Less Famous Glimpses of Paris

We certainly filled our days in Paris with the most famous of sites.  There really are just so many famous places there that, in four days, it's hard to move on to anything else.  

But, in contrast to the more classic Madeline views, we thought we would try and provide some views of Paris that are not so ultimately familiar.

Looking up the Eiffel Tower from the 2nd deck.

These two in the subway chairs.  Ben loved them to the point of we wouldn't sit in them for just a couple minutes, because he was apt to cry when leaving them.

This is from in front of Sacre Coeur.  We had been told that there were a bunch of street performers there, and there were.  This guy was the best.  He was juggling a soccer ball on the concrete platform below.  Very impressive by itself.  Then he started spinning the ball on a little pen, stuck it in his mouth, climbed the lamp post, and swung from the light, with the spinning soccer ball outstretched with a great view of Paris at dusk behind him.  Click on it to enlarge.

If you asked the kids for the highlights, they would probably mention quacking at the ducks here.

Or maybe playing in the nearby playground in Luxembourg Gardens.

 This is looking out of Musee d'Orsay at the Louvre, on the opposite side of the Seine.

 The immensity of the Louvre was staggering despite expecting it to be huge.  This was looking out a window of one wing, looking at the other wing.

Notre Dame Cathedral turns 850 years old next year.  I think my favorite part of the exterior is the endless statues.  Here, above the doorway, there are just rows and rows of statues.  Do we know who they all are? Is it lost to history somewhere?

On a few of the bridges across the Seine, people take a lock, bind it to the bridge, and toss the key into the river, generally as a sign of undying love for someone.  This was the most lock-encrusted.

In this case, the rainbow came right before the rain.  The Hotel de Ville, under the rainbow on the left, was 2 minutes walk from our place.

Thanks to Nicholas Cage and National Treasure 2, I knew that there was more than one Statue of Liberty. We saw 3 in Paris alone.  I think this one didn't really count, because it was a model, but I think it's been here in Luxembourg Garden since the early 1800s.

From inside the Louvre pyramid.

I guess this is pretty famous, but Saint Chapelle's stain glass really was breathtaking.

Given the soft spot in my heart for buskers, I thought it was great when 3 accordions and a sax boarded our train for Versailles and started playing.


Uttz Family said...

Love seeing different views. The locks are interesting and heartfelt too. The kiddos smiles together are priceless!