THE END

This is the end of Our European Adventure 2005. There are 5 parts to this blog album, so be sure to check them all out: Part 1 - Italy, Part 2 - Austria, Part 3 - Germany and Switzerland, and Part 4 and 5 - France. Click on the "View My Complete Profile" at the top of this blog. It will take you to a screen that will display all of our blog albums on blogspot.com. Thanks for sharing our memories with us! There will be more blog albums to come, so check back often.

American Airlines Admiral's Club

Our trip is sadly over after 27 unbelievable days in Europe! We're all packed, checked out of the Hyatt Madeleine-Paris and are now waiting for our flight to Chicago. We're waiting in style, though, sitting in the luxury of the American Airlines Admiral's Club in Paris. This is the only way to fly - 1st class! We're sad to be leaving Europe, but are anxious to see our new twin granddaughters, Justine Marie and Lauren Ann, who will be one week old when we arrive in Chicago the next day, Wednesday, May 25, 2005!

And Finally, the Mona Lisa

The finale for us, was the Mona Lisa! We found our way to the room - quite a distance from the main entrance, and it was overflowing with people. The area leading to the picture had been cordoned off in the shape of an upside down "V", the widest part at the entrance, narrowing as you moved forward. Well, it was impossible! People of every nationality were pushing and shoving, speaking every language imaginable. Once again, we were shocked. All it would have taken was for a couple of monitors to have managed the crowds, allowing groups of say 50 people at a time to get a photo and move on. But nooooo - it was a disaster! And to make it worse, we had fought those crowds, snapped a quick couple of pictures and moved out. But after 5 minutes or so, Marti decided we needed a picture of one of us IN the shot, so we fought the crowds again, pushed and shoved our way back and captured this priceless memory (the people on both sides of Marti were digitally removed).

Venus de Milo

Second on our list was the Venus de Milo. This statue was better placed in the museum, but still had a lot of people gathered around it making it difficult to get a good photo. Here's the story: In 1820 a peasant named Yorgos found this statue in an underground cavern on the Aegean island of Melos. It was turned over to Turkish authorities who loaded it onto a Turkish vessel. Somehow it was turned over to a French frigate and the French said they legitimately purchased it (although there was some dispute over that). The 2nd century statue, representing the ideal of beauty, was named Venus de Milo by the French and it eventually ended up at the Louvre in Paris.

The Winged Victory

First on our list was the Winged Victory, a famous statue with no head. Don't know the history of this piece of art, but it was neat. What wasn't so neat was that everyone basically wanted to see the same things in this huge gallery - the Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. So it would seem to make sense to place those pieces in areas that could accommodate large groups of people. What they did instead was place this statue, for example, at the top of a steep stairway on a small landing. It forced everyone to walk by it in order to get someplace else and created a major bottleneck on the steps and landing.

The Crowds at the Louvre

We'd heard the Louvre was always crowded, but this was ridiculous! We had tickets for this day only, a Sunday, and we were leaving Paris the next day for Chicago, so we had no choice but to fight through the throngs to see everything we came to see.

The Louvre

This is out last day in Europe and we decided to spend part of it at The Louvre, one of the few things in Paris we hadn't seen yet. We aren't big on art galleries, but this one had the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo.

A Private Grotto

Marti gazed at a beautiful private grotto in one of the gardens at Versaille before we headed back to our bus. We felt that we could have spent a whole day at the palace grounds and probably would still not have seen it all. As our bus arrived, though, it began to rain and within a few seconds it was an all-out downpour. Two people missed the bus and were running behind it for blocks. They were soaked and freezing by the time the bus stopped to pick them up!

The Grounds at Versaille

We walked the grounds and hardly knew which way to look first - there was so much to see. It boggles the mind to imagine the price of groundskeeping at this place! One problem, though, the surface we had to walk on was a dusty rock chip, used a lot in Paris too. It was white and powdery, and stuck to your shoes and pant legs. Marti tried walking along the very edge of grass (not in the sculptured grass), but a monitor asked her to only use the chipped rock walkways. She was not pleased because her black shoes and pants were a mess.

More Fountains at Versaille

Bob and I posed in front of another pond and fountain in the Versaille gardens.

Long Walkways

There were many long tree-lined walkways in the gardens at Versaille, but we were not alone - in fact, there were hundreds of people everywhere we went!

