By ourselves in Paris!

Well, the tour has officially ended. What an AMAZING 2 weeks. The weather was hot, but no rain. Kind of funny, today, it sprinkled a bit in Paris. We took a beautiful walk about 45 -50 minutes alongside the Seine, past the Eiffel Tower to the Musee d'Orsay. It is like the baby brother to the Louvre, housing more contemporary pieces of artwork. I was thrilled, we got to see pieces by Renoir, Rembrant, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh and Degas. My highlight was getting to see the sculpture by Degas " the Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer".

Degas

Monet's japenese bridge.

Vincent van Gogh's self portrait.

Once we left the Musee, we took the Paris subway to the Montmartre area. Initially, we were not impressed, after we exited the subway, and came onto the street, it was like running a gauntlet with a series of cheap souvenir shops, African refugees selling products (they get in your face), swinderlers, peddlers, aggressive panhandlers  and lots of potential pickpockets. It was a bit overwhelming, despite the constant police presence! We walked the many stairs to the top of the hill-the highest point in Paris. The views were beautiful.

View of the city. 

On our way back down the hill, we took a different route, and were relieved to experience an entirely different feel for the area. No one pestered us, and there were lovely stores and restaurants. It was easy to see why people like the Montmartre area. We took two subways and got "home" in time to fall into bed. Tim's iPhone keeps track of how much we walked...14 km today! Tomorrow is a full day tour to Vimy ridge.