Paris

Date: August 20, 2018 – August 21, 2018
Location: Paris, France

August 20, 2018

Notre Dame

From Bordeaux we took a train to Paris. The TGV (aka “bullet train”) got us to Paris in just over two hours so we had most of the day to explore. After leaving our luggage at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand we started walking towards Notre Dame.

This is in Place du Carrousel looking towards Jardin des Tuileries.

The Arc de Triomphe du Carrosel.

In Place du Carrousel, looking the other direction, is the Grande Pyramide of the Louvre.

There were really long lines to enter to Louvre so make sure you buy your tickets online.

This is Paris’ oldest bridge, Pont Neuf.

Pont Neuf has 381 figures along its sides.

Here is Notre Dame.

The line outside moved quickly to get in.

It was crowded inside.

After Notre Dame, we made our way back to the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand and saw the opera house.

Champs-Élysées and L’Arc de Triomphe

After enjoying our free welcome drink at the hotel we went out again. This is Place de la Concorde.

Place de la Concorde is at one end of the Champs-Élysées.

We walked the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. 

August 21, 2018

Versailles and the Eiffel Tower

After changing hotels from the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand to the Hilton Paris Opera we went to Versailles. We compared our one night stay in each luxury hotel in our post The Best Luxury Paris Hotel – Intercontinental Paris Le Grand vs. Hilton Paris Opera.

We purchased our tickets to Versailles online. It was a good thing because that made it so that we did not have to wait in the long line on the right of the picture below that goes into a door below the columns on the left.

At Versailles we first went to the garden.

The garden is huge and we only saw a small portion of it.

A few of the fountains had water displays to music. This is Mirror Pool.

I liked when Mirror Pool had the water in the below picture the best.

This is in the area called King’s Garden.

Colonnade Grove has 32 columns in a circle.

This is looking up the Great Lawn with the palace at the end.

In the opposite direction is Apollo’s Fountain and the Grand Canal.

This is the Water Theatre Grove.

Neptune Fountain.

In the opposite direction from Neptune Fountain is the Dragon Fountain.

After the garden we entered the palace.

It was very crowded inside. This is the famous Hall of Mirrors.

In the palace looking out towards the Grand Canal.

While Versailles is large, I didn’t find the rooms inside were very extravagant compared to some of the other palaces we have visited on our trip (Brian’s comment: yes, we may be spoiled!). We have been to a lot of palaces and I expected the Hall of Mirrors to be more impressive than it was.

After Versailles, we went back toward the center and Paris and saw the Statue of Liberty replica.

The replica is a quarter of the size of the one in New York.

From the man made island of Île aux Cygness there is a nice view of the Eiffel Tower.

I was surprised to see that the lawn by the Eiffel Tower was not green.

On the way back to our hotel we saw a group of people around a monument.

This is at the top of the tunnel where Princess Diana was in a fatal car crash on August 31, 1997.

I’m glad we went to Paris as I had never been before. However, now that I have been, it is likely not a place I plan to visit again anytime soon.