Paris in the Springtime

It's totally cliché and unoriginal but we actually had an awesome time in Paris. The city is incroyable with so much to see and do that I'm sure we'll be back again and again.

The first stop was the Arc de Triomph. If you don't know, the monument honours and remembers those who fought for France in every war since the French Revolutionary Wars. The bottom right picture shows the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Next up we visited the world famous Père Lachaise Cemetery

We had fun hunting the graves of famous people. The collage below includes recent photos of Oscar Wilde, Honoré de Balzac, Édith Piaf, Georges Seurat, Gioachino Rossini, Jim Morrison, Georges Bizet, Marcel Proust and Frédéric Chopin.

Later in the day we visited the Musée Rodin.

Having visited several art museums recently, we have both found that nearly all sculptures are quite boring and uninspiring. The works of Auguste Rodin, however were an exception.

The brilliance of his work lies on the contradiction of the extremities of time. On the one hand, his statues capture movement and life in a single instant. On the other hand, they stand motionless in bronze for all time.

It's not just monuments and museums that bring Paris to life. We also walked along the banks of the Seine

We circumnavigated the Île de la Cité and Notre Dame Cathedral.

We relaxed in the Place de Vosges

We took a stroll through the Jardin du Luxembourg

And we even mingled with the Sarkozy supporters in Place de la Concorde

The days of an artistic and bohemian Montmartre may be long gone but the neighbourhood was still dynamic and exciting. 

While there we managed to find the most useless shop in the world. We still have no idea what they were selling.

The Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

And the view from the top of the butte Montmartre. By the way, this guy is juggling three diabolos! 

Of course, Montmatre is best visited at night time.

Perhaps our best night in Paris was when we visited the Lapin Agile. On the left you can see it the night we visited, while on the right you can see it in 1872 only a decade after it opened.

The cabaret was entirely in French, featured mostly old drinking songs and was without a doubt one of the most authentic experiences we've had up to this point. 

One of the performers, Zouzou Thomas on accordian.

Continuing with our clichéd experience of Paris, we even had some great food.   

The highlight was a meal of all things duck.

The last couple of rainy days were spent indoors. Firstly at the Musée d'Orsay where we had fun trying to guess between a Manet and Monet.

And then of course the Louvre

The best bits of the Louvre were the Egyptian collection...

the Apollo Gallery... 

and of course getting a great view of the world's best painting according the masses.

Unfortunately the only way to end a blog entry full of things you already knew about Paris, is with the Eiffel Tower.

As seen from Montmartre before sunset.

And just before we climbed the tower late in the evening.

Sorry to say it, but even the view from the observation deck was more impressive than we had anticipated. 

Apologies again for all the photos, but we just couldn't leave anything out. We'll try our best to go to less interesting places from now on.

P.S. Some people have complained about the difficulty of leaving a comment about our blog. The easiest way is to press "comment", then choose "Name/URL" from the options, and then just leave your name. Thanks for the support.