Day 15

Our day starts at 8:30, with a tour of the city sights.
It is another perfect sightseeing day , with slight cloud cover and 25 c.
We view from the bus the Arc de Triomphe, Opera house and museum, Madeliene cathedral, the Louvre, National chambers, Royal Chapel-where Napoleon is buried, the Concorde, Star square, and finishing with a tour of the Notre Dame. Greg spent some time looking for the hunch back of Notre Dame, but was only able to find some scary looking gargoyles .
The Louvre was formally a fortress and is now the largest museum in the world,
Displaying the Mona Lisa and the sculpture of Venus de Milo ( known as the lady with no arms!).
The Notre Dame is a beautiful cathedral built in 1163 and completed in 1350.
As we entered there was beautiful choir music playing which really set the mood for viewing the cathedral. The magnificent rose stained glass windows in the nth and sth annexes are originals from the 13 th century. They are made up of tiny mosaic glass pieces unlike the the stain glass windows beneath which are only hand painted.



The cathedral is made up of the stories of the old testament and life of Christ, either depicted in paintings, stained glass windows or magnificent wooden engravings on the wall. The only people who could read in those days were the bishops, so stories were told by pictures.

Our tour concluded at lunch time, and an optional tour of Versailles was offered but Greg and I decided to have a few hours off.

We checked out the Louvre and then walked to the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs Elysees.( a long way by Gregs standards). We had coffee and watched the parisians walk by and enjoyed taking photos of the tourist sights that we had only viewed from the bus.



At 3:30, we meet up with the group again for a tour of Montmatre, the heart of bohemian Paris, cabaret and the red light district. We viewed the Sacre-Coeur church, which needed a good guerni scrub. However, it was a magnificent view from the top, with lots of market stalls, artists displaying their wares and portrait artists.





Greg and Leanne

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Location:Paris