Sunday in Paris

After another yummy breakfast here at the hotel we were off to the Metro. We are getting to be pros at that! We had a few blocks to walk to get to the d'Orsay museum and it was coooold and started to rain, which was not a happy thing when we turned the corner and found that the line for the museum was so long it wound back and forth 5 or6 times in the square in front of the museum, and then went all the way down the street and around the corner. We quickly decided that we would head further down the river to the Eiffel Tower and also to the Avenue Des Champs and the Arc De Triomphe Etoile which is the one place Phil asked that we go and get pictures. (That is where they end the Tour de France and all the bicyclists ride around and down the street.) On our way we found another bridge full of locks, but not as full as the other one. I read on the internet that the government here is considering taking the locks off the other bridge because they are concerned about the weight on the bridge. Although it sounded doubtful that they would do it, I decided to play it safe and put my lock on this other bridge. We documented it carefully with pictures so that when Phil and I come back we can find it! I stuck with tradition and threw the key in the river! I tried a couple of places, but ended up putting it down 2 squares and over 2 squares from the corner. I'm writing that down so I will have it somewhere other than my memory! Anyway, got that done! I love you Superman, thanks for all of your love and support!

This is the OTHER bridge! Soo many locks!

 Here is the corner where we decided to put our lock

 The other side reads "For Eternity"

 A silly kiss for good luck!

 And there it is!

 This building is at the end of the bridge and across the street from our lock.

 Getting ready to toss the key into the river!

I decided today was Phil day because next we walked for EVER...ok, for probably 2 miles to get to the Arc De Triomphe so we could take the pictures Phil wanted. It was pretty cool I do admit, and the walk there was fun to see all of the area around it. The street it's on is basically a downtown shopping area with all of the best and most elaborate shops. You know, the ones that are fun to look at, but too expensive to actually buy anything from! There was a bunch of little white christmas village shops being set up along the end of the road in a park type area. It looks like they are getting ready for the Holiday shopping season or some holiday festival or something. From the looks of it, it should be starting some time this next week. It was fun to see.

Here are some of the sights on our way to the Arc

 Super fancy car store

 With super fancy cars for sale

 And then there was the Toyota...um...museum I guess. They had different Toyota's from the past on display..

 Phil would appreciate this one...

And aftrer tirelessly trudging through rain and wind we finally reached the Arc! Here is the picture we promised Phil...

  Oh and since you said specifically to take one with us standing in front of it..here you go...Ashley took the picture, so it's just me...

 Are ya happy now??

More walking (we were pretty walked out today!) and we found our way to the Eiffel Tower! I must say that I was planning on it being not as big and impressive as it was. It was beautiful, and industrial, and just so cool!  We debated about wether to go up on the elevator, but we decided that with the rain and wind it would be freezing, and the camera wouldn't love the pictures in the rain anyway. Also, it would cost us a bit more than we had planned on spending since we haven't found a grocery store yet and needed to buy lunch. Yeah, for lunch...I ordered a club sandwich..with Salmon. Not what I expected, the Salmon was raw. It was actually pretty good, but definitely not what I had expected! By the time we finished lunch the sky had cleared and it was actually a pretty nice day! We still decided not to pay the money to go up the tower, being there and seeing it was enough we decided.

More walking took us back to the Museum and we were happy that the line was shorter! It only took us about 25 min to get in and when we got to the front of the line we figured out why the lines were so bad. On the first sunday of the month admission is free! Woot! Worth a wait in line! In the museum we were able to stand in front of works from Monet, Degas, Van Gogh, and Seurat, just to name a few of the more well known artists. It was beautiful and again just a great thing to be able to see these works of art in person. Both of us were so exhausted that we weren't feeling super well so we didn't spend a ton of time on every room there, but we enjoyed seeing some of our most favorite artist. It's so great to have places like that to house all of these works in one place. Such talent and vision. So thankful to have gone!

Happy that there was a Metro station right outside the museum we jumped on the next train and with one transfer and 10 stops we were back at the hotel. It's going to be an early bed tonight. Hopefully we will both sleep well tonight and feel better tomorrow! I think that the pace, the walking, the going-going-going is just catching up to us. Let's hope for a good sound night sleep and that the people in the next room aren't so noisy tonight!