Hotel du Parc Aulnay-sous-Bois

... next to a French one. Apparently this occurs the whole year round, not just for Anzac Day. They have a sister city in Victoria. We visited the Victoria School - which has an Australian WWI museum above the school. For the rest of the day we were taken to various sites by our guide Les. This guy's knowledge of WWI is simply mind blowing. I learnt so much. Here is the order of places we went around France ...

... called. I think it's there until October, if my French is any good. I had a look around. It was pretty cool. Much like Show Day, but no sheep, and in French. Just looking at the map, the park is Jardin Des Tuileries, which is just across from the Louvre. I've seen the glass pyramid!! Me, little old Len. How cool. I'll actually have a look inside tomorrow afternoon, after my morning tour. Got back to the Hotel at about 9pm. Need sleep.

... back to the apartment and had sandwiches across the street. They were cheap, but tasty, and we were starving. When we got back in the apartment the owners were gone. We quickly learned that there was no water in the water closet! That means there was no running water from the faucet, and more importantly, the toilet wouldn't flush. Oh, joy. We tried to stay up as long as possible this day, but we only made it until 4:30 PM. We sacked out. In our clothes. What a day.

... tomorrow. And I understood what he said (though tomorrow will be the real test). I definately want to come back here in the future. I don't know if Paris is my favorite city of all time (there maybe way too many people here to come close) but I enjoyed it more than some other Americans who've been here. It definately is a ...

... Mom and dad are taking a break and I thought I'd catch up on my blog. This is about a 15- 20 minute walk from the apt, was able to pass through the park at the base of the Eiffel Tower ( Champs de Mars) and enjoy the families and many kids playing soccer and other games. So will be going back and we might be making another foray into the museum world yet tonight. Sorry for any spelling, punctuation errors.... am paying by the minute here :-) 'See' you all later!

... Musee d'Orsay and finally viewed artworks which we'd seen as prints so many times before. Standing in front of those paintings of Van Gogh, Renoir and Cezanne it's like finally getting to meet someone you've admired for years. Lunch in La Madelaine and the obligatory holiday chocolate truffel then we went off to Notre Dame. Our last day - we went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, along with many other famous artworks. To see such famous ...

Even though it was Bastille Day, I'm betting one of the top 3 busiest days of the year here in Paris, I decided to go back to the Musee d'Orsay and brave the line up. Much to my surprise I was able to walk straight in. What the difference was between yesterday and today I have no idea. Even though this museum is full of more 'modern' art (1850-1915 ish) and I am a fan of the classics, I really enjoyed it. One thing that bugged me ...

Täällä sataa isoja valkoisia hiutaleita ja koko kylä alkaa peittymään lumella! On satanut kohta melkein vuorokauden eikä loppua näy. Lumiaurat pörrää ja kasat vaan kasvaa. Kylässä on aika lämmin mutta mitä ylemmäksi mennään, niin pakkanen paukkuu ja huomenna taitaa olla jihaaaa-huutoja luvassa meidän suusta. Harmi tietysti, että tässä vaiheessa kautta sataa vasta pohjia mutta kyllä näistä yläosiin on jo iloakin. Niin kivaa! Ihan hullun kauniin näköistä, kun ...

... l'Orangerie which was just reopened of in May. Of course there was a huge line but thankfully I purchased the Museum pass this morning at the Musee de Rodin. This let me jump to the front of the line and I didn't have another ticket to buy. Hopefully I'll get my moneys worth with buying the pass. I loved the Orangerie. I got to see Renoirs, Picasso (pre all that abstract craziness) and of course Monet. I loved the waterlillies. I'm not even that interested ...

... to head back to hotel and get ready for the night ahead. We got to the hotel, and got ready to go to the Louvre. I talked to a friend from GU who is studying in Paris, and it turns out that every Fri. night, students get into the Louvre for free. It was the best news of our trip, as our café trips, and Paris in general are more expensive than Rome. We got to the museum at about 7, and were there until they kicked us out at 10. It was HUGE! While I personally like the D'Orsay ...