PARIS

And so we come to our final destination! paris france! we drove to paris and had to say good bye to joey the kangoo at the airport and caught a taxi to our apartment in the latin quarter! we have no pics. of our apt. because they were lost in an unfortunate unplugging accident. i know, i'm completely bummed.....well, not completely! anyway, it was a very fun little apartment with the tiniest of kitchens, i know, i was bummed......well, not completely! Paris was splendid! it was clean and sunny and the people dress so nicely and there were tons of tourists but the city wasn't that crowded because all of the parisians were off on holiday!

our first stop of course was the louvre! so off we went past Notre Dame, over the ile de la cite', past st. chapelle.... it was magical!

we saw all our favorite louvre art works! winged victory, venus de milo, leonardo's 5 biggies (including mona, but my favorite was john the baptist), some more of michelangelo's slaves, the enormous neoclassical coronation of napoleon(where he is crowning himself emperor), and that brought us right up to the romantic period with liberty leading her people! it was like an art history lesson wrapped in a palace baked in a croissant!

after all that culture we needed a little levity so....... there was a mini fair going on in the jardin de tuileries,

(just like there was a mini french riviera going on along the banks of the seine by notre dame! these people know how to live!)

which way to the beach?











so we hopped a ferris wheel and had a peak around! we spotted the musee d'orsay and decided to continue the history lesson chronologically. talk about all your favorite paintings!!

and some new favorites!

ok, so then we were completely fried, hit the subterranean grocery store, went home, made diinner and got a good night's sleep. next day was POMPIDOU, it's almost as much fun to say as it is to see!

modern art is so much fun, and interactive, too!

haley was the first to notice there were no kandinsky's apparently, they were all in munich...we'd driven right past them! zut allors! we got over the monumental disappointment and then took our time walking home poking in the groovie shops near rue de rivoli. we were too exhausted to see notre dame so went home for a rest and dinner and decided to see the famous church that night. what an amazing treat! so perfect at night!!

the eiffel tower has a sparkling fit for ten minutes every hour on the hour, erin called it seizure inducing, i liked it but did have to look away after a bit!

the following day found us in versailles!! louies 14's palace was a lovely diversion,..... thank goodness there was someplace to check my lipstick!




we really liked biking to marie antoinette's hamlet! it was SO adorable, her own little disneyland of peasant life!

next day we hopped on the metro to visit the eiffel tower, arc de triomphe and champs elyse'es

awesome music on the metro!

we realised we would be going home soon and that meant back to reality, back to school! and you know what that means!!! back to school shopping and back to school haircuts!

but for those not dictated by the confines of everyday obligations ... a nice book in one of hemingway's favorite cafe's ....






and so it was we spent our last days in paris walking through the parks,

enjoying our neighborhood, a night out....

and then back to the airport, and then another airport... and finally, home!

the end