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.
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.
Seriously, within a one mile radius, of each other, there are so many museums available in Paris. It was hard to choose which ones because it is so overwhelming.
One we did decided to visit was Musée D’Orsay.
1 Reason – Van Gogh. Everything else was a plus.
Having the Museum pass helped as we bypassed the normal line, which was long, into s shorter line in which the security guard took forever letting in people.
Once in, we searched for Van Gogh and found it! The rooms were slightly darkened and they asked no flash photography. Of course phone cameras do a mediocre/decent job without flash. There were tons of people in the room.
After that, we went up to the 5th floor where the temporary displays were available. Money was one to check out!
There was a really fancy cafe right before the exhibit entrance!
According to France Travel Planner (https://francetravelplanner.com/go/paris/versailles/marche.html), this market is one of the best in France. I read that the open market was going on during certain days (Sunday being one of them), so we made sure that was a day we came out.
The market is a few blocks away from Palace of Versailles.
The center is like a 4 way stop with buildings outlining it. During the Sunday we went there, the roads were closed off to the market and there were tons of open stalls.
I was very impressed with the produce available. I should mention I am not a cheese person… but a vendor gave me a slice to Tomme Truffe and I couldn’t believe how delicious it was!
The only thing that sucked about buying stuff was that we still had to go back to the Palace of Versailles and Garden and I had to carry these items.
The market was super amazing and tons of great food!