Best Western Opera Celte La Fayette Paris

... through Paris.

The Grand Hotel Leveque is a Rick Steves recommendation in the value category. For about $150 a night you get a tiny, clean room in a fantastic location. The hotel decor is ultra modern. I've seen the term "postage stamp" used to describe small rooms, which seems like a good fit for our room, but I haven't seen a good term that would describe ...

... I decided to use an audio tour guide that I had found on iTunes by Rick Steves. While the tour was very informative on the biggest pieces like Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, and Winged Victory, it left out 2 whole wings of the museum!! This just meant I would have to wing it (no pun intended).
Seeing some of the most beautiful pieces of art that have ever been created is very daunting. How can whatever talents I may have ever compete with these paintings ...

... haven't been able to upload any pictures yet because the file size is too big.

Next we walked through Tuileries Garden and had a sandwhich on the bench. Noel was feeding the pigeons and he gave bread to the wrong bird so one of them pooped on him. He said @%$$&^*#$&. I saw a kitty in the garden and it had a photo shoot. Next we walked to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo and many other cool works of art. After ...

... image...). We 3 Barts eventually approached the stage to proclaim our knowledge of "costumology" and stripped the poor King on stage...taking off his wretched t-shirt and dressing him in a dress with the word POET stitched on the back, signifying a transformation, he was no longer a king but a poet! The little nuances in the play...my character, rough and coarse, did NOT fancy the King. I spoke with a thick Russian accent, and at times had extreme difficulty ...

Paris was... the probably the worst trip I've ever been on... everything that could possibly go wrong did... Aaron got lost, alone in Paris without a cell phone, I almost couldn't get on the train because I didn't have the right credit card with me, Brittany got extremely sick and nearly had to be hospitalized, our hotel was in the ghetto and not even in the city, Brittany had an emotional breakdown, Aaron was out of control, etc, etc.... An ...

... to the Orsay Museum to check out some paintings, but it just took us forever to find the stupid metro station. On top of that, once we got there, the station was closed! Meh! We then finally get to the Orsay, and the line to get in was just too long. Anyway, the jist of the day was walk, eat, drink, take pictures.... here are all the spots we visited today: Luxembourg Gardens Orsay Museum (exterior) Eiffel Tower Cruise along the Seine - Notre Dame, Place du Concord ...

... view of Paris there is to be had from up there!) followed by late lunch in a comfy bar in the Latin Quarter, then a saunter along Bld St-Germain des Pres, a bit of Da Vinci code-related tourism to Eglise St-Suplice (Dan Brown set a murderous scene there), followed by more gawking at pretty shops full of impossibly desirable things, a little champagne in a pretty bar, then home to consume some impossibly pretty cakes bought on the left bank. John's been feeling a bit off-colour ...

... It was very beautiful! Anyway, to sum it all up - We LOVED the LOUVRE! I don't think I've ever spent so much time in one museum and NOT be bored one bit. By far the best historical museum I've ever visited - and trust me, I've been to many (Thanks Mom). As the Louvre was set to close, we decided to head out and grab a cheap dinner of baguettes from a street vendor. They were surprisingly amazing! We walked through the Tuileries Gardens, which are so ...

... in Paris we met up with a friend of mine Theo who took us out to an old fashioned French restaurant. The service was brilliant, the menu impossible to digest (both translating and literally!). Cows udders, chickens feet etc. I settled for chestnut soup and then pork and lentils. Mark who was a bit more daring had lambs brains and ox cheek. I tasted both and have to say the former was a bit grim. As was the free starter - boiled pigs fat. Nonetheless, my food was delicious and ...

... lit from wall to wall. Experiments have shown that a room thus lit has an eight times stronger illumination than the same room lit by vertical windows with the same window area. The whole history of architecture revolves exclusively around the wall apertures. Through use of the horizontal window reinforced concrete suddenly provides the possibility of maximum illumination. 5. Free design of the façade By projecting the floor beyond the supporting pillars, like a balcony all ...