Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees, Seine River boat ride

Best day yet!! They have all been good so maybe we are just caught up in the moment.

So after all the strenuous walking we did yesterday, we decided that this morning was going to be set aside for recovery time. So, we had a late start touring Paris.

We decided to ride the Metro for a tour of Notre Dame and listen to the Rick Steves tour on a podcast of historic Paris. However, to our surprise the stunning cathedral was closed because they had some sort of cermony involving the coronation of priests and had not reopened for tours just yet. So after much deliberation, we decided to get back on the metro and go to the Arc de Triumph. It was so huge and the statues and carvings make places like Mt. Rushmore look small they are so magnificent. We bought the tickets and began to climb straight up the 284 stairs to the top. We were all quite out of breath by the time we got there. But the view from the top made it so worth it. It reminded us of the Empire State Building and how you could see forever in New York. It was the same way in Paris. No large monument, church, or building goes unseen from the Arc. What was really cool is that while we were up top we saw a parade of French army veterans performing a ceremony honoring French soldiers who gave their lives for their country by rekinkling a perpetual flame daily at 6:30 pm. This ceremony has occurered daily since 1923. It was very cool!!

Once we took the elevator back down (yes we realize this is cheating), we headed to the famous Champs-Elysees. The shops were so cool. They have a lot of stores that we have in the US like Gap, H&M, and Nike. We also saw the Louis Vitton store. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we got there but it was still fun to look in the window. We walked all up and down that street, stopping for dinner (which was so good) and Mom and Morgan insisted on getting a McDonald's Diet Coke for the road. We ended up buying Dad and Kelly new watches from the Swatch store and Mom got her favorite perfume called Oui in a very large perfume store that was quite fun to walk around in.

Eventually we made our way toward the Eiffel Tower as sundown approached. The view was amazing! It was there we found a place that did the Seine River boat rides. We went up and down the Seine seeing the Orsay museum, the Louvre museum, embassys, and a lot of the famous bridges. On the return trip, it was about 11:30 when we passed the Eiffel Tower again and seeing it all lit up was so spectacular. No picture can ever do it justice. What a great day!!