Paris Day 1...Wow!

After some crazy traffic through the heart of Paris (thanks GPS...Italy driving is tame by comparison), we arrived to our 6th floor 300 ft squared apartment.  You read correctly...really small but it worked.  Church was great, a lot of French, a good bit of English and very kind people.  I admit my French was rusty, but it was fun trying to communicate.  We visited a lovely church on a hill Sunday afternoon with a beautiful view of Paris.  Then we started the gauntlet on Monday.  Itinerary? The Louvre, Napoleon's tomb, and the Eiffel Tower.  Why not start with a bang?

Napoleon's coronation was quite impressive and just plain huge!
This was probably 25 feet x 35 feet I'd guess.

Here the kids were fighting over...oh! Just kidding.
Note the clarity of this renaissance masterpiece.

The Net poses just as this French military officer does...well sort of.

Joan of Arc was lovely in this work.  FYI, the Louvre's signs are all in French.
So enjoy the art, learn French and enjoy some more.

We were pretty sure this marble sculpture
was trying to get better cell reception.

We saw tons of small statues of this ancient Asian figure.

The Lamasu, a protective deity, was popular in
Sargon II's time.

Pianogirl really enjoyed the Egyptian sections of the museum

Of course, Venus de Milo was a must see even if she could use a shirt.

Napoleon's tomb was really huge!  9 layers of coffin!
The boys really liked the small, historical figures seen here. 

Napoleon's tomb also housed a huge military museum.  Very cool.
I really liked the light this window cast.

Here is most of the crew waiting to get on the elevator
to go up the Eiffel Tower.

Songbird really did like the view...the heights were staggering.

Here on the highest level, Deep Thinker pauses for a picture.
The wind was incredibly cold and strong.

We were lucky to get to the top at dusk.
It was super neat to see Paris light up.

The tower lights up at night every hour on the hour...
again our timing was great and unintentional.

Just across the bridge from the Eiffel tower was a great Creperie.
These hot, tasty treats were probably the best ones we ate in Paris.