Travis and Alazda's European Adventure: Paris

We woke up early on day 21 and headed towards Paris, our last new city of our trip. We arrived in the afternoon and set off to figure out the Metro system and grab a snack before checking into our hotel. Our first stop was to visit a staple of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. We were able to get some great views in between rain showers and enjoyed dinner nearby as night fell. Even with a cloudy night we were able to watch the Eiffel Tower "sparkling" light show that happens every hour after dark.

The next morning, we visited a nearby Pastisserie (Pastry/Bakery) to buy fresh crossants and pain du chocolats for breakfast. With coffees and pastries in hand, we boarded a train headed towards the Palace of Versailles. Versailles was home to French Royality until the time of the French Revolution when they were beheaded ending the monarchy, it is now is open for the public to explore.

The queue line for the palace was quite long when we arrived so we started with a tour of the gardens. The impressive gardens form a labyrinth of well groomed passageways and fountains. Following our map we snaked around the property and were able to discover two smaller palaces as well as a small town called "the hamlet" built for Marie Antoinette to use when she wanted to pretend she was a peasant.

We explored the gardens and other buildings for hours before venturing back to the palace. Once back at the palace we were able to explore many of the rooms including the famous Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending World War I. After a long day of exploring, we got back on the train towards Paris in order to see the Louvre.

The Louvre is the world's largest museum containing some of the most famous works of all time. We toured the Denon wing which housed famous collections from Greek, Roman, Italian and French artists. There were many sculptures, statues and paintings to take in, but a few highlights included the Madonna of the Rocks, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and of course, the Mona Lisa. The Louvre is huge and one could spend a few days appreciating the 30,000+ works of art, however, we felt as though we got a good appreciation as our audio guide Rick Steves helped us tour the most well known pieces and highlights.

From the Louvre, we found a terrific Paris restaurant to enjoy a nice dinner. We had some wine, french cuisine as well as an evening coffee and desert. We were most impressed with our friendly french waiter who helped us make some delicious selections. It was a long day and getting pretty late, but we were close and thought we should visit the Eiffel Tower one more time. We were thankful to again enjoy some stunning views of this famous tower as the weather was much clearer capping off a remarkable day in the city.

- Travis and Alazda