It's time for part 2! To be totally honest I could probably do a post for each of the last four days we were in Paris to show you everything, however I've condensed it a little to give you the best of our museum and attraction visits.
It's Eiffel Tower summit day!!
But before we get to the summit of the Eiffel tower, we take a stop at the Musee de I'Armee and the Eglise du Dome, which is the army museum that houses Napoleon's tomb in the dome.
Napoleon's tomb in one word...
Huge!
His tomb is housed under the center of this whole dome,
and the entire museum dedicated to France's armies and battles is impressive to say the least. This was a kid chosen stop because of the study of the French Revolution in school!! Thanks teachers for making history interesting to our kids, it was totally worth the visit.
We have our schedule to keep to make sure we make our time to summit the Eiffel tower, we are off. This was another great book in advance item, tip number three if you're keeping track. We had our time booked for one in the afternoon.
The views from the summit were incredible. All around the top they give you the tallest buildings in certain cities, and above the kids is the Empire State Building in New York and how it stacks up with the Eiffel tower in height. The dotted line is the height of the Eiffel Tower. The Empire State building is just a little taller!
View of the Champ de Mars
At the far end of this island in the middle of the Seine is a replica of the Statue of Liberty which was given to us by France.
View of the Gardens of Trocadero just across the river from the Eiffel Tower which by the way is a great place to take amazing pictures of the Eiffel Tower.
In the center of this extraordinary picture is our next stop for the day, the Arc de Triomphe, a monument to Napoleon. This tribute to Napoleon and the tomb of the unknown solider is so big this was the best picture we got of it! But first...
we have to go down. We decided to take the stairs from the second level to the ground, because we needed more walking, not, but the views on the way down were great.
The Arc de Triomphe is actually in the center of a round about in the middle of the road, so you have to walk underneath the road and rise to the center for a spectacular view.
From the top of the Arc de Triomphe you get a bird's eye view of the Champs-Elysees which is the place to shop in Paris.
View from where we came from!
Tomb of the unknown soldier
Our next day really became church day! We visited the top of Notre Dame, the crypts under Notre Dame as well as a gorgeous stained glass church, Saint Chapelle.
After a very long line, we made it to the top of Notre Dame to catch a glimpse of these cool gargoyles. This church that dates back to eleven hundreds is even more impressive from the top than the street.
You can also walk up to one of the bell towers and get a view of the bells.
That cool green awning on the left is our next stop to do some souvenir shopping, Shakespeare and Company, a cool English language book store where of coarse we bought
a book for the library at home with the history of this eclectic and quaint book store.
Last stop of the day, but certainly not the least was Saint Chapelle church.
I know what you're thinking, OMG!! Seriously you have it right, this little church is full of stained glass, and the pictures don't do it justice. It was spectacular.
Each section of stained glass panels tells a different story. You walk around the church and each section is a different book of the bible,
with the section right behind the alter being of Christ's journey to the cross. Any church wouldn't be complete without a
rose window! Simply stunning.
I don't think I can pack any more in this post, and it was only two days of our time in Paris. One more post to wrap up this trip with a recap of a few of our tips that will make your next trip to Paris a success!
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