A Very French Birthday: Day 2

The next day was my actual birthday and it was amazing to wake up and realize we had the whole day to explore Paris. As we hit the streets dawn's soft rose-colored light was reaching down and kissing the tops of the buildings and sneaking through side streets.

We decide our first stop would be the cathedral of Notre Dame, so we walked from our hotel to the Seine and down to the Ile de la Cite, which is the small island that it sits on. We fought our way through the most unscenic traffic and wondered if Paris was going to share her magic with us.

Here are Brian and Iain on one of the bridges crossing the Seine.

You can see Notre Dame in the distance!


On our way to the cathedral we passed a small park with a playground and let Iain explore a bit.



These birds built a nest right on the river bank next to the cathedral and paid no attention to all the tourists walking by.





The interior.





After exploring the cathedral we stopped at a lovely cafe for a tea and and an eclair before heading off to the Louvre. Iain's ready for his share!



On the Pont Neuf.
Me in my new birthday hat! It may not be what everyone else is wearing, but I just love it!

Outside the Louvre. The place is massive.

The view fom inside the pyramid.

We spent about 5 hours inside and saw just a fraction of the holdings. But I did see some pieces I'd dreamed of seeing, including this one, the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
And good old Napoleon here crowning Josephine after he'd crowned himself. Notice the Pope sitting behind him!

Iain decided to try on my hat for kicks.

Now for Papa's!

This is what we saw as we exited the Louvre.

We strolled through the Tuileries Garden and enjoyed the twilight.

We walked down to the Champs Elysees and admired the Arc de Triomphe.


Our final destination of the evening was the Tour Eiffel. It is far grander and more striking in person than in any photograph.

This is from the bottom. It is enormous!

Views from the top. I felt quite scared going up the last glass elevator to the very top. It was very windy and cold up there, so I quickly retreated to the indoor obeservation deck and Brian bravely soaked up the view outside.



It was a lovely birthday.