Paris continued...

On this trip to Paris we did some of the same things as last time, but also a few different things. One of those things done differently was that we rode a big Ferris Wheel that was set up on the Place de la Concorde. (This is where the famous Guillotine was set up in France. Such well-known people such as Marie Antionette, Madame Elizabeth, Charlotte Corday, Robespierre and Danton were guillotined here. In fact during the Reign of Terror in France - summer of 1794 - in the space of one month 1300 people were executed.) I'm not sure why the Ferris Wheel was set up, but it was fun and provided a unique aerial view of the city. Plus I couldn't figure out how to get the tokens to ride the one in Lucerne so I had to get on this one, right? We rode it during the day but it was lit up beautifully at night.

Another new thing for us on this trip was that we opted to take a boat ride on the Seine. We started out at dusk, by the Eiffel Tower, and went east on the river to most of the main sights and then returned. It took about an hour and I really enjoyed the experience. One thing we learned was that during the summer for about 6 weeks, the city of Paris blocks off the the banks of a section of the river and turn it into a beach. They import ridiculous amounts sand and palm trees to complete the transformation. I don't recall when exactly they do this but I imagine it would be quite a spectacular sight to see. You can read about it here. Here is the boat we rode...

While on the boat ride we also learned that somewhere within the Palais Royale there is an exhibit of the French Military. So rather than going to the Musee d'Orsay (for shame, I know, I know) one morning, Mr X and I headed to see the French Military exhibit. Once again, being illiterate bit us and we ended up enjoying a special exhibit of the French painter Gustave Courbet's life and art pieces. The paintings were all originals and the exhibit was extensive and quite interesting but it certainly was not what we had set out to do that morning. However, it was a pleasure nonetheless. (And some of the paintings displayed were actually on loan from the Musee d'Orsay anyway)

We decided to check out the Red Light District (mostly for the Moulin Rouge) during the bright light of day. Last time we were here we walked through that area around early evening and it was pretty dodgy. So this go around we thought that it might be a bit closer to PG13 rated during the day. For the most part we were right, though we did see a sloppily drunken man gleefully groping a "he-she" plaything he apparently managed to hook-up with at some point the night before.

We also saw a movie one evening while in Paris. I know you might be thinking that it seems a bit of a mundane and wasteful thing to do on our trip but I can assure you, it was such a lovely treat. First off, our feet were aching like mad and it was rather cold and windy outside so we wanted to be sitting and indoors. We passed several theaters during our adventures all day long and we found one that was playing movies in "version originale" rather than "version francais" so we opted for watching the American Gangster movie. It was fun and there were only a dozen or so other people watching with us, which is a nice change from going to the theaters in the US.

Here are the rest of the sites we saw during the trip. (Aside from the ones mentioned yesterday as well)

The absolutely beautiful Sacré-Cœur.

My personal favorite sight of the city, the Arc de Triomphe. (The picture of me with Mr X is from the top of the Arc)

And, of course, the Eiffel Tower.

We left Paris on Monday, early in the afternoon and when we got back we discovered that we had just missed the grand lighting ceremony of the lights on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. We were a little disappointed about that because we had specifically walked that street at night hoping to see the trees all lit up (they were all set up already, of course, so we assumed they would just light them at night- oh well). But in the end it was a good thing because some major rioting began that night as well in parts of Paris, so I'm glad we were gone.