Tuesday

We did the tourist thing today and rode the open air bus through Paris.  Here are some pictures I took; I will tell you more about each site and some others in later posts.
Ms. Mary Pat

This, of course is The Eiffel Tower.  Lots more about that later.

This is the front of Notre Dame Cathedral.  The two towers on the top are the bell towers made famous in the book, and of course Disney movie, "Hunchback of Notre Dame" . 

This is the square in front of the Louvre Museum.  The museum is the old building in the picture and extends several blocks in a giant "U" shape..  It was built in 1190 as a fortress to protect Paris from Viking raids.  In 1360 King Charles V transformed it into a Royal residence.  It was remodeled by King Francois in about 1515 to make it a more lavish home for French Royalty.  Subsequent kings made additional changes and it was the childhood home of King Louis the XIV (The Sun King) before he moved to Versailles.  After the French revolution it fell into disrepair and even became a gambling house. (Pretty big for a casino!)  It became a musem in 1793 with a colection of eight pieces of art.  Now it has over 30,000 pieces!   The glass Pyramid was built in 1989 as the main entrance.  It is very controversial.  Many people think it is too modern looking and does not fit in with the rest of the museum.

We will be going to the Louve on Sunday, when admission is free and will send you pictures from inside.

This is a very bad picture of the Obelisk in the center of the Place de la Concord.  It has a great story, which I will add tonight.