A long weekend in Paris!

I think in 4 days, Karen and I got nearly everything out of Paris we possibly could have . We took a nice long 4-day weekend in Paris. We both ended up loving Paris far more than we'd expected. We found the people really responded when we made a full faithed effort to speak in French. And it was fun!

Above, Karen and I went up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It was commissioned by Napoleon in the early 1800s, but didn't get finished for some time.

We went to the Père Lachaise cemetery to visit Jim Morrison's grave. There were a handful of people there. We had to wait to get a good picture.

It was smaller than we'd expected. I thought it would be bigger than life I guess. Wasn't there a bust of Jim at one point too...? Guess not.

Here we are outside the Musée du Louvre just north of the Seine. Last year 8.3 million people visited the collections here. They really have some amazing art here.

We got to see the infamous Venus de Milo sculpture, the Mona Lisa, countless Monet's and Van Gogh's, etc. It was pretty incredible to say the least. A person could spend a full week and maybe squeeze in just what's on display at the moment. They are only showing a fraction of their collection at any one time.

Here is a picture looking up and out from underneath the pyramid in the main courtyard. Some people don't like the design of the pyramid section because it's so strikingly different from the rest of the Renaissance architecture.

We thought it was great!

So to end our first full day in Paris, Karen and I went to visit the Eiffel Tower. It was really cool to see it at night all lit up. Above is a really quick video I took of the Eiffel Tower twinkling at night.

Here we are at the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur in Montmartre. This is the artist section of Paris. Dali, Monet, Picasso, etc. all once lived and worked here. There are still scores of artists in the area. There's a square behind the Basilicia where artists are selling paintings, soliciting portraits, etc. The place is still hopping with artsy stuff!
At the Musée d'Orsay we got to see one of the largest collections of impressionist art in the world. This is a picture looking out to the northern hill of Montmartre.
This is the official Opera house of Paris. We thought the lit-up facade was stunning against the night sky. There are so many really beautiful buildings in Paris. We literally took hundreds of pictures!

We stayed at the New Orient Hotel in the Right Bank West. Karen read up on the place ahead of time and asked for a top floor room with a balcony. We wouldn't have had this view if she didn't ask early on. Nice job Karen!

These Renaissance buildings are just so easy to photograph!

Notre Dame Cathedral is another must-see in Paris. The level of detail in this gothic church is really something to appreciate. Every single edge is covered in delicate detail. They even made more edges just to keep decorating!

We went into a huge 9-floor department store called Printemps to do a little shopping. They have a terrace cafe on top where I took a great picture of the Montmartre hill and the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur. I'm going to try and do some sketches of this hill soon.

Karen humored me at the end of a long day and we went back to the Arc de Triomphe. The sky was pretty cool looking and I wanted to take some time elapsed photos when it was all lit up. Some of them came out really well (don't need to post them all here though).

I was captivated by the clouds that night. When we got back to the hotel I kept taking pictures out the window. Again, some came out really well but I don't need to post too many.