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To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~Aldous Huxley
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July 12, 2005
All roads lead to Paris!!!
The drive into Paris went from French countryside's and chateaus to a more rural atmosphere to eventually the big cityscape.
Juan drove around the city to give us a bus tour before dropping us off at our hotel. We quickly unloaded, said our
goodbyes to Juan and off he went.
Again later today we would meet for a metro/walking tour of the city that would lead us to a beautiful church with the
biggest stained glass windows I have ever seen and then over to Notre Dame.
We had the night to ourselves and David and I met up with a friend in the Maris district and then had dinner near the
Pompideau Center.
| One of our first sites in Paris from our bus |
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| was the Arc du Triomphe |
| The "Louis" store on the Champs de Elysees |
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| Our final hotel in Paris - Hotel Jardin d'Eiffel |
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| Just about 4 blocks to the Eiffel tower. |
| The beautiful stained glass windows of St Chapelle |
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| The interior of Notre Dame |
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| The subway entrance/exits were even beautiful!!! |
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July 13, 2005
Today was our last full day on the tour :-(
We headed out pretty early and went over meet our tour guide at the Louvre for a 2-1/2 hour tour of the museum.
I would have to say this was the best museum on the entire trip - so many great masterpieces to see here.
| Our tour guide at the Louvre explaining the layout |
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| of this gigantic museum - plan on spending some time here. |
| The Greek statue of the Venus. |
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| Another Greek marvel - the Winged Goddess |
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| Last but certainly not least - the Mona Lisa |
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| You have to push and shove to get a good picture |
| David & the ferris wheel in the Tuiliries Gardens |
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| The site we've been waiting for - the Eiffel Tower |
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| Just spectacular!!! |
Our last night we all got together for a wonderful farewell dinner and to thank our fearless leader, Ben. He did
a great job keeping us in line and giving us the history and language lessons. I think he has the greatest job in the
world.
July 14, 2005
The following morning many of us were leaving for home or other destinations. David and I wanted to try the Eurorail
so we had actually booked our roundtrip airfare to leave out of the same place we arrived - Amsterdam so we headed to the
train station and took a wonderful train ride back to Amsterdam and spent the night there and then flew back to Boston, MA
the following day. It's good to be home!!!
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You gotta go!!! Check out www.ricksteves.com and go explore. Don't just dream, make it a reality.
June 21, 2005 - July 15, 2005
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![100_1246.jpg](/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=560&linkpath=http://mysite.verizon.net/vzequnrw/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/100_1246.jpg&target=tlx_new&title=The "Louis" store on the Champs de Elysees)
