Day 11 –Paris

9/21/2006 – Day 11 –Paris

We wake up to a beautiful day in Paris.  Now on the bus and driving along the Seine River, we can see the Notre Dame Cathedral.  I had to get a picture now, just in case we do not have a chance later, like I’m on the wrong side of the bus.

The Arc de Triomphe sits in a traffic circle at the convergence of 12 streets.  The Arc was commissioned by Napoleon on 1806.  It was his intent to honor the great French army in some way; a force that he deemed invincible considered they had conquered most of Europe.  We get dropped off on one of the corners of Avenue des Champs Elysees and walk over the Arc for a picture.

On the Arc there are four main sculpture groups.  This one is called Le Triomphe de 1810, which celebrates the Treaty of Schönbrunn between France and Prussia of 1805.  The relief features Napoleon, crowned by the goddess of Victory.

Next, we make our way to the Eiffel Tower for our assigned time to take the elevator up the Tower.  Constructed from 1887 to 1889 as the entrance to the 1889 World's Fair it is 1,063 feet tall, about the height of an 81-storey building.  The only way to get the full picture from this close is to look up.

There are three levels for visitors, but we will take the elevator and head up to the second level.

Now at the second landing we have a fantastic view of the city of Paris.  Immediately in front of us is the Trocadéro Gardens, a public park created in 1937.  The two buildings at the end of the park are museums; Musee de l’Homme and Musee national de la Marine de Paris. 

Walking around the platform, we can literally see forever.  In the middle of this view we can clearly make out the Arc de Triomphe we just recently visited.  The domed building on the lower left side houses a huge Asian arts collection.

To our left the Pont de Grenelle bridge crosses the Seine river and situated in a prominent position is a replica of the Status of Liberty.  Standing 38 feet over the River Seine Island the statue was unveiled in 1889.  We are looking at the statues back.

We are looking at all of the sights and I happen to look down at the river to see this tourist boat being stopped by the Police.  They have a large boat in front, blocking the tourist boat and two Rigid Inflatable Boats riding around after dropping police onto the boat.  You can just see the police on the top observation level apparently arresting someone.  Exciting!

We are back on the bus driving around Paris.  We see this fountain, Fontaine des Mars and in the background on the right side you can see part of the Luxor Obelisk.  The Obelisk is an ancient Egyptian granite obelisk originally from Luxor. 

As part of this tour, Carmen and I have an option to go to Notre Dame or Versailles, and selected to go to Versailles.  This was the principal royal residence of France from 1682 under King Louis XIV until the French Revolution in 1789.  This large open space is the Royal Courtyard and the domed building on the far right is the Royal Chapel.

A closer view of the Royal Chapel; check out the architecture and Statues. 

Inside the Royal Chapel, we can see the massive space from the Royal Gallery.  Check out the organ pipes along the back wall.

Inside the front entrance, we have this double staircase leading us up to the interior.

We go inside and even though we are not supposed to take pictures, I click a few frames from the waist.  Here is one corner of a room.  

In another room, check out the painting and relief in this ceilings corner.  Not sure if this is real gold gilding or paint, but whichever the case it is impressive.

Check out the chandelier in this room.  The gilded relief all along the ceiling is very decadent. 

This is the central ceiling panel in the Salon of Mars.  The Salon of Mars was used by the royal guards until 1782, and was decorated on a military theme with helmets and trophies. 

The centerpiece of the Salon of War is this enormous relief created in 1715 of King Louis XIV, on horseback, crossing the Rhine in 1672.  The War Salon commemorates the victorious campaign of Louis XIV against the Dutch, which ended in 1678.

At last, we come to the Hall of Mirrors.  The construction of the room began in 1678 and finished in 1684.  The gallery is more than 230 ft long, and lined with 17 wide arcaded mirrors, designed to match and reflect the windows opposite facing the garden.

Now outside we are facing the huge Orangerie Gardens.  We are up on a terrace looking down, but can imagine walking along the garden walkways.

There are many statues around the gardens and fountains.  Many like this reclining woman seem to hold the similar reclining sort of pose. 

