Friday - The Eiffel Tower

Another bright sunny day to see Paris. Today we visited the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees. The Arc de Triomphe was built by Napoleon in 1805 after his greatest victory - the Battle of Austerlitz. It now serves for the starting point of victory celebrations and parades.

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The Eiffel Tower was built to impress the visitors to the Universay Exhibition of 1889. It was the tallest builing in the world until 1931 when New York's Empire State Building was completed. It was a wonderful clear day and we could see all of Paris.

Day 2 - Versailles

Today Erin and I took the train to Versailles. Louis the XIV built this palace starting in 1668. It is large, beautiful and very crowded. This palace in known for the signing of the treaty that ended WWI.

On October 6, 1789 a Parisian mob invaded the palace seeking the despised Marie-Antoinette. This was at the beginning of the French Revolution.

Dinner at Leon de Bruxelles -a typical northern French mussel restaurant.

Our First Visitor

It has been more than two months since I have written. We are settled in our apratment and I will post more about July later.

Erin arrived early Wednesday morning. After a shower and a cup of coffee she was ready to see Pairs. Our first stop was Notre Dame. Alexander III started builing this Gothic church in 1163.

We then strolled along the Seine where vendors were selling various art work.

Our next stop was the Musee de Orsay which houses the French art of the 1800s. The most famous of these are the Impressionist paintings of Monet, Mante, Renoir, van Gogh, etc.

After a light dinner we went "the crepe street" aka rue de Montparnasse for dessert. We wanted to eat at Creperie de Josselin but like most of the French in August they were on holiday.