Doing the Paris Thing

We are now back in Paris... where we were, a little over a month ago when we got back from Italy. Paris is such a nice city for the visitor... I remember when I used to live there as a high school student and I really did not like it all that much: school there was tough and stressful, and there was little time to enjoy what the city has to offer.

View from the top of the Buttes Chaumont

But as a visitor, it is quite amazing. My father's apartment, where we are staying, is centrally located and from there, we can walk for hours and just go from quaint streets to stunning parks, to great monuments almost endlessly.

Parc des Buttes Chaumont in Paris

This what we did a few nights ago, when we walked for five hours from the Eiffel Tower, to the Obelisk (the start of the Champs Elysees), to the Louvre and back home. We started our walk at sunset and were out until late in the night, at which time I was completely exhausted!



When we were here last, in late June, we viewed many of the city's landmarks from the river, on a boat tour, which offered less photo opportunity but was much less tiring! At the time, my sister was eight months pregnant, so a five-hour walk was out of the question! Since then, she's given birth to a beautiful baby girl named Tilia.




During our last visit to Paris, we also visited the Orsay museum, which houses the largest impressionist art collection worldwide. The impressionist paintings, which are usually large formats, are really impressive in real life. The colors of those paintings, especially Van Gogh's, are so bright!

My lovely niece needs to get new sunglasses!

This time we will try to go to the Louvre, to pay respect to the ancient and classical artists (the Louvre's collection spans from ancient Egypt to the 19th century)...