The Mallorys in Kyiv: 6 Years.....definitely something to celebrate!

September 4th, Peter and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary and we decided that a weekend in Paris was in order. We have both been to Paris several times already, but we are always playing guide to friends or family members. So, while we have done the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame several times, there were still several spots in Paris that we wanted to see.
But before we started our sightseeing, we had to introduce ourselves to the hotel dog. He was quite a character.......even sneaking onto the elevator to try and catch a ride downstairs to the kitchen.

After checking in, our first stop was a delicious lunch at La Rotisserie d'En Face. It is the more casual of famous chef Jacques Cagna's two restaurants in Paris. So we sprung for a lunch and were not disappointed.

After lunch we headed to our top priority museum......The Musée d'Orsay. It lived up to every expectation. The famous impressionist artwork and the building itself (the museum is in a restored train station.) were so beautiful. Here is Peter in front of the museum.

While I loved every minute, after such a grand lunch, the Musée D'Orsay was quite the tiring event for this pregnant lady.

Yep, I definitely needed a break, so we walked over to the Tuileries Garden that stretches in front of the Louvre to join the Parisians who were there soaking up the sunny, blue-sky afternoon.

I definitely think that sitting in this park ranks up there with our all time favorite things to do in Paris. It really is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

After our picturesque rest time, we were ready for some more art. So we headed over to the Orangerie Museum to check out Monet's famous water lillies. Luckily, unlike Musée d'Orsay, pictures were allowed. There are 8 paintings like the one below. They are hung in perfectly round rooms and are so captivating. I could have sat and stared at them for an hour.

It is hard to imagine anyone being able to create something so beautiful and perfect on such a large scale.

This crazy looking building is Centre Pompidou, a huge conference center type building in the Marais neighborhood, which is where our hotel was located. The building houses the Paris Modern Art Museum on the 4th and 5th floors, so Peter and I decided to check it out before heading to dinner. The building itself is a type of modern art with all of its functional parts on the outside. (ie escalator, pipes, heating ducts ect.)

The escalator ride to the top was so fun. As we rode, the view just got better and better.

Until finally, we arrived on the 5th floor and were completely wowed by the magnificent city views. We were lucky enough to hit it just at sunset.

First stop on Day 2 was Napolean's tomb, which is located in the Army Museum.

We enjoyed touring several different parts of the Army Museum, but the highlight was definitely Napolean's tomb. It is huge and located in a beautiful and ornate rotunda.

On our way to lunch, we had to take the obligatory Eiffel Tower shot.

After lunch we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and check out another one of Paris's famous parks, Luxembourg Garden. It has 60 acres of gardens and houses the French Senate in the palace that is on the park grounds.

The flowers in the gardens were so vibrant.

One of the more unique musems that Paris has to offer is the Musée d'Egouts or Sewer Museum.

To visit the museum you actually descent down into the sewers of Paris. The tour winds its way through the sewer system and explains the evolution of Paris's advanced sewer network. Of course the smell is what you would expect.

Definitely not the most romantic of spots in Paris, but it was cool in a very disgusting sort of way.

After a nice dinner, we decided to check out the lights of Champs-Elysées from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. Unfortunately , but not surprisingly, though, the workers were on strike, so the top of the Arc was closed. Lucky for us, the beautiful traffic and lights and crowds were just as cool from under the Arc.

Our last day in Paris dawned bright and sunny (3 days in a row of sun in France is pretty spectacular.) so we headed off early to take advantage of Les Journées de Patrimoines or Heritage Days. On this day each year, citizens can go into government building that are usually closed to the public. We skipped breakfast to be at the Palais d'Elyssée (France's White House), but were shocked to see that the rest of Paris had gotten up even earlier than us. The line would have taken all day. So, we walked around to the back and snagged a couple of photos instead.