France 2004 – Day 18-19 : The Last Few Days

It is amazing how much faster the trip went without all the equipment. I did get to see Notre Dame de Reims and the ruined Porte Mars. It was a challenge almost in the middle of a busy intersection on a median strip.

I drove into Paris and found a public parking place near Notre Dame. From previous trips I knew that this was generally the area I wanted to stay in.

I went from hotel to hotel trying to find something reasonable and did manage to find a nice and AIR CONDITIONED room for about 90e a night.

I have been to Paris previously and there are not many things that I had on my list to photography. However, I went on my way to the Hotel National des Invalides I passed the very lovely Institut de France.

The golden Eglise du Dome and Napoleon’s Tombs are really quite amazing to see. And my far are views of them on previous trips really didn’t do them justice.

I got lucky in front of the Hotel de Ville as it flash rained and people scattered from view. For about 1 minute there was no one to be seen and I was able to take a great picture of it.

I had a great night’s sleep (thank you air conditioning) and the next day I went to Sacre Cour (which I had seen before) but decided to climb it (which I had not done before).

Later in the day as I was walking by the Seine I saw a girl crying. When I talked to her she told me it was her last day in Paris from her year abroad and was heading back to Ohio. When I mentioned how I was only gone 3 weeks and missed the states and being able to go the movies she laughed and explained how I could go to see Harry Potter in VO (Version Original) i.e. English verses VF (Version Francia) and I thanked her and ran off to the movies.

I also stopped by the Louvre gift shop and saw the Arc de Triomphe de Carrousel (I wasn’t happy with my previous photo of it) and on the way back to my hotel the Fountain in Saint Michel.

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]