Paris Sight-seeing -Tuesday, April 1st, 2014

There are many historical sites to see in Paris. Luckily for us, we were allowed an entire day to tour Paris by foot and by bus with a French tour guide. Below are some of the sights we were able to view during our short visit to Paris.

Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris: "Our Lady of Paris"

Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris

This majestic Cathedral is 430 feet long (130m) and 228 feet high (69m). I've always wanted to visit this Cathedral, mainly because of it's beauty and architecture. The famous Cathedral known throughout the world was built in the 13th century. The cathedral is a fine example of French Gothic Architecture and one of the largest church buildings in the world. The cathedral treasury houses some of Catholicism's most important relics including the Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross and one of the Holy Nails.

The Baptistry & Nativity

Door entrance to Notre-Dame Cathedral

The Altar

Statue of Virgin Mary and Child

Arc de Triomphe Monumental Building:

The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the center of the Charles de Gaulle, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.

The arch was commissioned by Napoleon as a tribute to the French Army. He promised to his monument to his men so that when they went home they would be going home beneath the Triumphal arches.

This huge arch is 164 feet high, 148 feet long and 72 feet wide and is the starting point for all victory celebrations and parades.

Musee du Louvre Museum:

The Louvre Museum is one of the world's largest museums and a historical monument. The museum has a collection of over 1 million works of art, of which about 35,000 are on display, spread out over three wings of the former palace. Some of the most famous works of art in the museum are the Venus of Milo, the Nike of Samothrake, the Dying Slave by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we were not able to visit the inside of this museum during our trip. We will have to save this attraction for our next visit to Paris.

La Conciergerie:

This was a former royal palace and prison in Paris, France. It is part of the larger complex known as the Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes.

The Eiffel Tower:

The Eiffel Tower was originally built to impress visitors to the 1889 Universal Exhibition. This now has become the symbol of Paris. The tower is painted every seven years with 65 tons of paint and has a light show in the evenings. The height including the antenna is 1,063 feet tall (324 m). It costs 9 Euros to take the elevator up and 5 Euros to walk up the stairs.

If you're in a hurry, you may want to walk up the stairs as the line is much shorter. For those of us who took the elevator, it took an hour and 20 minutes in the evening to wait in line. We ended up using the stairs to get down quickly so we could meet our group on time to head back to the hotel before the subway closed.

The Paris Love Lock Bridges:

There are supposedly two bridges in Paris that house love locks. Pont des Arts is for your committed love, while Pont de l'Archevêché is for your lover. It is said that a couple writes their names on a padlock and locks it onto one of the bridges. They then throw the key into the Seine River as a symbol of their undying love.

On our Paris bus tour, I saw one of the bridges and took the picture below. This is the Pont des Arts bridge.

Jardin Du Luxembourg (Park):

During our tour of the Luxembourg Quarter with our French Tour Guide, we stopped at the Jardin Du Luxembourg Park. This park is among one of the largest public parks in the city. The garden contains just over a hundred statues, monuments, and fountains, scattered throughout the grounds. Surrounding the central green space are about twenty figures of historical French queens and female saints commissioned by Louis-Phillippe in 1848, standing on pedestals, including statues of Jeanne III of Navarre, Blanche of Castile, Anne of Austria, Louise of Savoy, and Ann of France. One of three of the models of the Statue of Liberty is also in this park.

In 1611, Marie de Medicis, the widow of Henry IV decided to build a palance in imitation of the Pitti Palace in her native Florence. She purchased the Hotel du Luxembourg and began construction of the new palace. The layout of the gardens are centered around the palace and are dominated by a large octagonal pool. The park includes an open-air cafe, a puppet theater, a large children's play area, numerous tennis courts, a bandstand ad a bee-keeping school. Some of these sights I was able to view during my walk through the park.

The original model of the Statue of Liberty

Be keeping school for honey

L'Hotel National des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids):

Founded by Louis XIV, this was built as a training facility for the military and a hospital and retirement home for France's war veterans and disabled soldiers. Today the facade is one of the most impressive sights in Paris. It now houses a few museums, including the French Army Museum and also serves as a burial site for some of the country's war heroes including Napoleon Bonaparte.