Seine cruise and Père Lachaise Cemetery

A bit of rain hit today when I was walking along but luckily it stopped after a about 20 minutes I stood under some trees saw a woman who had been dressed up to make money posing with her little daughter waiting for the rain to end and go back to posing to make some money. I took a photo of Cricket with her and put some money in her cup.

Today was off to the cemetery where Oscar Wilde was buried I was surprised to see so many kisses on the grave actual lipstick or hearts drawn a woman was having her photo taken as she kissed it too bad tho as the grave is messed by this, all the lipstick. I met a woman from London and wound up walking all over with her she found many graves. It was a great cemetery and I could not cover much of it but I did see a fair amount. I also saw Chopin grave there were quite a lot of flowers there and women were posing by the grave and Jim Morrison his grave was blocked off. 

I did so much in Paris I walked so much and I will need to look at my photos when I get home to see what I did. I also enjoyed my chocolate crepes. They best ones are in Montmartre, I know I will come back to Paris some day.

Chopin grave

Oscar Wilde Grave

Jim Morrison grave

Tea please getting to Know Paris

Lovely Metro Entrance

Tea? The breki at the hotel was really good cereals croissants cheese,breads and a machine for coffee. Ah yes but its in French. Problem I saw tea bags and wanted tea but try and figure out which wording on the machine was water. I picked the one that had nothing written on it as I have seen that in places before. NOPE it was coffee it was very thick and with milk of course the problem being I had already put the tea bag in it. YUK so I ditched it and had some cocoa, well when I over later saw the woman who puts out food and picked up a bag and said tea and  she said tea reached in a cupboard took a bag out and walked away. I thought she was gone to get water for the tea but she never came back. The next morn I tried again but this time didn't have a tea bag in and again got some strange coffee and so I added cocoa to it. The last day the coffee machine was broken and the desk manager said he would be making a pot of coffee. Some woman asked for tea and he came back with a pot of water and poured it on my tea bag but the water was lukewarm so guess ya just don't get tea in France. Thanks goodness the cocoa was awesome.

Friday I set off in search of a garden I had read about but ended up in the middle of no where I asked some woman I met walking and she didn't know so she asked someone walking her dog and she went on in French and the lady was translating. I have to say here that everyone I tried to get information from was helpful, my French was non existent and I would walk up to people and say English and many would reply with De Little using their fingers to indicate little. One man when I was trying to get the train to Versailles even tho he knew so English he made enough motion and spun around the station that I understood that he meant to cross over to the other side, that I was just in the wrong area. I used Merci (madame/monsieur) whenever I could even if someone understood English I thanked them in their language and that always seemed to bring a smile.

I gave up as it still was another 3 miles away. I hopped the Metro and decided to get some culture and visit the Rodin Museum. It was really interesting full of sculptures. It was a beautiful place to be on a sunny day (one of many I might add) in Paris. I then went to The Jardin du Luxembourg and spent some time sitting on a chair and taking in the atmosphere. I found myself again walking along the Seine and then found a Seine River cruise boat and I looked to see that there was one leaving at 8 pm and it was 3 mins too so I ran and grabbed a ticket and hopped on it was a wonderful trip got to see so many of the bridges up close and passed the Louvre and Eiffel Tower and so many things the guide was really good it was a wonderful way to see Paris. Cricket on the River Seine cruise she insisted on me taking her photo on the boat and this woman was going oh little kitty de kitty do you want your photo with her. The woman thought de kitty was sweet and she said when you took her picture so did I.

Thinking

I then walked back to near the Louvre and it was getting late and I took some photos of the Eiffel Tower in the distance as it was starting to light up and walked back towards Notre Dame that's where the "fun" began as I suddenly saw it from the opposite side of where it belonged and I was trying to figure out how it moved when I remembered it was on an island and that I was approaching if from a different side. I stood and watched and watched performers and singers by Notre Dame bridge across the Seine and it was so good and so many people out dancing  I can see why young people love Paris so...I love it too.
I hated to go in but it was getting late and I was about ready to drop from exhaustion.

Climbing to the Gargoyles of Notre Dame

 

I arrived Notre Dame at 10 am and there were already over 100 people in front of me. It was over an hour wait before I got in the door. You had one climb and that was to the gift store after that it was quite another climb. It was getting hard on me all the steps, small, going circular and really starting to get to me, and I left some people pass me. Again higher up and I was going to let some more pass me as it was hard to go fast but the woman behind me said take your time, I think she expected me to collapse when I did make it to the top she congratulated me. There were 400 steps in all and that was the 2nd highest level at that point I didn't realize there was another climb. I went absolutely nuts taking photos! I stayed in the area longer than I should have but it was just amazing and I could not stop looking and taking photos of the Gargoyles.  See the small sampling of photos I took.

on a bridge

I took a 4 hour free walking tour of Paris it was really good and it is free you just tip the guide what you think it was worth. The guide was excellent learned a lot of things about Paris and covered a lot of ground gave me a chance to see 

things I would have otherwise missed. Walked along the Seine and head stories about the various bridges. After that I walked along the Seine for quite awhile and after that I walked around the Latin Quarter.

Versailles full glory

Haven't updated because the keyboards in Paris are different... letter Q where A should be and all sorts of things I have no idea what they are.

Versailles was unreal the gardens were wonderful I saw baby swans (cygnet) out with their parents they were so cute I sat awhile and enjoyed them. The would take turns getting on mom's back. the statues all over and the fountains











The Hall of Mirrors at the Palace was unreal I heard it was an incredible room ("The principal feature of this famous hall is the seventeen mirror-clad arches that reflect the seventeen arcaded windows that overlook the gardens") but it was all too much I was in awe. I have never seen anything like it.

There were chandeliers all over the place and everything was gold gold did I say gold I took a million photos because I kept using different settings as I was never sure if they turn out they look ok on the camera. I walked and walked as I have done this whole trip.

Another place that was pretty was Marie Antoinette Hamlet it was really far back I had missed it and thought it was near the front of the grounds so I had to walk all the way back.It was well worth the hike I plan to return someday as I still missed some areas.