paris, in france

we stayed in paris for a little over a week in an apartment near the montmartre district in the 18th arrondissement.
for several of the cities on our trip we found our accommodations on a website that allows people to offer anything from a single room in their apartment to their entire six bedroom home up for rent to travelers.  most of the places we stayed were just a private room in the home of a local person in the city but because we planned so much time in paris we decided to rent an entire apartment for about $70 usd per day.

view from the window of our apartment

we were able to walk from our apartment to the basilique du sacre-cour

there were two of these guys juggling soccer balls to music blasting out of a boom box but this guy took his shirt off while keeping the ball moving and then climbed the light post.

this handsome devil is victor hugo

this is victor's house where he lived for 16 years from 1832-1848 located in the place des vosges

this is a security guard hard at work protecting the historic maison de victor hugo

even in the off season notre dam cathedral is pretty packed

this is the notre dam gift shop located conveniently inside the actual sanctuary a few feet away from the pews.  there is even a listening station to check out a gregorian chant cd before purchase.  it felt a little like disney world but at least they haven't started charging admission yet.

we took a river cruise along the seine.  though there are 37 bridges across the seine, we only went under around 10 or 12.

lovers line the banks of the river around sunset every day

standing room only at the top of the eiffel tower

you can even buy champagne for 10 euro a glass

pretty nice view though

we decided to take the stairs on the way down

view from the second level of the tower

night falling on the arc

we went to pere-lachaise cemetery to visit some of france's illustrious dead

this place was like a city, with roads and alleys to navigate all the old family plots and graves

small crowd of people at jim morrison's grave

the grave of edith piaf

oscar wilde's giant grave monument was totally covered in kisses

apparently you can put what ever name you want on your tombstone

found a bangin' falafel place in the marais district.  best falafel we had all trip.

the more modern side of paris

we took a day trip to versailles to see the palace built by louis XIV

the hall of mirrors

chillin

versailles is enormous

if you look close you can see a few fish under the bridge on the way to marie-antoinette's personal hamlet