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We spent a week in
Paris this Spring-- the fourth year in a row.
Jeff, Karen and Ethan were with us for 4 days. This is a view of the south gate of the Place des Vosges from our hotel window. |
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An aerial view of
this part of Paris.
The Place des Vosges is the square in the upper left. In the center is the Place de la Bastille with the boat basin extending south. The Seine is a few blocks farther south and out of the picture. |
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The Place des Vosges: thirty-six houses; eight on each side, still standing after 400 years. Restaurants, art galleries, apartments. Victor Hugo lived here for several years. |
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A weekend painter in the the Place des Vosges |
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Breakfast was skimpy and expensive in Ma Bourgogne (Inspector Maigret's favorite restaurant.) The atmosphere and view, however, are hard to beat. |
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La Villette Park has
the Museum of Science and Industry, an Imax theater, two playgrounds and
plenty of open grassy areas. We had a lot
of company there on a sunny Sunday afternoon. |
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Ethan, Jeff, Karen and Barb. |
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The Dragon Slide ends in a pit with a kid-sized climbing wall. |
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The submarine Argonaut |
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Ethan as a submariner |
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Kid-powered merry-go round. |
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One day we walked along the Seine to the Jardin des Plantes, which has several museums and a zoo. The sight-seeing boats turn here at the end of Ile St Louis and go back downstream. There's a working barge docked in the foreground. |
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This Pleistocene fellow has his back turned on that Holocene gastronomic intruder which has spread all the way from Des Plaines, Illinois. |
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Our first stop was the Paleontology exhibit--Ethan was delighted; I sat outside and enjoyed the trees and flowers. Afterwards we all had a little lunch then wandered around the Zoo. |
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By afternoon this hippo had certainly eaten all the 5-year-olds its belly could hold, so Ethan was safe. |
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In the relatively new Parc Andre Citroen there's a large aerial photo mosaic of Paris. Shoes off, Barb strolled out and located some landmarks for a group of Parisians. |
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Among the attractions of this park is a wonderfully engineered array of fountains. A group of irrepressible teens tried to dance around the orchestrated jets of water. |
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...but finally they got thoroughly soaked and very cold, too. |
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One stormy afternoon was spent in the Musee d'Orsay |
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...with its large collection of exquisite treasures. |
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Sunday 02 June: a big screen set up at the Hotel de Ville to show the World Cup games. This is the England-Sweden match-- the first step in England's sad decline and fall. |
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In this view across
the Place de la Concorde you can see down the Champs Elysees
to the Arc de Triomphe. |
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We'd been here before,
but never to the top and never on a fine clear day.
The Eiffel Tower, built in 1889, was the tallest building in the world until the Empire State Building was built in 1931. |
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We waited in a long line to buy elevator tickets and chatted with friendly tourists. |
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View from from the "Third Level", 905 ft. above the surface. |
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Looking downstream. The Seine meanders through Paris then eventually makes its way to the English Channel near Le Havre, 100-odd km away. |