Europe Trip 2015 - Day Twelve

On the menu today was Blue Bike Tours Best of Paris bike tour today. Met Thibault again. Our guide was Cecilia, from Paris, and on the tour were a Canadian mother and daughter, a pot seller from LA, a lady from Santa Barbara, mother and two sons from Perth and us.

Bikes for hire

 First stop was Notre Dame Cathedral, then a love lock bridge which only had one month until all of the locks were to be removed, ride around the island that the cathedral is situated on, Alexandre III Bridge, ride past L'Hôtel national des Invalides, stop for lunch at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, and a ride through to the courtyard of du Louvre before concluding the tour. Only one spill - the missus at Notre Dame but no damage done.

Entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral

Behind the cathedral on a love lock bridge

Les Invalides

Lunch break at the Eiffel Tower

Streets of Paris in sepia

Little Arc de Triomphe at Du Louvre

Entrance to Musée du Louvre

Couple of tourists

On your bike

Home for a rest, quick nap for me and McDonald's coffee for the missus, then we ventured to the Arc de Triomphe. Huge monument with glorious sculptures. Walked across all 13 intersections, trying to obtain a great photo, before heading off to do some shopping at clothing stores on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Not many stores were open as it was Sunday evening although we were able to shop until 10 pm. Saw the Eiffel Tower in lights but only the top of it. Late night for us.

Arc de Triomphe

She's big, the arch that is

Majestic and near impossible to photograph without traffic in the shot

Stopped in the middle of the road to capture this shot

About as close as I was willing to venture

Europe Trip 2015 - Day Eleven

Breakfast in Jardin du Luxembourg after drinks and croissants at a street cafe. The missus wasn't impressed with the white metal paths and grass that you weren't allowed on. Found a bench to sit on for our breakfast and then eight ponies were tied up next to us. I shared my apple with two of them.

Croissants and drinks

Road with a view

I love the dinky traffic lights for drivers at the front - no lights on the far side of the intersection

Jardin du Luxembourg

Keep off the grass

Spot the tourists

More grass to keep off

Hungry visitor

Talk about in your face

 Statues abound in the park and there was one of the Statue of Liberty too. Lots of joggers and people doing tai chi. Before heading out for the day we purchased some hideously expensive sunscreen from a pharmacy.

Statue of Liberty in Jardin du Luxembourg

Fill 'er up - electric car "refueling" station

 Walked to Notre Dame Cathedral from our place which took only about 10 minutes. We were quite well situated in the Latin Quarter which turned out to be a good location.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Busy Seine

National Assembly building

Travelator that seems to go on forever 

 Wandered through a lot of back streets in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower. After a couple of hours of walking and coming to the realisation that we still had lots of walking to do the decision was made to rest and then catch the metro. Wise choice. Managed to locate a seat in the shade for a well earned rest near the Trocadero which was our meeting place for a tour. Grabbed a bite to eat.

Met Lindsay, from Philadelphia, for our City Wonders tour. She gave us lots of history regarding the tower - it was up against 106 other designs in a competition - and never rant out of anything to inform us of.

One of the first views of the Eiffel Tour

Le Eiffel Tour

We're about the same height

 Skipping the line, part of the tour package, was a good idea as the queue was still long. Our tour group only had 12 people but there were a couple of tours being run concurrently. Stayed on the second level until we had walked right around and then the tour was complete. By this time most people were itching to reach the summit. Our tickets were valid for the summit so no queuing for that either. Perhaps the waiting time for the elevator to the top took longer than the tour! Some kids in the line, rich Americans by the look, were quite annoying. Other kids were well behaved but not that many were actually on the tower.

Nice view from the top but sunny and windy. Long queue to get back down to the second level, by elevator only, before we took the stairs to the bottom. Haggled with one of the souvenir sellers for a large replica tower from 25 euros to 20 to 19. I was going to offer 15 euros but the missus settled on 19. Back at the Trocadero station I questioned another seller for the same souvenir and had offered it for 20 euros and then dropped to 15 as I walked away. Damn. Arrived home about 8:30 pm needing a rest.

View of the Champ de Mars

View from up atop the Eiffel Tower

Les Invalides

I've grown a bit

Look at the ants below

Plenty of steel work

  

Europe Trip 2015 - Day Ten

Had to be up reasonably early to leave by 7:30  as we had a bike tour to Versailles commencing at 9 am for which we had to meet 15 minutes early at St Lazare. Actually had no difficulty taking the metro and arrived 20 minutes earlier than necessary. Would hate to have been carrying luggage though.

Our guide was Thibault who had been working for Blue Bike Tours for three months. The missus was almost left behind as she went to buy water and Thibault said that we should leave as early as possible. Train ride from St Lazare to Versailles took 45 minutes, at least. There were two Aussies (us), two English and 10 Americans on the tour. First stop was the markets to purchase our picnic lunch - bread, cheese (two kinds), strawberries and juice.

Ate salmon and choc banana crepes at the markets. Nearly had to leave the missus behind as she had to go to the toilet at the time we planned to walk to the bike garage. Honestly, hard to tour with someone that causes everyone to be late. He he. Obtained our personalised bikes and ventured into the grounds of the Palace of Versailles.

Best crepes, that we had, in Paris

Bike tour to Versailles

 From the Grand Canal you can see the palace building in the distance. Rode through some of the 2000 acres estate with Thibault stopping to give us history lessons along the way. Picnic held at the west end of the Grand Canal.

Palace of Versailles from the Grand Canal

Picnic lunch

 Kind of rushed the tour of the Grand Trianon by keeping it to 30 minutes but the Petit Trianon, the private residence of Marie Antoinette, wasn't too bad. The small farm built for her enjoyment was interesting. The tour then took us back to the garage to return the bikes before walking to the palace entrance. Here Thibault bade us farewell after providing us with audio guides. The tour was quite enjoyable and a worthy experience.

Inside the Grand Trianon

The gardens at the Grand Trianon could do with a little bit of water

Stylish bedroom

Inside the Petit Trianon

Quite well colour coordinated

Small farm built for the pleasure of Marie Antoinette

 Palace of Versailles - what an extravagant an gorgeous building. Incredible. Toured upstairs and flattened the phone battery taking photos. Bumped into our fellow tourists a few times. Lots of Chinese tourists at the palace - busloads of them.

Entrance to the Palace of Versailles

One of the main halls

Incredible ceiling

Exquisite artwork

Gold, gold, gold

The Hall of Mirrors was crowded

The Hall of Mirrors without so many visitors on display

Camouflage?

Managed to photograph a room without anybody in the shot

Just look at the ceiling, chandeliers, artwork, etc

Bought some meat in the markets on the way back to the train station. Even though I said exactly what I wanted in French the lady repeated it to herself before she understood. Quite funny as she didn't need to correct me. Must be my accent. Very hot train back to St Lazare and we baked in the afternoon sun. Luckily we missed what appeared to be a 60 minutes delay at the time we arrived. Just made it to Esprit, in the huge shopping area within the train station, before they closed and bought some clothes. Didn't arrive home until 8~8:30. Not many shops open but bought some fruit.

Dinner in the garden at 9 pm. Spaghetti, tomato, apple, beef sausage, Cantonese rice and marinated pork. Yum.