Cruising around Paris

BIKES AVAILABLE FOR RENT
THE LOUVRE

NOTRE DAME

COLORFUL CAFE SCENE

This morning, at the very last minute, Audrey and I decided to walk all over Paris instead of seeing Versailles. We took the Metro to the Louvre and walked around Ile de la Cite, along both sides of the Seine river, toured Notre Dame, toured the Deportation Memorial (very moving; it honors the 200,000 French Jews that lost their lives during the Holocaust), got rained on and then decided to go into the Louvre, and spent a couple of hours seeing some of the more famous artwork in the Louvre. At that point, I was over sightseeing, so we went to a cafe in the Latin Quarter and had a drink and some dinner (escargot and mousse au chocolat) before coming back to our hotel. We're going to go back out this evening and see the Eiffel Tower lit up in the darkness.

I don't remember Paris being as expensive as it is now. We've routinely paid over $6.00 USD for a bottle of diet Coke or water, well over $20 USD for a basic "cheap" entree, and an arm an a leg for a very basic hotel room. Even London, which is supposed to be very expensive, was cheaper than this. But it is still a very photographable (is that a word?) city so I've enjoyed snapping tons of shots. I'll attach a few here.