Paris - Spring at the Eiffel Tower

I am always so thrilled to see the Eiffel Tower.  The park that leads to it, Parc du Champ de Mars, was filled with families, friends, and lovers (and guys selling little red, silver and gold Eiffel Tower souvenirs) on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  We strolled through the park, and under the tower. Lines were long and we didn't have "ride to the top" on the agenda for today.  The gardens were beautiful.

Tina's first full view of the Eiffel Tower!

Children riding ponies and picnics on the grass.

Full bed of flowers around the fountain.

Beautiful flowers.  The tulips were amazing.

A nice curved flower bed.

Creatively done with spring pastels.

I had seen a photo of the Eiffel Tower with a flowering tree.
These flowers are white.
Hmmm, not the picture I was looking for.

Yellows and pinks in the side gardens.

We walked under the tower and looked across the river at
the Trocadero.  It was really crowded.

This will give you an idea of the crowds out this afternoon.

Yea!  I found it. A pink tree and the Eiffel Tower.
Mission accomplished.

Paris - Hotel Des Invalides and Eglise Du Dome (Church)...and La Terrasse du 7em

After the Rodin Museum, we walked on Boulevard Des Invalides, then cut through the Jardin de L'Abondance (garden) at Hotel Des Invalides.  We walked past a section that is still a working hospital and that family was there to visit with patients in wheel chairs.  (Just wanted to let you know.)  We saw that the Church was open, so we walked up the steps and walked inside.  Once inside the door, we looked around quickly before the attendant asked us for our tickets.  We mentioned that we didn't have tickets and left (we had seen all that we needed to see.)  We strolled through Jardin de l'Intendant, spoke German with a few tourists as we tried to figure out how to cross THE MOAT and exit the property.  We had to walk back to the center walkway between the gardens and off we went. 

Time for a coffee break at a local cafe, La Terrasse in the 7th section.  We had iced tea (4.5 euro) and a double espresso (4 euro), and enjoyed the warm sun and the view.  SCAM ALERT:  by this time we thought that we must look like good targets. Two boys came up to our table and tried to get us to sign a document. They finally left when I attempted to call the waiter.  We chatted a while longer, getting in to the cafe scene.

Gardens at the Hotel Des Invalids by the Church

Eglise du Dome - Church of the Dome

Cute little gas pump, right there on the street.

Our tea and espresso (with water on the side!)

Paris - Rodin Museum and more food!

After leaving the Orsay Museum, we took rue de Solferino, crossed Blvd Saint Germaine, and skipped over to Bellechase.  I think that we could have taken the pedestrian Bellechase to save a little time.  We had purchased a single day Orsay/Rodin ticket for 12 euro. (If you think that you will want to attend multiple times, the four day pass is only 12 euro.)   We continue across Rue de Grenelle and turned right on Rue de Varenne.  The Rodin Museum was a few blocks.  Entrance was quick and easy, and we guessed that the crowds were behind us.  We went straight to the garden cafe for lunch as starvation had set in.  After our nice lunch viewing the gardens with Rodin statues, we walked through the gardens to see the rest of the statues.  We went in to the house and went through about six rooms of display. It was very interesting to see the clay models and copying techniques used to create statues.  Very cool stuff.  Enjoy the pictures.

The litle cafeteria in the Rodin Museum garden.

We both had "Salade Parisian", which was similar to a
chef salad.  This strawberry delight was for desert.  Very good.
The strawberry taste is intense and incredible.

This was our lunch view.

We walked through the garden. This is looking
from the end of the garden at the house.

Signs of Spring!!!

A model for "The Kiss"

"The Thinker"  So cool to be able to see this.

Paris - Orsay Museum

We were up and out of the apartment by 8:30 AM so that we could get to the museum right as it opened (in order to avoid the crowds).  We walked to rue Etienne Marcel, around Place des Victoires, and continued on Rue des Petits Champs.  We noticed that the traffic was very light this early on Saturday morning.  We turned left and walked through Place Vendome, window shopping along the way.  As I was taking photos, I walked past a group of four youth.  I sensed something unusual.  No sooner did I pass them, someone walked beside me and pulled on the zipper of my side pocket.  They were trying to get my 2 euro red umbrella from Rome!!!  NO!!!  I turned quickly and they kept on walking.  Good thing they didn't try the other pocket. I keep my kleenex in that pocket. I told Tina that we needed to walk the other way because there were THIEVES in the area. 

