I saw the Mona Lisa and stood under the Eiffle Tower and I could tell you about the 100 museums that I saw, but don't worry, I won't tell you about all of them. I ate a lot of chocolate croissants:
I got a new nickname that I made up-- it is Cece. If you come down to paris good luck, but I'll let you know what I did on each day:
Sunday:
I went to Musee D'Orsay. It is a museum in paris it was once a train station that closed up because the trains got too long, so they wouldn't fit in the smaller station. It was also the first train station in the center of Paris. The Musee d'Orsay had impressionist art, such as Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, and Picasso. Did you know that Picasso and Monet were friends?
We also went to the Cluny Museum. This is Paris's Medieval museum and it was located in an old medieval "hotel" which means mansion in French. It was built over the Roman Baths, which we walked through, and it had the Unicorn and the Lady tapestry. The Cluny Museum was located close to our hotel and the Sorbonne, which is the most famous university in France, and some singers from the Sorbonne were there and gave a medieval choral performance. Some of the singers were in their late 20s.
Also near our hotel was the Luxembourg Garden. It was the prettiest garden that I ever saw. We saw a Marionnette Show, which was in French, so I didn't understand it. It was for little kids. We had to pay to go into a playground, which was cool because it had a zip line.
Monday:
On Monday, we went on a bike tour of Paris with a guide and some other people. We biked to the middle of Paris, we had lunch, and crossed the Seine river a few times. We saw the mansion that Victor Hugo, who wrote "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" lived in. We also saw a monument that honored the people who helped the Jews in World War II, when Hitler had control of France and was sending all the Jews to die in concentration camps.
In the afternoon, we went to the Sainte Chappelle church on the Ile de la City (the island in the middle of Paris, surrounded by the Seine River). It had amazing stained glass and was very peaceful.
Tuesday:
We rode a train to Versailles on Tuesday. Versailles was a huge, amazing palace located outside of Paris that was built by King Louis XIV. He was known as the Sun King. His bedroom was at the center of the palace, with a great view of all of his gardens. His room had a balcony on the East side of the palace, so he rose every morning with the sun. We saw the hall of mirrors. After we saw the palace, we walked around the center of the city of Versailles for a long time looking for something to eat, and ended up eating at a Lebanese restaurant.
After we left Versailles, we took the train back to Paris and went to the Eiffel Tower. We stood underneath the tower. It was really cold and rainy that day, so we didn't go up the tower. We then walked over to Napoleon's Tomb. Even though he was a small person, he had a huge tomb. You wouldn't believe the size of it!
Then we walked around the corner to the Rodin museum, which was in a beautiful mansion. He was the sculptor who created "The Thinker" and "The Kiss." I liked that museum because his sculptures were so unique.
From there, we walked to the Bon Marche department store, which was one of the oldest stores in Paris. We went to their food hall (which is a huge room filled with a lot of different foods) and got dinner. We walked over to the Montparnesse Tower, which our bike tour guide told us, is called by Parisians the "box the Eiffel Tower came in." We rode on an elevator to the top, and looked at the city of Paris. It was fantastico!
Wednesday:
We went to the Louvre museum on Wednesday. It would take three days if you looked at every piece of art in the museum for three seconds--it was huge! We saw the Mona Lisa.
They had a huge wall, with a huge frame, and in the middle of that frame was a smaller one, in the middle of that frame was an even smaller one, with the Mona Lisa inside.
We quickly walked over to the Notre Dame, went inside, and then went over to the Marais district, which is one of my mom's favorite areas. For lunch we had crepes at the Creperie Beaubourg:
We went to a Magician's museum and went to a Magic show. We went to the Carnavalet Mansion, which is the museum that talks about the history of Paris. It was mostly about the French Revolution when the people killed the King. At night, we went to the Pompidou Center, which is the modern art museum. There were a lot of Picassos there. I thought we could draw some of the paintings there. Here I am working on a copy of a masterpiece:
Thursday:
On Thursday, we changed our hotels. We went from the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank, to a hotel near the Opera Garnier on the Right Bank.
We started off our morning on the Left Bank and went to the Pantheon. The Pantheon's facade was modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, so that is how it got its name. Here is Foucault's Pendulum inside the center of the Pantheon's dome:
We went downstairs and saw the graves of famous French citizens, like Victor Hugo and Marie Curie and her husband.
We then walked to the Rue Mouffetard, which is a famous outdoor market.
We bought lunch at the outdoor stalls and ate it at a park. We got in trouble in a shop because we were eating in it, and the shop keeper told us that in France, children never eat in stores, and never eat standing up. He was pretty mad at us.
Then we walked back to our hotel, got our things, and went across the Seine River and to our other hotel. We rode a subway down to the Louvre, and went to the Tuillieres Garden, then to the L'Orangerie Musee (it was built on a former orange grove near the King's palace) so that we could see the large Monet murals of his garden. I bought a book about Claude Monet, he had a huge garden outside of Paris and loved painting outdoors. I liked this museum a lot.
Here is Eliza in front of Monet's Waterlilies painting:
Here I am in front of some Degas paintings:
We walked down the Champs Elysee and went to the Arc De Triompe. We went shopping a little bit on our way down the street. When we got to the Arc De Triompe, we climbed to the top. Eliza's shoe fell down the middle of the large stairwell, but someone picked it up and brought it to us. The views from the top were wonderful.
It was built in memory of the soldiers that fought in war by Napoleon. The day we came, they were doing a march with retired soldiers. Friday:
Eliza and I had been begging to go to Disneyland Paris. Our main excuse to see it is that Disneyland is the #1 Tourist Attraction in Europe, and we didn't want to miss out. We went to Disneyland on Friday, and it was made up of two separate parks. The normal Disneyland, and right next to it was Hollywood Disneyland. First, we went to Hollywood Disneyland. You remember the Slingy dog in Toy Story 1, 2, and 3? Anyway, they made Slingy into a roller coaster that just went round and round. Kinda like a baby roller coaster. It was FUN! We also went on the toy army soldiers ride, also based on the characters from Toy Story. It was a metal parachute ride; it would take us up, then drop us down like we were using a real parachute. It did that who knows how many times. I thought my shoes were going to fall off my feet. The command soldier voice kept telling the riders what to do.
After that we went to the Haunted House. You think it is a roller coaster the whole ride but it is not. Everything goes slowly and you never feel sick. The Haunted House is all about noticing and watching the ghosts, witches, and skeletons in a spooky old house. No one could forget the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the "Its a Small World" ride.
Those rides are Disneyland Classics--I know the "Its a Small World" song by heart. The last ride we went on was Autotopia. I got to drive my own car! It was so cool.
Good luck in Disneyland Paris.
Saturday:
Opera Garnier
Shopping
Montemarte
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