These are views of Calais (above), our first view of France as we crossed the English Channel. The ferry ran from Dover to Calais, which as you can see from the map is the shortest point between the countries.

back to England...

 

This is the restaurant we ate in on our first night in Paris. It's called le Train Bleu (the Blue Train). Le Train Bleu is in the Gare de Lyon. Gare de Lyon is a train station for the National Rail. Needless we were a little surprised to find such a fancy restaurant (it's a couple hundred years old) in the train station.

the Seine & the houseboats on the Seine

Notre Dame cathedral

Napoleon is buried here
Click these to watch clips of 'the Simpsons' dubbed in French:

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these tiny cars where everywhere

the Lafayette shops

we went to see the show ('Feerie') at the Moulin Rouge nightclub. The show has dance, stunts, comedy, and traditional cancan.

The Champs-Elysées, and the Arc de Triomphe. We went to the top of the Arch at night, the shots below of the Eiffel Tower at night were shot from there.

 

The Eiffel Tower (and views from the Eiffel Tower)

Eiffel Tower MPEG

 

The Louvre: The Louvre was originally a castle. The model of the castle is what it originally looked like, and the dark pictures are taken from excavations inside where the moat originally was, showing the base walls of the original castle. The original castle is only about a fourth of the massive complex that encompasses the entire Louvre today - through history it has been renovated and added to by the various monarchs that used it as a residence. The art treasures were mostly royal properties until the Revolution, when the Musee de la Republique was opened to the public.

Many of the worlds most precious works of art are among the collection of the Louvre. These include: The Joconde - Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, The Winged Victory of Sarmothrace (all pictured below). One interesting painting is the Louis David painting 'The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Josephine'. It's in the two pictures at the right of the second row. The painting is the second-largest in the museum. An almost identical version of this painting was executed and is housed at the Chateau de Versailles. There is a picture of the other painting (titled Distribution of the Eagles) in the Versailles section of pictures below..

 

Chateau de Versailles: at the end of the 17th century, Versailles was a hunting wood used frequently by Louis XIII and his son, Louis XVI. The massive vanity and insecurity of Louis XVI led him to build this gigantic palace on the site of his favourite hunting lodge. Louis designated himself 'the Sun King', and this theme is present in many of the adornments throughout the palace. Once it was completed, Louis XVI also centralized the government at the 'Chateau', mostly in an attempt to keep his nobles busy. He was very concerned about being undermined by nobles, so he did his best to keep them busy with travel and meaningless ceremonies at Versailles. At the time of the Revolution of 1789, an angry mob of peasants marched to the palace, demanding bread. They stormed the Palace, ran up the Queen's Staircase and broke into the Guard's Room, then into the Antechambre. Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette were taken to Paris as prisoners with their children. They never saw the Palace of Versailles again. At that time a lot of the artwork and valuables, especially furniture, was sold off.