A Fountain at Versaille

Marti is standing in front of just one of the dozens of fountains on the grounds at Versaille.

View of the Grounds at Versaille

After touring the inside of the palace in Versaille, the best was yet to come - the grounds! In looking out of this window, note how far the long pool goes into the distance - it took forever to walk these grounds and we just brushed the surface.

Hall of Mirrors

A portion of the Hall of Mirrors was being renovated, but we got a good picture of the rest of it. We can only imagine how beautiful it would have been if we had seen the entire length of the hall - huge, gorgeous mirrors, gold trim, murals, and chandeliers as far as the eye could see!

King Louis XIV's Rein

This is an example of the grandeur of the interior of King Louis XIV's palace in Versaille, France. Everything was opulent, over the top!

The Magic of Versaille

When we arrived at the palace at Versaille, our first thought was that it was just huge! We had seen some enormous castles, buildings and architectural structures on this trip, but this place really was phenomenal!

River Seine

As we walked along the River Seine to the Louvre area where our bus was waiting, we passed many picture opportunities like the one shown here. We made it to our bus with plenty of time and although we didn't get the best seats, we were right behind them. After a couple of hours we arrived in Versaille.

Notre Dame Cathdral

After a lot of walking around, not seeing anything because all of the buildings in this area were huge and they all looked alike, we finally found Notre Dame Cathedral, which was packed with people. There was no way we would be going inside. We took a couple of pictures and left as we had wasted a lot of our morning looking for it and still had quite a walk to get to our bus for our tour. We had learned from our previous bus tours that it was wise to arrive early - you had a better chance of getting the best seats, in the upper deck in the front.

Notre Dame

It's now Sunday and we had a bus tour to Versaille at 1:45, so we wanted to use the morning to see the Notre Dame Cathedral - only we didn't know where we were going. We hopped on the train, as usual, and got off where we thought we were supposed to. But after walking blocks and blocks, we knew we weren't in the right place - after all, it was a Sunday and Notre Dame was a church, but we didn't see any large groups of people. We did see a lot of policemen, though, and actually saw a policeman hop into a moving police car as it sped off to an emergency somewhere. It happened right in front of us!

Natalie's of Paris

As we began walking back to the Hyatt Madeleine, we passed a darling baby store called Natalie's. It was located on the Champs Elysees. We took some pictures of the store window because the store wasn't open at 10:50 PM on a Sunday night. If it had been, though, we would certainly have bought something special for our new little twin granddaughters, Justine Marie and Lauren Ann, who were born 10 weeks premature in Chicago on May 16, just four days earlier.

Arc D' Triomphe at Night

It was late, but we weren't tired, so we took the train from the Eiffel Tower back to the Avenue des Champs Elysees. We wanted to get a picture of the Arc D' Triomphe at night and Bob took a great one here. Then we fought our way through the crowds to buy some souvenirs for the kids - although it was kind of fun - kind of like being at a carnival!

The Eiffel Tower "Hat"

This is a classic example of poor picture-taking - I'm wearing the Eiffel Tower on my head!

The Twinkling Tower

To our surprise, the Tower began to twinkle at 10 PM sharp. We'd heard about this, but didn't know what to expect. It was really glorious - it twinkled brightly for at least a full 15 minutes. Don't know why Bob looks so glum in this picture because we were both enchanted by the beautiful unexpected spectacle!

Eiffel Tower at Night

We wanted to get some pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night before we left Paris. So after our delicious desserts, we walked once again quite a ways to the area on the bridge over the River Seine to get set up. Bob brought his tiny portable tripod and was determined to use it to get a perfectly straight shot - and I believe he succeeded with this one!

Evening Dessert - Paris Style

We had a nice dinner and a beautiful dessert.

Stars Wars: Episode III in Paris

As we headed back to our hotel, Bob couldn't resist taking a photo of this billboard advertising Star Wars Episode III, the movie. Interesting that the words "Star Wars" are in English. We're Star Wars fans, so saw the movie, but not in Paris. We thought the dialogue would be in French there.

