Paris - part 8

Well, I'm just about Parised out. I'm not tired of the city, just of writing about it. And after the last post's video extravaganza...well, nothing can compete with that. This last posting involves pictures from the end of the final day in which we had free time to do whatever we wanted in the cold rain.


Another picture of the Seine. This one was taken from the Pont Neuf looking east towards the Pont au Change. On the right (on the Ile de la Cite) is the Conciergerie, which is part of the whole Palace of Justice complex that also has Sainte-Chapelle. The Conciergerie was a medieval palace and a prison. It was used to house prisoners on their way to the guillotines during the French Revolution and was finally decommissioned as a prison in 1914. It's now an historical monument and part of it is open to the public. We did not go in.


This one was taken from the Pont Neuf looking west towards the Pont des Arts. The dome on the left is the Institut de France, which is a learned society that houses five academies. These include the French Academy and the Academies of the Humanities, Sciences, Fine Arts, and Painting and Sculpture. We didn't go there either.


We made our way in the rain towards the Eiffel Tower. Here Sarah shows off a rare European Starbucks coffee. She had gone without for about a year. She had to settle for much better coffee in Italy. But one cannot dismiss the convenience of the massive cup that you can take with you. But I will. I dismiss it.


The fast-moving clouds kept obscuring the top of the tower but every time I tried to take a picture the clouds would pass. This was the best obscured by clouds picture that I got. Obscured by Clouds is also a fantastic album by Pink Floyd. Unrelated. Sorry.


Even more of the Seine. These two pictures are farther west nearer to the tower. As a devoted follower of the television series of The Highlander, I always wanted to live in a barge on the Seine. And fight with swords while displaying an amazing ponytail.


Oh, I miss it already. We'll have to see if Sarah can get fellowships in Paris and London.


Sarah wanted to send a picture to her mom in which she danced in front of the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, designed by Gustave Eiffel, is the tallest structure in Paris (1,063 feet tall), and is the most visited paid monument in the world (6,719,200 people in 2006). And it's made out of Legos.


The building in the foreground is the Ecole Militaire. It houses various military teaching facilities and was built by Louis XV in 1750. In the background is the Tour Montparnasse, the second tallest structure in Paris (until renovations on the Tour AXA are completed). Two years after the tower was built in 1972, a law was put in place to ban the building of skyscrapers in the city center.


Sarah lets the folks back home know that it was a little chilly in Paris.


Our last main destination was the Arc de Triomphe. The arch honors those who fought for France, beginning in with the Napoleonic Wars. The names of generals and battles are on the inside and top of the arch. There is also a tomb of an unknown soldier from WWI. Napoleon marched triumphantly under a wooden mock-up of it before it was finished. There are 12 avenues that radiate out of the Place de l'Etoile in which it sits.


The Arc de Triomphe sits at the western end of the Champs-Elysees (one of the 12). And here is a rainy view of that famous avenue.


And that is all from freezing, rainy Paris.