The Clutter Connection: Paris, France

Here's what we did on days 3 and 4 (April 30th and May 1st) in Paris, France.

Technically, we spent most of day 3 outside of Paris. We took the train to Versailles that day. I can truthfully tell you that visiting the Palace of Versailles was my least favorite part of our whole trip. A lot of it had to do with that fact that it was sooooo crowded. Between waiting in line to buy tickets, and then waiting in line to get on to the grounds, we waited over 2 hours. And while cobblestones may be picturesque, they are not fun to stand on or walk on for long periods of time!

I did take this picture of a beautiful gate as we waited in line.

Here's a picture of part of the palace. As you can see, it's pretty big....

Our admission included a tour of the upstairs living quarters of the palace. I'm not really sure what we saw. I'm not one who usually gets claustrophobic, but there were so many people crammed into those rooms, I couldn't handle it. I pushed my way through the crowds and waited for Robert and the kids downstairs. It may have been pretty, but I don't even care. I don't find rooms filled with wall to wall people fun.

The grounds were better, although you can see they were also crowded. The grounds didn't impress me. They were big. There were some pretty fountains. The bushes were shaped into nice geometric patterns. But I have seen some beautiful gardens lately, filled with lot of gorgeous, colorful flowers. There was very little color in their gardens.

I took this picture of Kimberly as she was posing for Scott.

After we made it back from Versailles, the kids went and climbed the 284 steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Scott was ready to go again, although he would have been on his own the second time!

Sunday was our last day in Paris. We took it easy that day, since most of the major attractions were closed for a national holiday. We did one thing I had wanted to do - a boat ride on the Seine River. We sat on the open air top deck. It was a gorgeous, sunny day - perfect for a boat ride. I took some picture of buildings I saw along the way. Don't these look so very French?

Here's a couple of pictures of Notre Dame. These were taken from a different angle than the one I took our 2nd day. Still no Quasimodo....

They had some of the most beautiful bridges in Paris.

Here's the kids on the boat.

After the boat ride, we were walking back to the Metro and stumbled upon this. Officially it's a copy of the top of the torch of the Statue of Liberty - a monument to French-American friendship. Unofficially it's become a memorial to Princess Diana, since it stands right near the opening of the tunnel she was in when she was killed.

After a leisurely lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe (Scott needed another t-shirt) and some shopping at the few stores that hadn't closed for the holiday, it was off to the airport to head back to Milan. Paris was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful city. I think we tried to do too much, but that's what happens if you don't know if you'll ever go back again. You want to see it all!