We continued through rue de Castiglione and crossed rue de Rivoli to get to Jardin Des Tuileries.  Joggers were out already, as well as us power walkers, so we cut through the garden and enjoyed the view of Louvre one more time.  My goal was to cross the footbridge Passerelle Solferino.  This brought us just one building away from Musee D'Orsay.  We were there before the crowds!! We went through security without a whole lot of fuss.  My ScottEVest is hard to "empty all of your (28) pockets".  I just put the whole jacket through and they are happy.

Wow, the Orsay has been renovated. It's beautiful.  We tried to use our Rick Steves guided tour, but paintings had been moved so it was hard.  We stopped to listen as we found paintings that he describes.  I had intended to stay about an hour...and we stayed for 3 hours.  Tina got to see more of her new favorite artist Renoir, and I found my Monets and Van Goghs.  No photography allowed inside the museum. Sorry. There was a lot of really great pieces of art. AND it started to get really crowded.  Time to move on to the next stop on the tour...Rodin Museum (see the seperate post).

Enjoy the photo part of the tour!

Place Vendome, quiet at this time of the day.

Shiny things for sale

The windows are very "springy"
This is the photo I was taking when the pickpockets tried
to get in to my ScottEVest.

Really cool pedestrian bridge.

People hang locks on the bridge. I understand
that this is to indicate the solidity of a relationship.
Very romantic.

Signs of spring on the way to the museum.

We are thrilled. Up early and no long lines to start the day.

Another shot of those showy pink trees.

ANOTHER SCAM ATTEMPT: as we were leaving the Orsay Museum, a woman with a gold ring in her hand asked if we had lost it.  The scam is to find the ring, then try to sell this jewelry marked 24K to the visitor.  I told her that I knew her scam so leave us alone.  World traveler...

Dinner at home

We decided to stop by our local boulangerie/patisierrie and see what we could find for dinner at home.  Great call!

Baggette and butter, spinach and cheese pie, and
Provencial pie with ham, tomatoe and cheese with a
dash of faboulous. Quite satisfying and yummy.

Just enough room left for desert: Baba au Rhum and
what has been officially declared as the best ever
chocolate eclaire.

L'Imperial Salon de The and Rue di Rivoli Shopping

Time to begin our trek back to the apartment. We decided that we needed a cafe break and stopped for a drink.  Then we continued down the street window (and scarf) shopping.

Tina found this cute black and gold themed cafe.

Two street side seats were waiting for us.

We had a double espresso (4.40 euro) and an iced tea (9 euro)
and our standard glasses of water. Nice people watching shop.
Lots of scarves, boots and fancy decorated tights.

Hand embroidered bath and bedroom accessories.

Make-up bags with the Eiffel Tower on them.

Fancy accessories.

Angelina's pastries

A Chanel book displayed in the front window of the book store.

Watches galore.

Glass decorations.

Golden Lalique

Musee de l'Orangerie - Monet!!

At the end of the Tuilleries Garden is a great museum.  We sat and gazed at the huge paintings, watched children learning the fine arts, and were fortunate enough to view paintings by some great artists.  And they had an elevator so we did not have steps (we were getting a little worn out by this time).

Beautiful summer reflection with willows and clouds.

A class of young artists quietly studied the work and
created a version of their own.

I'm not the only one who stands right in front of them to
take photos (no flash please).

Tina has a new best friend, Renoir. She fell in love with his work.

More Renoir.

And more!

The Rodin "The Kiss" is outside.  We plan to see more
from this artist in a few days.

A walk through the Tuilleries in Spring

We walked through the Tuilleries garden and enjoyed the Spring planting and blooms.  The fountains and ponds are under refurbishment. We sat at the one working one to watch the children playing with sail boats.  At first, we thought that the boats were motorized, but realized that the children position them from the side of the pond and give them a push.  They then watch its progress and run to the other side to turn the boat and give it another push. I can image that this can get to be quite fun with a pond full of boats.

Flowerbeds are blooming. The trees are just beginning to
turn brilliant colors. We noticed that the buds were
beginning and hope that they bloom while we are here.

Beautiful tulips, daffodils, and other flowers grow everywhere.

These trees are blooming in red and pink shades.

A sailboat on the pond.

The Grande Perspective
You can see the Concorde monument and the Arc de Triomphe.