Day13 - Final day, touring Paris and the Louvre
Arrived in Paris sometime last night. Scheduled for tours all day. Original plan was to do the Louvre in the morning, go to lunch, then do a bus tour through Paris in the afternoon with a couple hours of free time. Plan was totally messed up by the memorial services for Jacques Chirac and the 30+ world leaders in Paris attending. Road closures all over town, our one hour drive to the Louvre stretched to three hours plus. We finally got to town in time for lunch while our tour guides huddled to come up with a new plan...
Amazingly, after lunch we made it to the Louvre, incredible! More photos from the Louvre... Post-Louvre bus tour through Paris.
|
|
|
| Our riverboat was docked on the Seine in a Paris suburb. | View from the top of our cruise ship. |
|
|
|
| Surprise, lots of streets and places named for Americans... | We drove by the Eiffel Tower on our way to the Louvre. |
|
|
|
| Traffic jams everywhere as the police closed roads for VIPs. | We really needed to go down this road, rats! |
|
|
|
| We made it to the Arch de Triumph... | ... and the Paris Opera. Close but no cigar! |
|
|
|
| Plan B, let's do lunch first! | Nice stained glass window in the restaurant... |
|
|
|
| Incredibly after lunch we made in to the Louvre | Inverted pyramid inside the foyer. I kept looking around for Tom Hanks... |
|
|
|
| Statue of Mercury | ... another statue |
|
|
|
| View of columns, arches, ceiling. | Another wall shot with ornate painted arches and ceiling... |
|
|
|
| Yet another classic/famous statue displayed in the Louvre. This one is called the "Winged Victory of Samothrace". | Saint John the Baptist, painted by da Vinci... |
|
|
|
| Another da Vinci, Virgin with Child with St. Anne | Stone carving |
|
|
|
| Incredible ceilings! | ... another one. |
|
|
|
| After the Louvre, we did a drive through Paris. Here the undamaged part of Notre Dame Cathedral... | ... wider view, scaffolding for reconstruction work at the other end of the cathedral. :( |
|
|
|
Final view of the Eiffel Tower!
Addendum - This was the final day of our trip. Checked out of hotel early the next morning, took the bus to the airport to start the long trip back to KCMO. Another great bucket list trip checked off! |
