I thought I’d be able to tell you all about Paris in just two posts, but turns out I’m terrible when it comes to choosing only a few favorite photos! At any rate, welcome to Day 3 of our trip. (Pssst! Did you miss Part 1?)
Breakfast at our hotel was included in our travel package, so on Tuesday we finally got up early enough to check it out. We were floored when we walked into the hotel restaurant and saw this (via).
Gorgeous lighting and draperies, beautiful paintings, silver serving-ware, and waiters in black suits everywhere we looked. Stephen and I felt like royalty!
After we left the hotel, we headed again in the direction of the Eiffel for a morning walk and continued further towards the golden Alexander III Bridge.
The first real stop of the day was the Musee d’Orsay. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photographs inside this former train station-turned-museum, but I did snap this shot of the beautiful glass overhang covering the entrance.
We saw famous pieces like Degas’ sculpture of the ballerina and impressionist paintings by Renoir, Monet, Manet and Van Gogh. We spent a lot of time walking around that afternoon and window shopped at the antique stores nearby.
Side note: Did you know the French version of the saying “window shopping” translates to “licking the windows”? 😉
Also included in our trip package were two tickets for a river cruise on the Seine. We planned to head to our cruise just after d’Orsay, but on our way we came across this beautiful building – Musee du Quai Branly.
We were intrigued by the subject matter of this museum – artifacts from Africa and beyond, so we swiped our (worth their weight in gold) Museum Passes and checked it out. The photo of the “growing wall” you saw on Tuesday? That was part of the Branly Museum as well!
Finally we made it to the Seine and boarded our sightseeing tour boat at the Bateaux Parisiens dock below the Eiffel.
I felt very French in my striped shirt, cruising down the Seine with my sweetie!
Here’s another view of the golden Alexander III bridge I showed you earlier, this time from the river instead of the road.
It was such fun getting to go UNDER these bridges for architecture and engineering nuts like us.
This was another of my favorite bridges from the tour. Those carved heads were kind of creepy, but the tunnel-like view beneath was so cool!
We passed lots of private boats on our tour as well, but the majority of the boats on the water were tour boats from our cruise company and others.
Of course we had to snap a shot (or several) as we passed the amazing Notre Dame once more.
The sun was just right for a pretty shot of Les Invalides and that cobalt blue boat in front. The design-geek in me saw the blue and wood combo on that boat and thought, “hmmm, what room in my house needs some of THAT blue?” Beautiful, right?
The most memorable part of our tour was actually just a misunderstanding. The tour guide told us to look to our left as we passed under this bridge to see the smallest house in Paris. I completely cracked up when I saw the little red tent I assumed they were talking about…
A few moment later I realized that they weren’t referring to the tent, but in fact the small two-story abode crammed between the tall buildings a little further down. Do you see it? What a cute little house!
I’d recommend taking a little sightseeing tour on the Seine if you ever have the opportunity. It was definitely a unique way to view the city!
We stopped for dinner at Pub Kleber on our way back, where I learned that to Parisians “medium-well” steaks are still red in the middle and may very well taste like you’re eating a live cow. 🙂 It was my only bad food experience on the whole trip, and I chalked it up to live and learn.
Besides the steak, the rest of our meal (including chocolate cake for dessert) was delicious! This isn’t my photo, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what I was up against. 😉 (via)
Dang. Just thinking about that cake is making me wish for a piece! Maybe some baking is in order this weekend? I hope you all have a great one and thanks for reading!
