Badger

Mar 14, 20193 min read

Paris 1 - City and Louvre

After collecting our bags at CDG, we got an Uber and headed to Hotel Pont Royal in the St Germain area next to the 7th. The hotel has lots of history, yet was renovated to keep the original charm.

Next to the lobby is the bar which looked classy, but we never had a drink during our stay.

We had a deluxe room thanks to our Amex upgrade which for Paris provided a decent sized room.

Certainly not luxurious, but totally fine and especially for the price we paid.

The outside of the hotel and luckily right within/next door is L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon which we went to later on in our visit.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best for the first couple of days, and especially on the first day we battled intermittent sprinkles as we walked around.

Still amazing views along the Seine.

The Musee d'Orsay, which sadly we didn't end up having time to check out on this visit.

Past the General Assembly.

The Grand Palais museum with the giant glass roof.

Looking across the river.

The sun came out for a bit which provided great views down the Seine.

And we made our way to check-out the Eiffel Tower.

After that we stopped to have lunch at a bistro we found while walking around. Check out the Paris Food and Restaurants post with more descriptions.

Then we crossed the bridge to walk down the other side of the Seine.

Providing great views of the Eiffel tower.

And we walked up to the Arc de Triumph.

And down the Champs-Elysee to check out the shops.

We stopped at the Renault store, sadly no F1 cars on display, but their vision of race cars of the future.

We stopped to have a snack at a Pierre Herme location, you can check that out in the Paris food post.

Then further down towards the Louvre.

Looking back towards the Eiffel Tower.

Into the Louvre gardens.

And closer.

Arc to arc.

And the Louvre pyramid.

Behind the Louvre, the federal government buildings.

Heading past a cathedral as we head down the Seine to check-out Notre Dame.

Cute streets and a triangle open area.

And the Notre Dame cathedral. Kicking ourselves in retrospect, we didn't go inside and now the original works are gone due to the fire, that's why you just never know.

After checking Notre Dame out, it was time to make our way back to our hotel.

We walked through the bustling streets with all sorts of cute shops.

And monuments.

The next day, it was time to check-out the Louvre and show MrsFlamingo the Mona Lisa.

A bit rainy, but it was fine since we had pre-purchased tickets so could mostly skip the line.

Mini pyramids.

And into the main one.

Once inside, we booked it towards the Mona Lisa to see it before too many others did.

Down one of the halls with amazing pieces of art.

And there she is, as MrsFlamingo put it, why does this thing even matter?

We are most definitely not sophisticated enough to understand the fascination with the Mona Lisa, but at least it's a bucket-list item to check off.

Back out to check out other pieces of art that impressed us far more.

I mean the history behind some of these pieces are amazing.

Stuff from ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome for the next many pictures.

Look at the details there.

After checking out the antiquities, we wrapped around to check out some of the more Renaissance period pieces.

After a couple of hours, we hit our limit and it was time for lunch and is in our Paris food and restaurants post.

After lunch, MrsFlamingo wanted to see if she could find a pair of shoes at the original Louboutin location.

Definitely high fashion.

Red all over.

After not finding shoes she liked, MrsFlamingo wanted gluten free pastries and we found a great bakery called Helmut Newcake and is covered in the Paris food and restaurants post.

After that it was time to keep our tradition of visiting the aquarium in every city we go to. It was definitely a cool one with lots of great fish to see.