Euro Day 2 - Sore Feet!

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

Today was another big Paris Day. We took on the Paris Metro at absolutely peak hour to get across to the Eiffel Tower to take our chances on a ticket to go up it. 

We arrived pretty much when it opened but of course the lines were huge so we gave up on that idea pretty quickly and decided to go to the Grand Palais instead.  

We didn't have any luck there either as it was closed on Mondays - dang!  Still - there's no shortage of places to visit in Paris so we walked the 2 or so k along by the Seine then through some gardens to the Louvre. 

I was sure we'd be hit with the same huge lines but our Paris Pass actually gave us 'skip-the-line' privileges so we got in almost straight away.  

There was no way I was interested in queueing for the Mona Lisa but there weren'tmany lines for that so we checked it out first. Meh.  Then we had a look at a teeny tiny fraction of the rest of the museum  It wasn't too crowded at all.

Jon wanted to see Venus De Milo so we did that. Although it took a bit of finding!

The view out the windows were pretty good too..

After about an hour we'd had enough so we headed back out into the heat and walked down to Saint Chapelle church - famous for its stained glass windows - with good reason. Again our Paris Pass saved us here as there were long queues but we got ushered straight though.

The glass was amazing and I thought the tiled floor was pretty cool too!

From there we walked onwards to a supermarket, then to the Luxemburg Gardens for lunch.  Along the way we went along beautiful Paris streets and laneways.

My photos really don't do it justice but it was lovely.  As were the gardens when we arrived:

Lunch was also lovely as we were starving after all the walking in the sun. 

From there we walked across the gardens then over  to the Montparnasse tower - the tallest building in Paris by far, and the best place for views all around the city.

By then our phones and our bodies were flat - so we headed home on the metro and had a break to recharge everything. There wasn't too much resting though as we were keen to go to the Salvador Dali Gallery up by Sacre Coeur,   

The Gallery was great - and we saw his version of Venus De Milo - Venus De Milo with Drawers.. heh heh...

By the it was 5.30 and I was keen to have another Paris experience - a street cafe where the seats face outwards.  It was great to sit and enjoy some icy cold drinks - I had a Mojito which I would have taken a photo of but I drunk it in about 2 seconds. Here's my empty glass and Jon's empty beer glass:

It was fun to watch the workers coming home from their jobs, but less fun that the outdoor seating is a great opportunity for all the smokers to smoke and drink. Uff. 

We're now back in the hotel resting our feet and planning what to do for dinner.  (If we can drag ourselves outside again!). 

Update - we went out and had the traditional French cuisine of Himalayan Indian. It was delicious and the kids got Gelato afterwards. It's a good thing we're moving to phase two of our holiday tomorrow - camping! - as the Euros have added up with all our eating and visiting things.  Worth every eurocent though!