Paris: City run, Louvre, Musee Rodin, Hotel des Invalides

We started our third day in Paris with an early-morning run down to Notre Dame while Juliet slept in. 





The point from which all distances in France are measured. 



Running back through the Tuilieries tunnel! 

Running along the Seine 




And across the courtyard in the Louvre 







Then we went back to the Louvre with Juliet! 



This time we made sure to look for Hammurabi's Code! 

Juliet humored me and sang the song. 

Then we went to the Rodin museum. We went inside first and it was SO hot, so getting gelato in the garden was heavenly! 

My very very very favorite--The Cathedral. 

I love Rodin's work. 

Can't remember where we ate lunch & I'm not going to look it up on my spreadsheet. 



Then we went to visit the army museum and Napleon's tomb. 




The crypt is pretty darn impressive. 

If I recall correctly, Neil was Facetiming Nathan at this point. 



Enigma machine! The collection of WWI and WWII memorabilia is really impressive. 




Then we had dinner at L'Ardoise. 









Jules ordered foie gras and took a giant bite *not* on toast which kind of ruined it for her...



And the mousse lived up to the hype! 

 

Paris day 2

Neil woke me up on our first morning in Paris to tell me that a tornado had gone through our town the previous night--oh my gosh, I was in total shock and so worried. Thankfully everything was fine, but it was really scary. 

We stopped at a boulangerie to grab some breakfast before we headed towards our reservations at the Orangerie. 

Then we headed towards Benoit for our lunch reservation. I had read great things about it (only Parisian bistro with a Michelin star) and we really enjoyed the experience and the food. 

Juliet decided to jump into Parisian cuisine with both feet--here she is eating duck hearts. 

And then we went to the Conciergerie and Sainte-Chappelle, which was just as beautiful as I remembered. 

This time the balcony doors in the upper chapel were open, so we were able to go outside and see all the exquisite carvings around the door depicting Biblical scenes. 

There was a Vivaldi concert being held in the chapel that evening and we looked at getting tickets, but they overlapped with our existing tickets to the Catacombs. 

After leaving Sainte-Chappelle, we walked through the Luxembourg Gardens. Paris in the spring--incredible. 

The carving above the door translates to "Stop! This is the empire of the Dead." 

Lots and lots and lots of bones. 




Some of the passages were pretty damp, and Neil had to crouch in a lot of them. 



First time I've ever seen a sign with instructions to not touch the skulls. 

And then we went back towards the Champs-Elysees to climb the Arc du Troimphe and watched the sunset over the city. 








It was an incredible Parisian day!