Montmartre, museums, and gardens

WEDNSDAY, JULY 25, 2012

We began our day in Montmartre, an area in the northern part of Paris characterized by a large hill topped with the Sacre Coeur Basilica.

Waiting in line to go in the basilica

We were able to go inside but there was a service going on so we were not able to take pictures.  Here's a photo of the inside that I took off Wikipedia.  

Zack and Dave climbed the stairs to the top of the dome for some fabulous views of Paris.  I was going to go too, but at the last minute, I had a little panic attack about leaving my baby so I decided to stay down with her and Beth. I'm still in the paranoid momma phase here folks.

See the Eiffel Tower?

That tall building in the distance is the Montparnasse Tower

Montmarte is also characterized by night clubs, sex shops, etc.  We did take the time to walk over to the Moulin Rouge, but we weren't surprised that the walk there was not so scenic as some of the other parts of Paris.

After Montmartre, we took the subway to the Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris.  It has this awesome Egyptian obelisk from Luxor in the middle.  The square is also on the Champs Elysees.  If you look closely, you can see the Arc de Triomphe off the the right of the obelisk in the picture below.

Next we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie.  It's a small-ish collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works.  One of the most exciting things there is Monet's 8 giant water lilies murals.  Photography was not allowed in the Orangerie, so here's another picture I took off wikipedia.

It was really quite a fun collection.  We were glad we made the time to go there.  From there, we took a leisurely stroll across the Tuileries Gardens.

Taking a little break in the shade in the gardens

Ferris wheel and Louvre in the background

Family photo

This arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, is on the opposite end of the Tuileries than the Orangerie.  It is right across from the Louvre.  Pretty awesome.

A classic ShaNae photography moment. I am fabulous at accidentally cutting off people's faces in pictures

The Louvre is open late on Wednesday evenings, so we took the opportunity to see some more there.  Believe it or not, we walked through almost the entirety of the museum between our first day in Paris and these few more hours there.  We only skipped a few sections of paintings.  We don't really understand paintings that much, and we are much more into sculptures and antiquities.  Of course we didn't stop to admire every single object or piece of art, but we really felt like we got through the Louvre quite well with the time we had.

I was totally into breast feeding sculptures and art, but as a new momma, I also really loved Mary and Jesus stuff too

A tiring day

Grandma taking a turn holding the baby

I gotta get me one of these

One really cool section of the museum was the Napoleon III apartments... so gaudy, but so beautiful.

Grandpa holding the baby at dinner