Paris, France

June 8 - June 11

Devin and I left Vienna early early early on June 8th and were short on sleep when we arrived in Paris, as you can see in the picture.  We caught a shuttle into the city and met our good friend Eileen Weinstein in front of the Opera.  (Eileen moved to Paris last fall for a Masters program, but she has lived there off and on throughout her life, speaks fluent French, and has an undergraduate degree in Art History!)  We made our way to her apartment, via the metro, where Devin and I took a long nap and Eileen ran errands.  

Eileen's flat.

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DAY 1

First Paris Walk

After our nap, we went to place near Eileen's house and had a glass of wine and caught up.  

And then we walked...

Pont Alexandre (Alexander Bridge)

La Tour Eiffel

Ecole Militaire (Military School)

Fromage

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DAY 2

Pique-nique au parc

Bread, cheese, wine, hummus, sun, Paris, friends...honestly, could it get better?

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Notre Dame de Paris

(Our Lady of Paris)

 

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Wandering Paris

I thought this turned out pretty well...

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DAY 3

Notre Amie

Not only did we meet our Czech friends while hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge in China, but we also met Laura and Nicolas along the trail.  We stayed in touch during our travels and met up with them again in Bangkok - although we weren't expecting to see them there!  (The joys of traveling - seeing people you met in another country!)  Check out the link to the right to see their music video - it's fantastic!

The last time we saw Laure and Nicolas was December 21, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Laure and Nicolas live in Paris and now have an adorable daughter, Philippine, who is now about 7 months old.  We went over to their apartment for lunch; unfortunately Nicolas wasn't able to be there, but we had a lovely time catching up on each others lives since Southeast Asia.

Laure and Nicolas' home - they have a wonderful space with great light.

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Le Louvre

This was my first visit to the Louvre and being that it is so large, Eileen asked me what I was most interested in seeing.  I really didn't know.  Ultimately, I wanted to see "what I was supposed to see at the Louvre."  (My college Art History professor would have cringed, but we had Eileen to show us the way.)  We only stayed for about 2 hours and spent most of our time wandering through the Greek and Roman statues.  I think the most fascinating aspect of the museum is not what's on display but the palace itself.  It's history is fascinating: a medieval fortress in the late 12th century, a royal residence in the 16th century, a royal palace during the 17th century, and finally a museum in 1793.  

Taking pictures of the Mona Lisa

These are terrible pictures, but we just couldn't resist taking them!

Mona Lisa

Winged Victory of Samothrace                                                    Venus de Milo                           

Borghese Hermaphroditus

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On Our Way Home

We stopped for our last dinner near Eileen's house.  Wine, cheese, bread.  Perfect.

We had such an wonderful visit to Paris, thanks to Eileen's hospitality and tour-guiding prowess and the food, the wine, the architecture, the conversation...  France is another country on our Return list.