After enjoying the Luxembourg Garden, we wanted to see the Pantheon, which is a few blocks away. We walked a bit further.
The Pantheon is inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.
The Pantheon here is a mausoleum for some famous French people and enlightened thinkers such as Voltaire.
We took the Metro to Montparnasse station to go up the Montparnasse tower.
This was early morning and the lady there said, comeback at 3pm because it is still not clear (foggy that morning).
So we started to walk towards Jardin du Luxembourg.
This is one of Paris’ largest public open spots. It was chilly, but very nice.
2 out of 37 bridges that cross the Seine.
The Seine was very high as there were storms the previous week.
Pont des Invalides is next to Pont Alexander III.
Pont Alexander III is one of the most ornate bridges in Paris, very famous and everyone takes pictures there.
Forum Les Halles is an open shopping mall. Chatelet Les Halles is the train station in the bottom for the RER.
I took these shots on my last trip to Noisy Le Grand for the 2nd day of Conference.
In the 9th arrondissment of Paris, You will find the Galeries Lafayette. It is a huge upscale department store. Very busy.
While the department store is great to find clothes and other things, across the street is kinda like their food court/food department store.
The coolest thing I found was this shop selling spices… my nose actually caught the smell and let me tell you, I’ve had a bad sense of smell for a while (since working in a factory with harsh chemicals and powders).
Also across the street and around the block is the Academy of Music and Opera. This is also one of the main subway stations, Opera.
After the 3 day Paris Pass expires, we still had a few days left and we were gonna be using the metro alot.
Again, this was a tip from Jay Swanson’s youtube videos, https://www.youtube.com/user/Cadelfwch.
It is convenient to get a book of tickets (10 passes), it is slightly cheaper than buying every time and in our case, we went through them like water.
If you are staying within Paris inner zone, these are the what you will use for Metro, but and other public transportation.
We were settling in our new hotel for the night (and only that night). I had finished my conference for the day, but I didn’t want to waste the evening.
It was raining and wet.
We went out and dinner for our anniversary.
We decided to see Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe at night and see if we could get better pictures.
When I decided to go to Japan for the 30th Annual leopard meeting, so many thoughts were going through my head. I thought I would be doing it alone, but Jasmin wanted to come along. She did good because she is great at planning and research.
I didn’t want to make the same mistakes as my previous times (focusing on cars only) and she planned many other things to see and experience.
We arrived to Narita airport and took some quick pictures.
We jumped on the Skyliner to get to Ueno Station and then took a Tokyo Metro subway train to Akihabara station, where we were staying for 2 nights (Thursday and Friday night).
Jasmin figured out the train system, while I just followed her lead. I didn’t pay attention to the different lines.
Finally at Akihabara.
Noisy Le Grand is outside of Paris. It is where my 2 day conference was held. Initially we were gonna stay near Noisy Le Grand, maybe in the same hotel, but realize that we would rather stay in Paris itself.
In that sense, I had to learn how to get to Noisy Le Grand via train. I found out the RER A goes that way. I would have go to Auber station, go underground and get to the RER A platform.
This is where I realized I jumped on the right train (RER A), but it was going to another location.
I got off the train and looked at the monitor (or light board). Once the train I was on left, the next train’s destinations were would light up, in my case Noisy Le Grand – Mont-D ‘ Est.
Mont D’Est station, leading outside. I didn’t need to go that way as I found out that this station is at the bottom of the local mall, Les Arcades. Holiday Inn is next door.
It’s the Louvre. It is the biggest museum in the world.. It houses soo much art and history… Very famous works.
First off, the Pyramids are the main entrances. But there are other ways to enter such as the Carousel across the street. We had Museum pass and that helps if there is a long line as you are fast tracked to a not as long line.
After coming down the stairs, there are lockers that are available. They are pretty cool as they are digital and free (availability pending).
EVERYTHING ABOUT THE LOUVRE WAS IMPRESSIVE. Architecture and how everything looked.
Goddess of Victory, Nike. The sculpture : Winged Victory.
The Mona Lisa… infamous. So much that there is always a crowd infront of her.
I was super annoyed with this couple that seriously were upfront and didn’t want to leave. The lady took a shit load of selfies and then 10 minutes later without moving, asked people to take pictures of her.
