Place de la Concorde

After shopping and dropping Big Blue off at our hotel, we noticed The Place de la Concorde Metro stop was just a couple of stops over from our hotel, so we headed over there next. The Place de la Concorde is most famous as the site where the guillotine was erected during the French Revolution and where King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, Robespierre and others were executed. In the summer of 1794, more than 1,300 people were executed in a single month. The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II. It is one of three Cleopatra's Needles, the other two residing in New York and London. The obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple.

Jardin des Tuileries

After we finished at the Place de la Concorde, and since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to walk back to the Louvre through the "Jardin des Tuileries", which is the site where the Tuileries Palace sat until 1871, when it was destroyed by fire.

du Carrousel

One of the main features of the Jardin des Tuileries is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which was commissioned to commemorate France's military victories in 1805. The arch is perfectly aligned with the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe and the Grande Arche de la Defense.

Louvre Pyramid

On our way back, we stopped to take some pictures at the Pyramid that makes up the main entrance of the Louvre. This pyramid was added in 1988 and was designed by American architect I.M. Pei. This was of special interest to us because Pei also designed the Kirkland Clinic in Birmingham, which Janie and J. R. spent many a day in because it housed the offices of the doctor who delivered Alexander at adjacent UAB Hospital.

Arc de Triomphe

Next we decided to head back to the Arc de Triomphe and this time, we would be climbing the 284 stairs to the very top. The Arc is one of Paris' most recognizable monuments and was built between 1806 and 1836 under the reign of Napolean I and King Louis-Philippe. Our Museum passes got us in and soon we were climbing the spiraling staircase. Rebecca surprised us all by plowing right ahead without complaint, using that never-ending store of boundless kindergarten energy, while Janie and J. R. huffed and puffed their way to the top. But the views when we finally reached the top and caught our breath were worth it.

Eiffel Tower

After climbing back down, we stayed to watch the ceremony where they lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Several Veterans were on hand to take part in this honoring of those who gave their lives to defend France in both World Wars. Having seen Paris from the Arc de Triomphe, it was only fitting that we go visit the other typical Paris landmark, the Eiffel Tower, so we hopped the Metro, did a couple of train changes, and soon were at the nearest Metro station to the Tower. Rebecca was excited as we exited the train and she could see the tower nearby, but it was still about a nine-block walk away, on tired legs from all that climbing.

The first order of business was snapping some pictures, which we were able to do while waiting in the line for tickets, since the Eiffel Tower, unfortunately, was not part of our Museum Pass. The line was long, but really only because only two of the usually four stations were open selling tickets. But it moved pretty quickly and it wasn't long before we were piled into an elevator. The elevator was really crammed and we couldn't see anything on our way up to the first and second levels. We had to change elevators on the second level and here we were able to get near a window and watched as we zoomed up to the top of the tower.

Seine River Cruise

After our trip up and down the Eiffel Tower, Janie decided we should see about a river cruise. The first dock we went to was only doing dinner cruises and we didn't want to spend the money (and weren't that hungry), so we went down the dock to another company that was doing a sightseeing tour that left in 45 minutes. We contemplated going back up the dock for crepes but decided to wait until after the cruise.

It was a chilly evening, and having no winter jacket (thanks, again, British Airways), J. R. decided to sit inside. Janie and the kids started out outside, but she wanted to be with J. R. so after a little while she came in with Rebecca, who threw a fit about wanting to be outside, so we all decided to brave the chill for awhile and go outside as well. We stayed outside for the trip up river but then Janie and J. R. took Rebecca inside for the trip back and the boys, who were cold by now joined us, as did eventually a number of other passengers. The tour ended up focusing mainly on the bridges over the Seine, including the one where Princess Diana was killed. But we did travel up past the Louvre, and then on the return trip, down to where the French Statue of Liberty sits on an island. It was cool to see the Statue and the Eiffel Tower in line with each other.

Night in Paris

We decided to end the night with some crepes, but, of course, the shop we had seen earlier was closing up. But there was another one nearer the Eiffel Tower, so we bought four ham-and-cheese crepes and we all agreed it was one of the best meals we had the entire trip, which was probably a combination of being hungry and dining on French street food on a bench in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower at night. After we finished our crepes, we walked to the RER station, thinking we would take the RER to the Metro to save some walking, but the station was confusing because all of the trains left from the same platform, so we decided to stick with what we knew and walked the extra distance to the Metro. After a short ride and a change of trains, we were back at the Louvre where we started. We grabbed a couple of drinks from a vending machine and walked the short distance to our hotel to turn in for the night after a very busy and very productive day in Paris.