Our last day in Paris pics/sites :)
I promised some pictures of the last day, so here they are. We woke up and went to our fav little bakery, as I stated in my last little blurb of a blog. Here are the pictures of it. It's located right across from our little restaurant on the same street, Rue de Laos!
After breakfast, we were walking to Napoleon's Tomb and stumbled upon this fabulous open-air market. Each neighborhood in Paris is required to have one of these at least once a week, so you will more than likely come across one without even looking, just like we did. Butchers sell their best cuts of meats, clothing shop owners bring out a few sizes of each of their latest fashions, bakers have their fresh breads and pastries for sale... they have it all. By the way, children's clothing in Paris is 100% top of the line. Those kids are dressed better than royalty, if you ask me. Naturally, the market had a number of stands with children's clothes.
If you look close, you can see that the butcher is waving at me :) Oh, and I stopped at one of the shoe stands down from this point and the guy quickly realized we were Americans. Well he went OFF in French about how he hates Bush and loves Obama.... whatever! We humored him by agreeing and moved on. Do you think I bought anything from him, Um, No :)
So then it was off to Napoleon’s Tomb. It's 9 euro per person to get in. The ticket not only gets you into the tomb, but it also gets you into the military museum. I was not thrilled with the museum part, but may people do not know that the Hitler took over Paris for 4 years during WWII, so there are a few things of his or his men in there.
The tomb holds the big guy, Napoleon, and a few of his top officers that worked alongside him. Their tombs are quite impressive as well. The instructions in his will for building this thing were very specific. He knew this would be a place where many people came to view him, so when you look down at his tomb, he wants you in a bowing position, and when you view him from the bottom, he wants you looking up to him as if he is your superior. In death, the guy still wanted to feel powerful... go figure!
Ok so here we are "bowing" to him :) as we look over the rail.
And here we are looking up to our "beloved" Napoleon... ridiculous!
He was OBSESSED with the Egyptians, so he wanted to be buried like one. This casket that you see is layered. There are several different ornate boxes that he was placed in...which explains the massiveness!
I know this picture is kind of dark, but this is one of his officers, Foch, who has an iron sculpture of men carrying "him" after death. His body is in the box they are standing on.
As you look up in the tomb, this is the dome. Now this dome had to be hand painted TWICE because when the artist finished it the first time, Napoleons loved it, but it was "too far away." So they built a ceiling that was a bit lower with the exact same look to it. Can you imagine finishing this beautiful master piece after two long years of hard work and your boss tells you to build another ceiling a little lower and re do it.... I might quite!
I highly recommend this when site seeing through Paris. It's not far from the Eiffel.
Next, we were on the subway over to Montparnasse.
The subway system is very easy to understand. The mail line is the 1 line to see all the major things, all other lines somehow cross one of the stops. It's very easy to travel around the city without using taxis.
The tower has a stop with the name in it, so it's easy to find. You get off the subway, walk upstairs, and you can't miss it. Walk over to the visitor's center and pay 11euro per person. Then you stand in a short line (much shorter than the Eiffel) and ride up 56 floors on the elevator. The view is immaculate. They also have a restaurant up there.
I tried to get a picture of Matt pinching the Eiffel, but it didnt really work :)
On the way down, we were stuffed into an elevator and I happen to be blocking this little Asian girl's view of the screen that counts down the floor. She very quickly motioned me to get the heck out of her way! She was maybe half my height, but I was scared :) I tried to be funny with her making faces as we were going down... well she was less than amused and rolled her eyes not once, but twice at me :) I died laughing when we got off. She probably thought I was nuts! But any American kid would have probably laughed. Not this little one... she was a tough cookie!
We walked back over to the subway station to head to the hotel to grab a jacket and I swear pigeons started flying straight at me. There I am, stupid American, running from pigeons as they fly right at me! Too bad I don’t have any pictures for your viewing pleasure on that one!
Then it was time for our last lunch in Paris :( We went back to this great little neighborhood place across from the bakery. This is the gathering place for the area. People from all of the surrounding businesses come to have a small lunch and a drink. It was packed! The guys that run the place are AWESOME! They always waived as we walked by, they always helped us through the menu since we could not read it, and they gave us a very fond farewell as we were leaving ;)
After lunch, we hung out at the hotel for a bit then started out on our journey back to Beauvais. For those who are brave enough to take a RyanAir flight out of "Paris" you have to travel to Beauvais. You take the subway to the Porte Maillot. There is a bus on the opposite side of the station. The trip is 14 euro per person. The buses run 3 hours before each flight. It takes about an hour to get out there with no traffic. The ride is BEAUTIFUL because you get to see the countryside. It's green green green! We were a little nervous about getting out there with plenty of time… well we made it like champs 4 hours before our flight :) We did some good people watching. Our flight left at 9:20 Paris time and got into Rome at 10:50. Then you have to take another bus into the city, which luckily drops you off at Termini (the rail/metro) Station. That station is a couple streets over from our hotel. We walked with 2 backpacks, 2 rolly bags and 2 carry-on bags over to our hotel. We checked in and were in bed by about 1:00 am. Then it was rise and shine at 5:00 am. We headed to our train, which left at 5:52. Got to the airport at 6:30 and checked in. Both of us were in need of some rest, but we had to stick it out a little longer. Then it was on the flight for a quick 2 hour trip to London. It was off the plane in London, and literally on the next. Our flight back was great, even though it felt like it would never end. I slept the first hour or so of the flight then it was on to finish the last 100 pages of my book, The Help. British Airways was wonderful. We will be flying them again, for sure.
Customs was a breeze to get through, even though it took us a good hour. They did not even ask about the wine... thankfully :) Meme and Owen were there to pick us up with our babies along for the ride! I thought Matt was going to cry when he saw his baby Bailey :) I could not wait to get home and just rest.
We went over and had some tacos at Yucatan Taco Stand in Southlake (our favorite local spot at the moment). When we got home I watched some of the shows on the DVR and fell asleep around 9:00 pm. TERRIBLE IDEA! Here I am typing a blog at freaking 5:00 am on Saturday morning.
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