Be brave, be rude...smile and push your way through.

"The Arc di Triomphe"
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The itinerary for today was very full.  After eating the best buffet breakfast ever,(see Holiday Inn Republique review) we all boarded the bus to meet up with our local guide.  Most of the tour took place on the bus today. It consisted mainly of our guide talking about the history of Paris and pointing out various (fairly obvious) sights: the Louvre, Tuilery Gardens, Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Musee D'Orsay, Pompidou Centre and the spot where Princess Diana's fatal car crash occured.

"Looking up through the Eiffel Tower"
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We stopped briefly at the Arc  di Triomphe. Before  heading to the Eiffel Tower where we took the elevator up to the second level to take in views of the city of Paris. The views of the city were great but it was really cold!  Christy and I spent most of our time here in line to use the restroom and went back to the bus rather early.  The bus driver had the heat on, thank goodness! When the rest of the group joined us the tour director said that the bus would drop us all off near the Opera House. If we were signed up for the afternoon excursion to the Palace of Versailles, we would have to be back on the bus in an hour; otherwise, we'd have to find our own way back to the hotel.

"A view of Tuilery Gardens from the Eiffel Tower"
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Before the trip I had researched how much it would actually cost us to go to Versailles on our own. The excursion offered through our tour company came to $66 USD.  On the website (for the Palace), I had discovered that we could've gone there ourselves for around $25 USD which included roundtrip transportation on the subway. I was a bit nervous about taking the subway in Paris though so we decided to pay extra and join the chartered tour's excursion.

We got off the bus near Place de la Concorde and there were a few restaurants nearby.  The three of us were starving so we decided to go to Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet.  Because we only had an hour to eat we figured that this would be our best option.  Christy and Mike both tried pizza that had corn and tunafish on it while I stuck with the  more traditional varieties.

"The three of us in the famous gardens at Versailles"
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The bus ride to Versailles wasn't very long (about a half an hour). Our local guide was extremely funny so in many ways we were thankful that we paid the extra money to go with her.  As we rode the bus she warned us that at the palace we were likely to encounter clumps of French school-aged children.  She said that teachers often bring their students to Versailles on field trips and that the children would probably be everywhere sketching pictures. She said that since  we were in France, we needed to act French told us to "be brave, be rude."  When we encountered a group of French children we were supposed to "Hold our shoulders high, push our elbows out, smile and push our way through the crowd." We did our very best to heed these orders as she was invariably correct.  There were at least 15 children laying in various positions on the floor in the first room of the palace!  We got to see a few rooms and the famous "Hall of Mirrors" before the palace alarm system went off.  Our guide did her best to keep us all in the palace for as long as possible.  We'd enter one room and she'd begin to tell us all about it until the room guard would yell in French for us to leave.  She also kept reminding us to walk "really slowly." We left the palace and headed outside for further instructions.  Everyone in our group with the exception of the three of us, voted to leave a half an hour earlier than we were originally supposed to.  So, this only left us 30 minutes to spend in Versailles' famous gardens! We were not very happy with this decision and decided to rebel. Since we didn't vote to depart early, we didn't return to the bus for an additional 15 minutes.  In the past, we always made it to the bus on time (if not early) and we always had to wait for someone else to show up before we could go anywhere.  So, if we took an extra 15 minutes we weren't going to allow ourselves to feel guilty about it!  Overall, the excursion price was definitely "too much" when you consider the fact that we were only at Versailles for about an hour and 45 minutes. We barely scratched the surface of what the property had to offer us.  No one said anything to us when we boarded the bus late, in fact, I don't think that anyone even noticed.

"A monument at Pere LaChaise Cemetery"
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For the evening, we signed up for an excursion to Montmartre. Montmartre is a district of Paris where the "French Impressionism Movement" was founded.  This excursion was very inexpensive and seemed very interesting.  Between the two excursions for the day, Mike and I decided to make a very quick visit to Pere Lachaise Cemetery .  Because we were only there for about 30 minutes (and it took about 40 minutes to walk there and back)we were unable to see any of the famous gravesites.  Jim Morrison from the Doors is buried here as are many other famous people including: Gloria Steinham, George Seurat, Camile Pisarro, Oscar Wilde and Frederic Chopin.  On my next trip to Paris, I definitely want to spend more time there.  It is probably one of the oldest cemeteries that I've ever seen and is incredibly beautiful.  A few years ago, I used to give historic tours of a cemetery in Buffalo that was based on the same style as Pere Lachaise.  It meant a lot to me to see it, even if it was only for a short while.

"A street in Montmartre" (The red portion is the creperie where we ate.)
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Mike and I returned to the hotel about 20 minutes before we had to leave for the evening excursion.  The three of decided that we would get something to eat once we got to Montmartre rather than trying to rush to the bus.  This excursion was really nice. The bus dropped us off in a little square right outside of the Moulin Rouge where we took a tiny train up the hill to Montmartre.  As we rode the train driver, pointed out: a famous restaurant  that was featured in one of Renoir's paintings, an apartment that Vincent van Gogh lived in with his brother Cleo  and Sacre Cour church.  Our tour director also pointed out the exact restaurant where all of the artists ate and gathered when the French Impressionism Movement was founded.

We found a local creperie and decided to eat something there.  Mike and I just ordered crepes but Christy  ordered a crepe and a bowl of French Onion soup.  The interior of this place was odd as was the apparent owner.  He seemed fairly smug and very sarcastic. On all of the walls and ceiling, were tons of notes, receipts and pictures left by various visitors.  It sort of reminded me of a serial killer's den in the movies and I was glad that I wouldn't be there for too long.  Later,while assembling my scrapbook (after returning home), I was surprised to find many images of it on the internet.  It  must be a fairly popular place in that area.  We all ate our yummy food and then set out to explore the area.  We paused briefly to look at a few booths where local artists were working on paintings and then did some souvenir shopping.  Our tour director escorted us back down the hill where we met the bus again to return to our hotel. Montmartre looks like the Paris I had always envisioned in my head.  It's very old and beautiful and has a lot of character.  In some ways, I'm glad that it was the last area of Paris that I saw.  Now I can maintain the image of Paris that I had always envisioned before ever really going there.

Daily lesson learned:  If planning a trip to Paris, make sure that you aren't visiting there when the major sights (like the Louvre) are closed.  You should also make it a priority to see the lights of Paris at night.  We never did and it still bothers me (although now I definitely have enough excuses to make return trip there!)