Sunday afternoon we were off for a long walk through the Palais Royale, the Louvre, etc. A first stop was at the gold statue of Joan of Arc where our street terminates at the edge of the Louvre. We typically do this so folks can find their way home from the Louvre and by extension, from anywhere in Paris. (Breadcrumbs don't last long in Paris with all those pigeons). A few yards away, we snapped these two Parisians:
What a difference 30 years makes
That's the Tuileries garden behind them. We then Tuileried are way down past the winter-dead fountains and leafless trees to the Place de la Concorde created for Louis XV and sight of the beheading of his grandson Louis XVI thirty years later.
Soon the gang tired of Dick's pontificating and jumped through the traffic to walk down the Champs Elysees. We walked then from the bottom of the map below to the top.
Here's a picture from the bottom circle of Stephanie and Suzie looking back to the Place de la Concorde where you can just make out the Ferris wheel, the only remnant of our Year 2000 New Years celebration visible during the day. (Quiz: what remnant is visible at night???? Answer at the bottom of the page).
And looking in the opposite direction to the west end of the most beautiful avenue in the world towards the arch:
Smelling the French
Next was the routine stop into the perfume store the size of a Kmart (now why didn't they open that across from FM's office? Answer: because Ford Road is not the most beautiful Avenue In the World! Bet you didn't know that!) Soon we had finished the mile walk down the avenue and were climbing up the hundreds of stairs to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Please join us atop by clicking here:
Quiz answer:
Every night, the Eiffel tower still sparkles with its millennium lights for 5 minutes or so on the hour from nightfall to 1AM in the morning.
Where do you want to go today? Here's a few choices
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