The next day we were up early again so that we could go on a walking tour with Patrick, our tour guide, through the Marais District. He brought his little dog, Daisy, with him. Paris was still crowded from the day before, but near the Marais it seemed a little less so. We walked through the entire area, and Patrick told us many stories of the place - which I wish I could remember. My favorite part of the walk was taking pictures of all the intricate building designs and statues that grace the area, this one being one of my favorites (his stance entertains me):
As usual, Lindsay and I took many pictures of the architecture and buildings around us, just to remember it all and take it all in over and over again in the photo albums. Unfortunately, I don't have TOO many pictures from this day, as I think we used the black and white roll, which never got scanned into the computer (a project for another day - there's an amazing picture of two little girls by a fountain that Lindsay took, but that's a story - and a PROJECT! - for another day...)!
So that this story of our tour isn't so brief, here are some of my favorite shots from our walk:
We ended our tour relatively close to Notre Dame, which Lindsay and I hadn't visited yet. Strangely enough, in my search through the photos, I didn't find ANY from Notre Dame - they must be in the black and white roll too! In any case, we did not go up because the crowds were insane, but enjoyed looking at it before finding a small park right next to it and watching the little French children play games before continuing on our walk.
We had yet to visit the museums, so we decided it was a good time to. The only logical place to start was the Louvre.... Bad Idea! The Louvre REALLY deserves an entire day, but we were giving it about two hours and then heading to the Musee D'Orsay (which I actually prefer because I like Impressionist paintings). However, we had time to check out the Egyptian wing for Lindsay and, of course, see the Mona Lisa, just to say that we did!
Though the sign said no pictures, I did manage to get a shot of it (seriously, I don't think they enforce this rule very well as EVERYONE was taking pictures of it). It was interesting to see but, admittedly, it's much smaller than you might imagine.
After our brief time in the Louvre, we headed to the Orsay, which was finally open (they had been on strike for the first couple of days). We spent more time there, looking at all the pictures, Lindsay taking close up shots of details she really liked in the photos.
I don't think I need to say that a walk through the Marais district, a trip to Notre Dame and visits to not one, but TWO, famous Paris museums, made for an EXTREMELY exhausting day, and we trekked back to the hotel and, after more bread and cheese (and Nutella) fell asleep early (as the next day would be another early wake up - for a trip to Versailles!).
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