Three Week to Europe: Part 3 (Paris)

We arrived in Paris, France on July 11th, and we had an incredible view of the Eiffel Tower as we drove into the city. Here's the view we had from our car:

We checked into our hotel, ate dinner, and then Mom, Bob, and Amy walked a short distance to see the Sacred Heart cathedral:

The next day, we went to Versailles, the famous palace in Paris. Louis XIV moved there in 1682 and the royalties lived there for a long time after that, though now it's just a museum for tourists. The outside is decorated with a lot of gold, and it's huge and beautiful. Here are Josh, Mom, Bob, and Dad standing outside of Versailles:

The palace was packed with tourists, but we were able to visit many of the rooms inside it. The ceilings and walls are very ornately decorated. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of how beautiful the inside was:

 And here we are in front of the gardens at Versailles:

At Versailles, there is also a smaller palace built for the queen. Here we are standing in front of that:

On our drive back to the hotel, we passed right by the Arc de Triomphe:

That afternoon, we visited the Eiffel Tower. First, we stopped at a place with a great view of the tower. We bought nutella crepes there for lunch and just admired the beautiful structure. Here are the kids standing in front of the tower:

We then stood in a line for three hours, waiting to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, it rained during those three hours and Josh didn't have a jacket, so he was pretty cold. Luckily, we were not without entertainment; there was a guy working for tips, and he walked around imitating people and doing other funny stuff. When we finally made it through the enormous line, we first rode an elevator to the 2nd stop, then took a different elevator to the very top level, which was enclosed with glass. Even at just the 2nd stop, it was extremely windy and cold, so we were happy to be warm. The views from the tower were amazing!

We waited a while to get an elevator back to the 2nd level, where we finally ate dinner (at about 10 pm). We got hot chocolate because we were miserably cold. We returned to the bottom of the tower, where we got a taxi and went back to the hotel. Here is the view of the illuminated tower from the bottom (sorry the picture's a little fuzzy):

The next day, we went to the Louvre Museum. Here it is from the outside, with the pyramid entrance:

 Here is the famous Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci (people were packed together twenty feet deep to get a look at this painting):

 Here's another painting we all really liked called The Coronation of Napoleon, which is 32 feet wide and 20 feet tall:

 Here is Josh next to an ancient Egyptian sphinx:

We spent almost 6 hours in that museum and it was a really cool experience. At the Louvre, they even have the 4000 year old Code of Hammurabi, the first written code of law. It was a fascinating museum. The Louvre building used to be a palace, so it is stunning all by itself. Our feet hurt a lot after 6 hours of walking, but we took the metro to the Notre Dame cathedral and took a tour. Here we are in front of the cathedral:

 After that tour, we were thoroughly exhausted, so we did some quick souvenir shopping and gelato eating, then returned to the hotel. Overall, our trip to Europe was absolutely amazing!! We loved it and we saw some incredible places. :)