Arc. Here's the Eiffel Tower. We're going to keep going w/ the hazy days system...you know where we can't see the top of the monuments. Remember Pisa?? LOL




We then began walking towards the Eiffel Tower. I must have looked confused w/ the map while standing on the corner b/c a very nice French gentleman stopped and helped me. We only had one rude French person and that was the guy in the train station. Anyway, we had to cross the Seine.







We got to the Eiffel Tower. We decided to go up, but b/c of the weather we couldn't go to the top.







We then headed to the Rodin Museum. Along our way we saw a small tour group and I took a pic of them just for Jeanie!



David picked out the Rodin Museum as a stop.









We then headed toward our next stop, Notre Dame.



We stopped along the way for coffee and dessert. Mmmmm! 6 drinks + 4 desserts = 50Euros!




Along the way, we came upon this huge statue of St Michael. Cory was excited b/c St Michael is the patron saint of army paratroopers.