Paris 4

Like so many Parisian tourists, we opted for a cruise on the Seine River. It really helps you see a lot of iconic buildings and structures of Paris in a short time from the water. Again, timed tickets, but at least this makes sense. We bought our tickets and then walked to find some lunch. I should say B bought the tickets. There was a film crew filming something below the Pont Neuf (Pont means bridge) near the cruise dock. There were fairly rude people stopping people from crossing the bridge on one side. They were forcing people to the other side of the bridge for reasons that remained unclear. At one point they wouldn't let anyone cross the bridge on either side. They must have been filming from below the bridge so we couldn't figure out why they kept stopping people. After we got hollered at multiple times as we repeatedly had to cross the bridge, we elected B to force his way to the dock to buy the tickets. With the purchase complete, it was time for lunch.

We found a cute sidewalk restaurant and explained we had cruise tickets and were in a hurry (not a normal thing in Paris) but our waiter was extremely nice about it and very efficient. We had plenty of time to eat and relax. It turned out we'd found a restaurant in La Place Dauphine.

Here's where we ate. The food was excellent.

We had no idea we were in such a famous spot until we saw tour groups walking down the street. This square was named in honor of the Dauphin, the future King Louis XIII. It also turns out that Simone Signoret and Yves Montand lived at #15, one of the buildings on the right. I'm sure other famous folks lived here, too. 

We did a 1-hr cruise with Vedettes du Pont Neuf on one of those double decker boats. We sat up on top for better views. It was a little chilly and a little cloudy that day but it was still enjoyable. 

One corner of the exterior of the massive Louvre Museum.

Pont Alexandre III
Nicknamed “the most beautiful bridge in the world.” The bridge was built between 1896 and 1900 and was named for Tsar Alexander III, the Russian ruler during whose reign the Franco-Russian Alliance was ratified. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style, and its ornate decorations, especially the Art Nouveau lamps and the huge gilded statues that preside over each side of the bridge, are still a marvel today. The bridge was inaugurated in 1900 in time for the World's Fair.

Notre Dame from the water.

Another time we visited Musée D'Orsay. We had timed tickets for this place, too.  The problem was there were some queue lines, but the crowds were so large the queue lines couldn't hold all of the people. In addition, there were no signs to let folks know what line to get into so no one knew where to go. It resulted in chaos. At one point people in front of us were actually crossing into a line that appeared to be for special needs because it appeared to be moving faster. Some of those folks got sent back to our line, others got away with it. Another issue the Museum has is the bottleneck created by the security screening. Clearly more work needs to be done with the whole system. There were not a lot of happy people outside the Museum.

Musee D'Orsay holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. The first thing you see is the sculpture gallery. There were galleries of paintings on both sides of this hall. The place has several levels, too.

We didn't actually take many photos here except this one out the window around a giant clock We enjoyed the art though.

We spent quite a bit of time just enjoying the sunshine and people watching at this lovely spot.

On our last day in Paris we discovered a market opposite our hotel. All of the signage for the market had dates beginning the following day but it was open a day early for some reason. We had to take a look. If only we hadn't been getting on a plane the next morning....

We did buy a couple of scarves!

Chocolates! Yum!