Salmons on tour–Europe ‘07

Night 1

We took the subway from the airport. It took us about 2 hours total travel time from the time we landed and walked through customs until we checked in to the hotel. We saw several shady characters giving our eye to our luggage, so we gave them evil, knowing eyes back, and held on tightly. We arrived and got settled in an hour or so before dark. Took a walk up the Seine a few blocks, and around to get the lay of the land. We stopped in at a corner cafe for dinner. Unfortunately it was too cold to eat out on the sidewalk, but we had a good meal, and they spoke enough English for us to complete the transaction. It really is true that with a few basic words of French, you can draw them into a conversation in English without them acting like they hate you.

Monday in Paris

Monday morning we got up and got ready to see Paris. The hotel concierge told us about the Museum pass which allows access to 60 or so museums in the area, and allows holders to skip the long ticket lines. He also told us that the shortest lines to buy the pass would be at the French Army museum –Invalades. So we went to the French Army museum-where Napoleons tomb is, got our pass, visited a little with Napoleon and then headed off to the Louvre. The Louvre is massive, and you cannot see the whole thing in a few hours, or a few days, or a few weeks. We spent most of our time in the Italian and French paintings and some sculpture. We also saw some African pieces. Once we had had enough, we headed to the Conciergerie- an old jail where Marie Antoinette was held before she was tried and put to death. From there we walked on down to Notre Dame and walked through this amazing Cathedral. We then took the subway back to the hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner. We booked a dinner cruise on the Seine for this evening. The hotel concierge told us multiple times “no jeans and no tennis shoes” I guess Americans do have a bit of a reputation.

Dinner was quite an experience. This is a great way to see the city- on the river after dark with everything illuminated. (thanks for the advice, Lucia!)

Tuesday in Paris-

Tuesday was dedicated to the Musee d’ Orsay. We got up (a little late, as quite a bit of wine was included with the dinner cruise) and headed to Musee d’ Orsay with its spectacular collections. We really enjoyed it and spent quite a long time exploring here. I think we were exhausted from all the walking we had done in Paris, so after a nice dinner out we headed back to the room and called it a night early in order to get up and catch our early flight out on Wednesday.

In between the walking and museums, we ate quite a bit of cheese, and had some wonderful wines. We worked on our French a little bit. We really enjoyed our time in Paris, and would like to come back and see and do more.