Fouquet's on the Champs Elysees

We stopped for a glass of wine at this restaurant and sat at the sidewalk cafe - and then a weird thing happened. A drunk guy who looked like Peter Sellers with wild hair sat on a bench directly in front of our table and seemed to be staring at us. He had a bottle of wine in his long coat, and at one point he removed the cork and threw it at a couple who were window shopping behind him. Then he got up, pulled out what looked like a pretty expensive digital camera and began taking pictures of the people at the cafe. Later he got up and a butter knife (probably from this cafe) dropped out of his coat onto the sidewalk, making a loud clatter. We thought for sure one of the waiters would escort him away, but no one seemed to see him but us. He eventually walked away, but returned, so we quickly finished our wine and left. A strange experience. If it hadn't been kind of scary and uncomfortable, it probably would have been funny!

Avenue de Champs Elysees

We finally made it back to the Champs Elysees. We crossed the street and Bob stopped in the middle of it to take this shot of the Arc de Triomphe at the end. If you look closely, you can see a lot of traffic coming our direction.

Bob and Marti Frolick in Paris

This brings back memories of that Saturday afternoon in Paris. We agreed that we didn't have enough pictures of us together. So as we made our way to the Avenue de Champs Elysees, we stopped along a parkway and set the camera on a metal post. Bob set it on "auto" and then he literally ran back and fell to the ground next to Marti. Bob's laughing and Marti's laughing - and a few people walking by were laughing too. We were feeling pretty silly that day!

Marti in Paris

Marti can't believe she's in Paris. You hear about Paris your whole life and you never believe you'll actually be there - and then when you are - you still can't believe it! Paris is beginning to grow on us and we're liking it better every day. This is our 2nd day here. Marti wishes she hadn't worn her REI convertible pants and Teva's though. They were fine for the Alps, but not quite right for metropolitan Paris. She wanted to be more chic - ah well, c'est la vie (that's life).

Leaving The Rodin Museum Garden

This was our parting shot as we left the Rodin Gardens. It was a beautiful place.

Bob and His Maps

Bob had the entire trip mapped out in detail. He was never without his map. Here he takes a break from the Rodin statues to check his Paris map to see where our next stop would be. While he did this, Marti was actually putting new band-aids on her feet - we had done a lot of walking and her feet were taking a beating!

Marti IS "The Thinker"

Marti thought it would be clever to pose just like "The Thinker". The trick was doing this without anyone seeing because it looked kind of dumb, but we succeeded.

The Thinker in the Rodin Museum Gardens

We had to have the obligatory photo

by "The Thinker".

In this case, Bob's
pictured.

Rodin Museum Gardens

We were fascinated by the trees in the Rodin Museum gardens - they were all cut into triangles - which was neat. Marti had to have a picture in front of one.

Rodin's Sculptures

Rodin evidently liked black marble and also sculptures of people. He was obviously a master, but some of his work seemed a bit weird to us. This photo is just one example. There were sculptures similar to this one all over the gardens. We slowly walked around several of them trying to figure out what he was trying to say. But we're not educated in art appreciation, so his message was lost on us.

Rodin Museum, Paris

We were rather impressed with the Rodin Museum, although we didn't go into the museum itself. There was plenty to see just walking around the gardens. We walked from the museum building (in the background) down the long malled area to behind the fountain - it's quite a distance - and took this photo looking back to where we had been.

Museum Militare

There were lots of cannons in this area near Napolean's Tomb and this one offered the perfect picture opportunity for Bob.

The Museum at Napolean's Tomb

Bob is kind of a WWII buff, or at least he's always interested in WWII memorabilia, so when we found this floor in the Napolean's Tomb Museum, we found it rather interesting, although we didn't linger long. It was getting later in the afternoon and we still hadn't seen the Rodin Museum Gardens yet.

The Napolean's Tomb Buildings

Welcome to Blog Album #5 and the last blog of Our European Adventure 2005. Todd and Stephanie have a photo of them sitting on a bench with the same building in the background as is in the background in this photo of Bob. We couldn't figure out where they were. Now we know - they were at the Napolean's Tomb buildings. As you can see in this shot, the weather is not wonderful - plenty of clouds, threatening rain, a lot of wind, but we tried to forget about it and have a good time. Bob looks very European in his REI clothes, or so we thought, except his pants were convertibles and that wasn't really very stylish for Paris. Oh well, we're Americans (and proud of it)!