P A R I S
Tour Day: 1
Notre Dame, the coolest Bookstore EVER (Shakespeare & Company) and the Musée d'Orsay
Tour Day: 1
Today, we were so excited to see our first Rick Steves approved hotel, meet our tour guide and our fellow tour members! We were not disappointed when we got to our hotel! It was gorgeous, in a prime location and had the most helpful staff! This is one of the things we were most excited about for this tour, was knowing that the Rick Steves Tour Company would pick excellent hotels! The staff so kindly held our luggage for us while we visited sites around Paris! After leaving the hotel, we headed over to Notre Dame, then to the Shakespeare & Company bookstore, and then finally we headed over to the Musée d'Orsay to see some impressionist art! We did all of this before heading back to our hotel at 5 PM to meet with our tour group! 😃
Notre Dame
Excited about the ironwork because he is a blacksmith and loves that they had blacksmiths recreate the work in historically accurate manners
Lucky enough to say we heard Notre Dame's bells chime!
Shakespeare & Co.
*No photos allowed inside
Musée d'Orsay
Afternoon with Monet, Renoir
and Van Gogh
Famous Musée d'Orsay Clock!
Claude Monet
More Claude Monet
Pierre-August Renoir - (Bal du Moulin de la Galette)
Vincent van Gogh
Tour Day: 2
Palace of Versailles, Sainte Chapelle & The Louvre
Our first full day being a part of the tour group was so helpful! We met with our amazing tour guide Steve at breakfast to discuss our plans for the day. He helped us plan our train transportation to get to Versailles! It was a godsend to have his advice and guidance because the train system can be so daunting! Thanks Steve!
Duke and Duchess of Ohio, here for the royal ball
King Louis XIV gave himself the nickname "Le Roi Soleil", which means "Sun King"
"Yes, I know mirrors are expensive, but that's EXACTLY why I need so many!!! It's a statement of how rich I am!"
~Probably
King Louis XIV
"The Hall of Mirrors" where the Treaty of Versailles was signed!
Let's take a minute for the ceilings in Versailles 👏
Also, check out how ornate these pieces are...
The grounds of Versailles were just as amazing to us as the actual château itself, so leave a couple hours for each!
The large ornate gate at the front of the castle
The Grand Trianon on the grounds at Versailles was beautiful...because everybody needs an escape from living in gluttony at Versailles...oh, and for their mistress
The grounds were spectacular!
This day had so much walking involved that by mid-day, we felt like our feet were going to fall off. By the end of the day, we checked our step counting app on our phones and we had walked 16 miles...
Sainte Chapelle
After Versailles, we took the train back to Paris and visit the Sainte Chapelle! This truly was stepping inside of a jewel!
The Louvre
No introductions necessary for these ladies!
I highly recommend going to the Louvre during their extended hours on Wednesday evenings! It worked really well for us, and I bet it would have been a lot more crowded during normal hours! We didn't have to wait too long to see the Mona Lisa!
Boot's favorite piece of art the whole trip! LOL
😂
Goodbye Louvre, hopefully we will be back one day!
Our last day of Paris came to an end as we took the metro...which we learned from our tour guide Steve, then walked back to our hotel...
Bonus Pictures!
We ate at the same crêpe restaurant 2 nights in a row! It was delicious!
