Friday, November 12, 2010

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





2 comments:

  1. I've read on http://jim-morrison-fanclub.blogspot.com/ the secrets of Jim's Death and i've seen the movie of his last day.
    Was Jim killed?
    It's strange ....very strange...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oooooooooh I am so JEALOUS! Your pictures are amazing!

    ReplyDelete