Other statues depict animals, like this dog and stag.  As you can see from the fountainhead in the stag’s mouth, some are fountain fixtures.

This statue of Hercules shared a garden spot with many other standing statues.  Notice the lion skin from the legends.

The Latona Fountain, created in 1670, illustrates the story of Latona.  According to the story, when the peasants of Lycia insulted Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, the god Jupiter transformed the peasants into frogs.  The Grand Canal can be seen in the background. 

We have finished our tour around the gardens, truly not enough time, and are back up by the building getting ready to head back to the front.  There are these huge pots and to get a true perspective of their size Carmen is in front of the one of them. 

While we are waiting for the rest of our group to arrive, I get a picture of the Marble Court and facades of the first Chateau.  Notice the statues around the clock face. 

Back on the bus, we drive back to Paris and get another great view of the Eiffel Tower.  Not sure if or when we’ll see it again.

But wait, we have more, tonight and tonight only we are going to the Moulin Rouge.  The Moulin Rouge is a risqué world-famous cabaret soaking up an atmosphere filled with can-can dancers, fabulous costumes and music in Paris.  This Parisian institution features 60 dancers and entertainers with over 1,000 costumes to create a dazzling spectacle.  We enjoyed dinner and Champagne during this unforgettable show at the original Parisian Cabaret!   

Tomorrow morning we head to the train station for the train ride to London. 

Day 10 – To Paris

 9/20/2006 – Day 10 – To Paris

Leaving Lucerne, we are on our way to Paris.  Carmen and I are relaxing during this 5-hour drive section of the trip.  We crossed the border into France and travel past vineyards and villages along the way.  Many looking like this village. 

Hey, look!  We could have gone to Disneyland.  As we get close to Paris, we pass road directions to Disneyland-Paris.  It is about 27 miles west of Paris.   

We arrive in Paris and after checking into our hotel, we drive to tonight’s restaurant.  As we drive around Paris, Carmen and I get some pictures, not sure what we will see tomorrow.  Here we are several streets away from the Eiffel Tower.  Tomorrow we have a tour of the Eiffel Tower where we get to go up to the second level walkway.

We are able to get a decent picture of the Academie Nationale de Musique or the National Music Academy; later renamed simply the Paris Opera.  What a magnificent building.  The Palais Garnier or Opéra Garnier, was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III.

We are at dinner, and there are six at our table.  Notice I am having the escargot for my appetizer.  I will say they were great!  We also have plenty of wine for those at the table drinking wine. 

After dinner we travel around Paris in the dark.  Many of the landmarks are brightly lit and I must say impressive.  Here we see the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel a triumphal arch in Paris, located in the Place du Carrousel.  It is an example of Neoclassical architecture in the Corinthian order.  It was built between 1806 and 1808 to commemorate Napoleon's military victories of the previous year. 

Across from the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is the Louvre with its distinctive pyramid.  It is interesting, although not the reason for Paris having "The City of Light", there are around 300 illuminated sites around Paris.

We continue to drive around Paris at night seeing all of the sites lit up, and eventually end up on Avenue d’Lena facing the Arc de Triomphe. 

Before getting back to the hotel, we pass by a good viewing area for the Eiffel Tower.  While we were there watching, the white twinkling lights begin to flash, very neat.  Tomorrow we have entrance tickets to the Eiffel Tower.  Entry time is early to avoid the crowds.

Day 9 – Lucerne and Mt Pilatus

9/19/2006 – Day 9 – Lucerne and Mt Pilatus

On 10 August 1792, French revolutionaries stormed the Paris residence of King Louis XVI and defended by over 1000 Swiss Guard, leading to the virtual annihilation of the Guard.  The Lion Monument, a powerful rock relief memorial, pays homage to the selfless heroes of the Swiss Guard.  Designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn.  This morning, we view the mournful, mortally wounded lion hewn into the rock to commemorate those Swiss Guards

After viewing the Lucerne Lion, we depart Lucerne and after a short drive to Kriens.  There we climbed aboard a panoramic gondola for the journey to Fräkmüntegg to board the aerial Dragon Ride cable car up to the mountaintop.  While we are flying over the houses in the city you can see how cloudy it is.  

