July 3 – Eiffel Tower

This morning we headed to a nearby patisserie for croissants and juice for a typical French breakfast.  Then it was to the Metro station for our trip to the Eiffel Tower.  We had a tour that allowed us to go around some of the massive lines.

  

First stop was the second floor for views around the city.  Then it was on to the summit for more pictures.  It was chilly up there so we didn’t stay long.  We had lunch on at the restaurant on the first floor of the Tower.  We had a nice view inside of the tower overlooking the long lines on the ground.

Towards the Trocadero

The Seine River

Itty Bitty People on the Ground

Arc de Triomphe

After our visit to the Eiffel Tower we boarded the taxi boat, the Batobus, for a boat trip up and then down the Seine River.  This boat is more of a taxi than a tour…no guides.  But it is much cheaper than the tour boats and we already pretty much knew all of the monuments that we went by. 

Pont Alexandre III

The Louvre

Building covered with disguised scaffolding 

Pont au Double

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

We then stopped at the Musee de l’Orangerie (the Orangery Museum) where Mary finally got to see Monet’s huge paintings of waterlilies.   They were absolutely magical.  Everyone enjoyed them.

Note, the next two photos are panoramas, and are distorted.

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Video of Monet’s Waterlilies

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Note, some photos are panoramas and are distorted:

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More Musee de l Orangerie Waterlilies

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We then wandered through the rest of the small but wonderful museum.  Most of the work was by impressionist artists and later artists such as Picasso and Modigliani and others we didn’t know.  This was probably everyone’s favorite museum by far.

Artist - Alfred Sisley

Artist - Claude Monet

Artist - Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Artist - Claude Monet

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More Musee de L'Orangerie

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By the time we finished the l’Orangerie it was dinner time so we walked over to Angelina’s on Rue de Rivoli.  Angelina’s is famous for their incredible hot chocolate.  We all had the hot chocolate plus dinner and the split two desserts.  All the food was great (and it was the most expensive meal by far on this trip).