Day Two

Another amazing day here in Paris. As much as I can, I'll do a quick summary:

This morning we started out with Rick Steves' tour of the Champs Elysees. The tour started at the Arc de Triomphe, which was imposing! We didn't go to the top -- Josh wants to save his aerial view of Paris for the Eiffel Tower. A fun pic from l'Arc:

Donna imitating La Marseillaise sculpture.

Our walk took us all the way down the huge boulevard of the Champs Elysees to Place de la Concorde. Along the boulevard we enjoyed the funky concept cars in the Peugeot and Toyota dealerships... people watching... haute couture shops... and imagining what it must have looked like 100 years ago!

Crazy concept car at Peugeot

Cakes in Laduree, famous sweet shop/cafe built in 1862

At the fountain in Place de la Concorde. Many famous people were executed here, including Marie Antoinette.

First crepe of the vacation!

After the walk to Place de la Concorde, we tried to go to Musee d'Orsay but the line had 500 people in it. We walked a mile down back to Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie, which were both closed on Christmas Day. We toured both of those, then walked BACK to the Institute Francaise to do a self-guided walking tour of the Left Bank, including the hotel where Oscar Wilde died, a shop full of Petit Prince toys, St. Germain-des-Pres, Rue des Canettes and St. Sulpice. We got lots of amazing photos but you'll have to check them out here!

We finished the day by meeting up with a Parisian friend we both know from Boston. We went with Philip to dinner and had a really lovely evening -- and he drove us all over the city to see the great views. We are leaving very early in the morning for Zurich... more to come when we have a chance to post in Switzerland!