Monday, November 14, 2016 (Hotel Peyris Opera, Paris, France)

We were up and rarin' to go this morning...look out Paris, here we come! With directions to where to catch the 'Hop On-Hop Off' bus about 20 minutes away, we headed off.

We found the stop to find that the bus wouldn't be there for about a half hour or so...so we thought we'd try walking to another stop. Looking on the map at the stop...it looked pretty straight forward where to go. Not! The streets in Paris go every which way and at different angles, so it's really hard to tell where you are. And not having consistent Wi-Fi, Google Maps app wasn't working great. I had downloaded an "off-line" map...but it wouldn't work...user error, I imagine. Anyway, we got very confused as to where we were...and where we were trying to be, so we just made our way back to the original bus stop we had been at. By this time there were a few others waiting waiting too. We all watched in confusion as several buses passed us by. Eventually we figured out that the buses had a small rectangular coloured sign on the windshield indicating their route, either green, yellow, orange or blue. We now realized that we needed to watch for the yellow bus. Eventually our bus came...we boarded, purchased a 3-day pass for both the bus and boat ($50 euros each), were given audio ear buds...and up to the open-air top deck we went. Being November, the weather really wasn't conducive to sitting up there but we managed to sit at the very front where we were protected somewhat from the wind...besides, the view was great! We could only imagine what it's like on a sunny spring/summer day.

With the four different bus routes that you can take to see all of Paris...we'll need every bit of our 3 days plus there's the Seine River boat tour!

And the tour begins! Our bus stop was the second to last stop on the yellow line, so we stayed on it and did the full loop...going past where we got on, to the final stop, where we then got off and changed to the green line.

Opera Garnier (or Palais Garnier)...a 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was called the Salle des Capucines, because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier, in recognition of its opulence and its architect, Charles Garnier. 
The theatre is also often referred to as the Opéra Garnier (French and historically was known as the Opéra de Paris or simply the Opéra, as it was the primary home of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when the Opéra Bastille opened at the Place de la Bastille. The Paris Opera now mainly uses the Palais Garnier for ballet.

Le Grand Hotel...

Ste-Marie Madeleine (La Madeleine, Paris)...is a Roman Catholic church occupying a commanding position in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The Madeleine Church was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army.

The traffic in Paris is crazy. Pedestrians trying to cross and a bicyclist and car too impatient to wait for the intersection to clear! And like in Rwanda there are usually scooters and motorcycles darting around moving through the traffic.

Gare du Nord Train Station...is one of the six large terminus stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. Gare du Nord offers connections with several urban transport lines, including Paris Métro, RER and buses. By the number of travelers, at around 190 million per year, it is the busiest railway station in Europe, the 24th busiest in the world and the busiest outside Japan.

Gare de l'Est Train Station...is one of the six large SNCF terminals in Paris, not far from the Gare du Nord. It is one of the largest and the oldest railway stations in Paris.

Moulin Rouge Paris....

Haven't seen one of these for a couple of weeks...

Printemps is a French department store. The Printemps stores focus on beauty, lifestyle, fashion, accessories, and men's wear.

Entrance to The Louvre...the world's largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the right bank of the Seine. Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres (782,910 square feet).
The Louvre is the world's second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China, receiving more than 9.26 million visitors in 2014.

We drove through that archway with only inches to spare...

We will exit through those arches in the distance...

Now looking left...

Looking ahead...

Looking right...

Looking back to where we entered...

Leaving The Louvre...

The Seine River...

That's the Louvre where we exited earlier...

Assemblee Nationale...

Place de la Concorde...

Views above and below as we round the fountain...

The Big Wheel at Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris..,
The Big Wheel is part of the Christmas village on the Champs-Elysées. Each year, it welcomes 300,000 passengers who come to admire the spectacular views of the city from this vantage point. Perched at a height of 70 metres (this is the world’s largest mobile Ferris wheel), you can enjoy a breath-taking view of the Tuileries Gardens, the Louvre and the Christmas lights on the Champs-Elysées. A symbol of the festive season in Paris, the Big Wheel has been set up every year in this spot by Marcel Campion, known as ‘the king of fairground entertainers’, since the year 2000.

Champs-Elysées...a huge Christmas Market lines both sides of the street for blocks...

Dark Ride 3 Levels "THRILLER" Zombies On All Levels...How Christmas'y is that!

We'll have to "hop off" the bus and check this out sometime...

Bundled up the best we can...still enjoying it though! And one advantage to this time of year...there aren't a lot of tourists and crowds.

Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées...

Arc de Triomphe...

Had no idea there were arches on the sides...

We picked up a few passengers...

Musee de l' Homme  (Museum of Man) is an anthropology museum established in 1937...

Eiffel Tower...we'll check that out further another day....

We're now on the opposite side of the square that is known as Place du Trocadero et du 11 Novembre It consists of The National Navy Museum left with the Museum of Man centre and the Cite de l' Architecture et du Patrimoine right,  a museum of architecture and sculpture that is just out of frame but a duplicate to the building on the left...

Newer area of Paris in the distance......

Eglise du Dome: With its sparkling golden dome (1677–1735), the landmark church of the Hôtel des Invalides is one of the finest religious edifices erected under Louis XIV and was the inspiration for the United States' Capitol building. It received the remains of Napoléon in 1840; the extravagant Tombeau de Napoléon 1er comprises six coffins fitting into one another like a Russian doll.

Army Museum...Note the green canons...

Petit Palais houses the Museum of Fine Arts...

Different view of a Printemps Department store...

There was so much to see with all the beautiful old architecture it was mind boggling...hopefully we captioned all of the pictures correctly! 

After a full day of freezing our butts off, we made our way back to our hotel...and relaxed before heading out for a drink. On our way back, we had passed a bar (L'Echevin) that advertised a happy hour...it wasn't far from our hotel, so that is where we headed. We were still chilled to the bone at this point!

After a couple of beer...we were off to dinner at a Thai restaurant just down the street...Thai Richer.
We both had Pad Thai and it was excellent. "Cheers!" to an awesome day!