Our first stop of the morning was the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. It's massive. It's impossible to take a photo of the whole facade because it's so enormous.
Eiffel Tower was next. There was a 2 hr wait to walk up the stairs! Can't imagine so many crazy people who are willing to stand in line to climb 300 stairs. This kid isn't one of them.
Can u see me in the picture - Lower left corner with my arms in the air. Talk about a speck! The Tower weighs 70,000 tons & takes 60,000 gals of paint. It's so much larger than one can imagine. I took pictures from all angles as we drove around the city.
From the Eiffel Tower, we drove down the Champs Élysées by the Arch de Trumphe. Unfortunately, there is no place for tour buses anywhere near so I got photos only in passing.
I wish I'd taken a tour extension in Paris. 48 hours isn't long enough. Guess I'll just have to make a trip back:)
After lunch, I opted to take the tour of the Palace of Versailles. Enroute we went through the tunnel where Princess Di was killed. That was a sad moment for me. I could visualize the accident as shown on the news.
The Palace is unlike anything I've seen. Talk about opulence! There was 18 karat gold everywhere! The art was amazing, the size of the rooms were enormous, frescos on the ceilings were gorgeous & then there were the majestic chandeliers.
Of course, there's all the famous artwork & the portraits of Louis 14th, 15th & 16th who all ruled from this palace. Did u know they all 3 had wives named Mary?
There were a total of 800 rooms in the palace covering 2000 acres. Of course, we only were able to see 10-12 rooms. The gardens were beautiful also.
The end of this tour was timed perfectly with the change in the weather as the skies opened up as we boarded the bus. It took forever to return to our hotel because of the traffic jams. Unbelievable!
