C'est un beau jour

Saturday we woke up to a beautiful day which was nice after all the rain we had the day before.

We gathered our stuff for the day and headed out. Our first stop was a small fruit market across from the hotel. There were three of these on our block alone. In addition to fruit, they had all sorts of groceries inside. The thing I found interesting was they didn't open until 9ish in the morning but they stayed open well past midnight.

Our first destination for the day was the Pantheon. No, not the one in Rome. Paris has its own pantheon.

It is a building in the Latin Quarter of Paris, France. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, but after many changes now combines liturgical functions with its role as a famous burial place. Our admission also included access to the crypts. Among those buried here are Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Louis Braille, and Marie Curie. The architecture inside was incredible and the crypts were very interesting to explore. This is Victor Hugo's crypt.

On the way out we stopped in the gift shop and saw this book. Le Petit Prince (just for you Kelly).

We had lunch at a cafe (where we ordered tap water!) I have to say Paris has some of the best pizza I have eaten.

We were spending the afternoon in Giverny, the home of Claude Monet. In case you haven't figured it out yet I am a big fan of Monet. This was a planned tour booked through Cityrama tour company. We checked in, met the bus and off we went. It was about 1.5 hours to Giverny. We were given history and information on the way (in both English and Spanish).

When we arrived, the first part was a guided tour of the gardens where Monet painted. They were breathtaking. I could picture him painting water lilies all day. We then meandered to the planned gardens which were just a beautiful. Access to his house was also included. Monet didn't move Giverny until his mid forties with his second wife and their 8 children.

After the bus ride back, we did some souvenir shopping. In this area which was near the Louvre there were numerous shops.

We ended up having dinner at McDonald's again just because it was close and it was easy. Remember it was in the shopping mall/food court by the Louvre. The weird thing was the food court looked like it was closing for the night. It was only 7:30 on Saturday night. But we were able to get a meal before they closed.

We went back to the hotel for a bit and then headed out about 10:30 to view the Eiffel Tower at night. They do an hourly light show from 10pm until 2am on the hour. The Trocadero was crowded and filled with people trying to sell cheap souvenirs. Note the full moon to the left of the tower. Amazing!

Tomorrow is our last full day in Paris. Where will our adventures take us? We still have alot to fit in!