What a summer so far! We've had my aunts and parents come and go with K's parents staying for another week to explore France. We started in Paris (for a few days), moving onto Versailles, then driving through the countryside to the north towards the end of the week. Our first stop in Paris was Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame Cathedral (they're in close proximity to each other). Both of these buildings are among my favorites we've seen so far.
Sainte-Chapelle was built between 1242 and 1248 for Louis IX and the stained glass here surrounding everyone is breathtaking. Each panel is based on a different book of the Bible. One is based on Esther, which I just completed with a group of women studying from Beth Moore this spring. I absolutely loved the study, and this chapel just as much! I just wish I could have had binoculars to see more of the story line told in the glass since each panel was so small. I couldn't pick out hardly any of the storyline from the glass pictures. Maybe it's just my bad memory of the story from growing older?
The 700 year old Notre Dame Cathedral is just plain beautiful. 
K wanted pictures of the flying buttresses.
Are we in New York? No, sillies, this is the matching miniature Statue of Liberty here in Paris.
Right outside our hotel, K snapped this nighttime picture of the Eiffel Tower.
Sauntering to the next stop, the Orsay Museum, housing nineteenth-century Impressionist art of Claude Money, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, and more, K and I decided this was more enjoyable than the Louvre. Orsay Museum utilizes the space better than the Louvre, which takes a mile to get from one must see display (Mona Lisa) to another (Venus de Milo) and yet another mile to The Dying Slave by Michelangelo.
The picture above is by Monet and you'll actually see photos of the real place, Etratat, later.
Another photo of Monet's work. Just down the street from the Louvre is the Orangerie Museum housing Monet's water lilies.
Inside the Louvre, we found the Winged Victory of Samothrace of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory).
It actually is a hunt to find the Mona Lisa. There are signs up all over until you actually come to the room, then there aren't any signs that she's around, but we still found her. She's not quite as impressive as I was hoping, and you can't get a good picture because she's enclosed in glass.
Hint to Parents: You know you've been to too many museums when your daughter starts running and giggling, making her skirt fly up from the air conditioners, turning her into a ballerina.
Call me a creature of habit, but I just had to have the Greek salad at the Cafe di Roma for lunch until our wait for the much anticipated Tour de France cyclists to ride by. Supposedly the Arc de Triomphe was to be near the end of the race. We withstood the July heat after seeing some cool cars down the Champs-Elysees during our wait, not really knowing for sure where to stand for the best view.
Conflicted about staying to see this once-in-a-lifetime experience after all, we hung in there and stood in the crowd for about 1 1/2 hours for only 15 seconds of glancing the guys speed by. Does that even make sense as something normal people would do or are we crazy tourists? 
Surprised by his offer once again to sneak a 2 second view, we ended up getting some cool shots. It also helped that I have a 6'7" tall husband who can hold the camera way above his head for a few good photos. Every once in a while the results are angled way off into the clouds or the tops of people's heads, but this time between the two of us, we did pretty well!
Making the turn has to be Alberto Contador from Spain, the winner. K rattles off random facts every once in a while to keep me half way interested in sports, and he claims that the last day of The Tour, they stay in the exact formation they were the previous day as a gentleman's agreement. So, the third guy in the turquoise should have been Lance Armstrong then.
Inside the Louvre, we found the Winged Victory of Samothrace of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory).
It actually is a hunt to find the Mona Lisa. There are signs up all over until you actually come to the room, then there aren't any signs that she's around, but we still found her. She's not quite as impressive as I was hoping, and you can't get a good picture because she's enclosed in glass.
Hint to Parents: You know you've been to too many museums when your daughter starts running and giggling, making her skirt fly up from the air conditioners, turning her into a ballerina. We're at the Louvre, for crying out loud, arguably the most famous museum in the world, and this is what she's doing? What about art appreciation?
I guess there's only so much art a 5 year old can take before they become giddy.
Call me a creature of habit, but I just had to have the Greek salad at the Cafe di Roma for lunch until our wait for the much anticipated Tour de France cyclists to ride by. Supposedly the Arc de Triomphe was to be near the end of the race. We withstood the July heat after seeing some cool cars down the Champs-Elysees during our wait, not really knowing for sure where to stand for the best view.
Conflicted about staying to see this once-in-a-lifetime experience after all, we hung in there and stood in the crowd for about 1 1/2 hours for only 15 seconds of glancing the guys speed by. Does that even make sense as something normal people would do or are we crazy tourists? The seasoned Parisian next to me had a stepladder which he so sweetly loaned to me so I could get some quick snapshots. I only took this favor for a few seconds, not to tick him off. After his kind gesture I realized I only saw the cars carrying bicycles and the cyclists were way down the road. I do have a long range camera lens, but not long enough.
Surprised by his offer once again to sneak a 2 second view, we ended up getting some cool shots. It also helped that I have a 6'7" tall husband who can hold the camera way above his head for a few good photos. Every once in a while the results are angled way off into the clouds or the tops of people's heads, but this time between the two of us, we did pretty well!
Making the turn has to be Alberto Contador from Spain, the winner. K rattles off random facts every once in a while to keep me half way interested in sports, and he claims that the last day of The Tour, they stay in the exact formation they were the previous day as a gentleman's agreement. So, the third guy in the turquoise should have been Lance Armstrong then. 
Look at all these bikes on the cars!!! I wonder how many they go through in one Tour de France race? Or tires even?
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