The walk to the top of the arch can be challenging but the view and resulting pictures are always worth it. The arch is not too high so the sites below seem human in scale.
Here's Francimar atop the arch. Unfortunately, she had to leave soon after to catch the train back to Amsterdam. Hopefully she will come back soon and stay a long time with that guy of hers.
For those of you who haven't been there, the Arch is hollow and has several floors made into war museums of a sort. On some floors are copies of some of the statuary on the Arch's exterior, including this one. See if you can tell which is the statue and which is merely statuesque:
We told you we'd end with Picasso
Next we took the crowded #1 subway (the first line in Paris now celebrating its 100 birthday) to the Marais, a trendy Parisian neighborhood where once the royal court met. Once of our first stops was the Picasso Museum where I took this picture of a bike seat meant to be a bull:
And this more typ-a-bull.
Had enough bull? We'll move on then. After the museum we wandered the neighborhood, seeing the Place Vosges, a beautiful square surrounded by arcades where the court met. Then the rain drove us to the metro and home
Unfortunately Dick had to go to work most of the rest of the time so the digital pictures dried up. Maybe Suzie and Stephanie will scan some of their snapshots for us. Tom and Bev seemed to get the hang of Paris, wandering around and finding their way back. (We won't talk about taking those cabs, a true sign, like cocaine use, that you have too much money). We'd typically join up at night for cocktails and a (usually) French restaurant.
Monday night was Valentine's day so we dropped the girls off at a restaurant with some younger folks Dick works with while Tom and Bev joined Pietrina and Dick at the restaurant where they spent their first Valentine's night in Paris a year before. (Time goes by fast). Afterwards we snapped this picture of Bev in front of what Tom claimed was a sculpture of a clock..
Tom claimed to be impressed with Parisian clocks, most of them old and all of them working.
The girls took to Paris well and soon left us old folks behind as they explored the place.
It was a crowded apartment for a week but we enjoyed the visit and hope they'll come back often during our Paris years.
