Today, we left Tours to head for Paris, making a stop in Chartres on our way. We got to see the famous Chartres cathedral before their mass started at 11am. We stayed to explore the little town until noon, got an early lunch and got back on the road. Arriving at our hotel in the western outskirts of Paris, we dropped our suitcases off and then headed for the big city. We got to see a few of the big sights like the Arc de Triomphe and the Moulin Rouge on the way to Montmartre and the Sacré-Cœur basilica. After hiking up a monstrous set of stairs, we toured the church and had some free time do some official Paris souvenir shopping. Maybe because it was a Sunday, maybe because today's Fête de Musique but it seemed like every tourist in the city was up there shopping with us today; it was a madhouse!
So after Montmartre, we had our first métro experience on our way to dinner. Pretty cool. After dinner, we had a bus tour, went to a lookout point on top of Paris's only skyscraper within city limits, Tour Montparnasse, from which we finally got a good look at that famous Eiffel Tower.
Then after that, we took a boat ride on the Seine River, where we got an even better view of the Iron Lady.
C'est impressionant, n'est-ce pas?
After the boat, we hopped back on the bus to continue to see all the city lit up, including one special stop at Trocadéro to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 11pm (first 5 minutes of every hour after dark). So cool!! (I posted a video of this in an earlier post when I was here with students in 2013 so look back in my earlier posts if you want to see it.)
Now we're exhausted and we've got another full day of sightseeing in Paris tomorrow. Bonne nuit.
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