Ascending beyond the city, we fly over the trees, still a little cloudy and it doesn’t look like it will clear up.

Here are a couple of houses on the side of the mountain.  As we pass, we are not that much more elevated than the houses.  Check out the little log cabin.

Wow!  We are about to cross this chasm.  Carmen will not look down, but we are very high.  The cable bows so much that it almost appears that we will get smashed into the side of the cliff.

At the top, we go through the building with the restaurant and start along one of the trails.  Local legend says dragons once lived along this trail on Mount Pilatus lined with rocks & crevices.  Part of the trail we are on is through a tunnel drilled into the rock.  Windows drilled through the walls provides views of the surrounding mountains.  Carmen is next to one of those windows.  Unfortunately, we are in the clouds and cannot see anything.

Fortunately, for us they have already done the hard work and all we need to do is follow the path along the railing.  Remember do not lean to far over, it is a long way down. 

We are getting ready to descend the mountain on the world's steepest cogwheel railway.  Before we go, I get one more picture of Carmen in the clouds.  The skies never did clear up so our views were very limited.  Ah well, that is the chance you take.  We did get hats, like the one Carmen is wearing.

On the cog train we now have a fleeting glimpse of what we might have seen from the mountaintop. 

As the train moves down the mountain, other trains are making their way up the mountain.  Since we are on the descent, our train must make room for the ascending trains.  The timing of the trains limited our wait time while we are on the side rails.  It is difficult to tell from the pictures, but we are at a 46% grade, which is very steep. 

Just having passed through a tunnel in the mountain, we can see the second car making its way out of the tunnel.  I can tell that we are nearing the bottom of our trip, the grade angle is now around 35%.

We are back in Lucerne and begin walking around town.  This is a tree-lined pedestrian walkway along the lake.  Our travels should take us to the Reuss River and the pedestrian bridges.

During our stroll, we make it to Kapellbrücke or Chapel Bridge, the Landmark 1300s wooden bridge with grand stone water tower & a roof decorated with 17th-century art.  The flower-lined footbridge spans the river Reuss diagonally in the city of Lucerne.  The bridge has painting hanging bellow its roof; they are triangular and depict events from the history and Legends of Lucerne. 

In 1993 a fire broke out, probably from a cigarette, and destroyed two thirds of paintings.  Of the original 158, 47 were not destroyed by fire and only 30 were successfully restored.  These are some of those triangle paintings.

Looking across the river we have a great view of this section of the buildings on the river front.

After crossing the footbridge, we find ourselves near the Jesuit Church of Lucerne. 

We entered the church and because there were other people in the church we take a couple of pictures as quietly as we can.

This is Museggmauer, the iconic old city wall with one of the 9 towers, some open to the public offering views from the top.

Traveling around, we eventually come to The Church of St. Leodegar, a Roman Catholic. It was built in parts from 1633 to 1639 on the foundation of the Roman basilica, which had burnt in 1633.  This church was one of the few built north of the Alps during the Thirty Years War and one of the largest art history rich churches of the German late renaissance period. 

Looking from the back of the church to the front alter area.  Notice it appears to be behind ornate iron gates. 

Check out this dais in another section of the church.  Look at all the gilding, the statues, and the paintings.  Magnificent. 

We are heading back to the hotel and come across this boat garage.  I wonder if they have automatic garage door openers? 

Others in our tour group have gone to a “Folk Dinner”.  We decided not to go and instead make it to one of the neighboring restaurants.  Carmen ordered the beef tips flambé and I ordered the chicken.  Carmen had about twelve beef tips, flaming with the cognac sauce.  Had we known we both could have eaten it.  My chicken was a whole chicken, served in two half-chicken sittings.  Way too much food.  We could have split either of the meals.  After dinner, on the way back to the hotel, The night is mostly clear and we have a view of Mt. Pilatus.  

Tomorrow we leave Lucerne and start our journey to Paris.