My visual tour of Paris

I know there are still just too many, but I found it hard to cut it down to just these. I know I am not the first person to have been to Paris, but as it was my first time, this is my vision of this wonderful city.

My very first photo after we'd dropped the bags at the hotel.

The thing that really stuck me was the art deco everywhere like on the signs for the metro...alongside the gothic wonder of Notre Dame.

We stayed in Les Halles and had so much to explore locally.

Our first dinner. At Au pied du cochon. And yes, Matt had the pig's trotter.

Actually he came in handy with all his knowledge of French food words. I don't think I'd have known what I was ordering most of the time if it weren't for Matt and his love of French cookbooks.

We would walk for hours day and night coming upon such wonderful delights.

Like this gorgeous building. A French man stopped to talk to us, seeing us admiring it, and he told us all about the architecture of the street...fascinating stuff.

On Friday we walked so far...from Les Halles up through Le Louvre (no we didn't go in...I found the sheer size of the building too overwhelming and felt like I'd need a week, Place de la Concorde, L'arc du Triomphe etc, down to the Trocadero and Eiffel tower and back along the other side of the Seine. It was wonderous to see the city that way, but man my feet hurt at the end of the day. Plus the queues for the Eiffle tower were unbelievable. I'm glad I did it, but I wouldn't if I'd have realised how long we'd wait.

The City was plastered with rugby world cup advertising....including the ball in the middle of the Eiffel tower.

The toilettes at the top...don't they look so sophisticated.

This glass ceilinged palace really intrigued me. It appeared not to be a tourist destination, yet I was fascinated by what it had been built as, what it is now and what it is like inside. Anyone know?

Simply divine.

Next to the rugby game on Friday night...the reason I got to go to Paris at all. It was amazing being in a stadium with 80 000+ people. I have never been to anything that big before. It was so full of energy and I was brought to tears when the French sang their national anthem. I quite enjoy rugby, but I'm not a huge supporter, but I really enjoyed being there. The game wasn't the greatest ever, but I was more interested in watching the antics of the French supporters around me. Allez Les Bleus! The stadium was gorgeous as the sun went down.
Saturday was spent exploring more...we stupidly chose that day to go to the Marais...the Jewish areas were empty.

And Sunday morning we enjoyed the gorgeous early morning light as we walked over to Notre Dame.

We'd left it to the last day to go inside, but I'm glad we did as we were there during a mass and it was so uplifting to be in there with the wonderful singing.

A park behind the church where we explored an art market. We didn't buy anything here, but we did buy a wonderful canvas from one of the sellers by the Seine.

I took so many photos, but I'm so glad I did. It's a visual record for me of where we went and what we did. We sat down and did a slide show for the kids tonight. I had forgotten to take my camera out Saturday night, and by then we were so foot sore that we decided to take a boat trip of the Seine...right as the sun was setting. I was so frustrated not to be able to take photos, but it was also nice just to sit and relax.

Tonight I am so tired and I must go to bed. I hope what I've written makes sense as I'm too tired to go back and check it now.