Saturday, February 26, 2011

Pretend Paris with B :)






Claudia Cook February 26 at 8:21pm
Well, today has been a "pretend" eventful day. :) We landed in Paris France this morning and had a layover for a few hours. Not a whole lot of time but enough to get to eat some yummy French food at a little cafe on the Champs Elysees, visit the Arc de Triumphe, and the Eiffel Tower.



After lunch, we got to spend some time at the Arc de Triumphe.


This is a really big Arc that Napoleon commissioned after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 but it finished in 1836 when he was already dead! Its the largest in the world at 50 meters high.

The first thing we did was look at the tomb of the unknown soldier that lies under the Arc. Along the walls there are a lot of engravings showing battles, and hundreds of names most of them are French generals.

Then we bought our ticket and walked up, there is a small museum before the terrace, it was helpful to recover after climbing 283 steps :)

The best part of course is at the top where you can enjoy a 360’ view over the city, checking the madness along the 12 avenues that start from here (one of them is Champs Elyesses) taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the background.

The Eiffel Tower was also amazing. :)
Built between 1887 and 1889, the "Iron Lady" was built as the entrance to the Exposition Universelle, a World fair marking the centenary of the French Revolution.

At 324 meters high, it was at the time the tallest building in the world until 1930 when the Chrysler Building in New York was completed. Amazingly, it was originally intended to be a temporary structure for the duration of the exposition.




As fun as this pretend layover was we were relieved to make it back to the airport to board our flight to Barcelona. We only had an hour and 45 minutes until landing in beautiful Barcelona Spain. We will rest tonight and tour a little bit tomorrow before boarding our cruise ship at 5 pm. :)

Thanks for the fun day!
Love you
Mom

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