Stroll Along the Seine River and other Paris, France Things to Do Tips

The Seine has walls on either side of it to prevent flooding. There are great walkways along either side of the river. It gives beautiful views all along the river.

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There are a lot of different River Tours through Paris on the River Seine. You can see the boat in the picture. It gives you a very interesting view of all of the famous monuments in Paris.

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This Gothic cathedral, begun in 1163, is a symbol of Paris. It sits on the River Seine in the oldest part of Paris. It has beautiful round stained glass windows which are marvelous. When you are inside and see the light streaming through that stained glass, it's amazing. There are strange looking gargoyles around the top and perched in strange places on the cathedral.

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Address: Ile de la Citi

This is a museum of the Middle Ages. One of the main things we wanted to see here were the famous Unicorn Tapestries. There is a large group of these huge tapestries. In one room there were 4 of them on all 4 walls. They are so delicate with great detail of animals, flowers, and the women who have an timeless quality to them as well as the unicorn. The one called "Lady and the Unicorn" is the one I was most familiar with.

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Phone: 01 53 73 78 16.
Address: Boulevard St-Michel(6, place Paul Painleve)
Directions: Where Boulevard Saint-Michel meets Boulevard Saint-Germain... couldn't be easier. Metro Cluny-Sorbonne (closer) or Saint-Michel (not far at all).

This was the 1627 Palace of Maria de Medici. It is a magnificent palace. Now it houses the French Senate. There are free tours of it on Sunday but we couldn't work it into our schedule.

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The Arc de Triomphe is in a large busy round-about at the end of the Champs-Elysees. 12 streets go off from here like spokes of a wheel. Traffic around the circle was awful and we wondered how we could ever get across to it and then we saw that there is a tunel under the street to it. It was built by order of Napoleon and finished in 1836. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is here at the base of the arc with an eternal flame. It's from WWI. When we left the Arc, we walked down the Champs-Elysees which is the largest avenue leading away with 10 lanes.

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Address: Place Charles-de-Gaulle Etoile
Directions: Metro Line 1, 2, RER A : Charles-de-Gaulle Etoile

This museum was once a train station which is why the huge clock dominates it, and you can look out through the clock and see Paris. The glass roof of the train station is a dramatic site for art. In 1986, 47 years after it closed as a train station, it was reopened and made into a great museum with an important collection of French sculpture and decorative art from the years 1850 to 1914. The painting WHISTLER'S MOTHER is here as well as rooms of paintings and sketches by Degas. He's one of my favorite painters. Wonderful gallery.

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Directions: Métro: line 12, Solférino station; RER: line C, Musée d'Orsay station
Website: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/

This is the must see in Paris. It was sunset and we hadn't made it to the Eiffel Tower yet. We headed there and finally walked down the Parc du Champ de mars which is a long park with the tower at the end. As we got there, they were turning on the twinkle lights which was magical. I think the thing that struck all of us was how HUGE the tower really is. You think you know, but it's larger! You can go to the first floor level for one fee on an elevator and then go on up to the 2nd platform by stairs for another fee but we were much too tired. And we still had to walk to a metro stop to get back to our hotel.

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Address: Trocadero
Directions: You can't miss it!!!

We got up early and were at the Louvre when it opened. The museum is housed in the largest royal palace in Europe. It has a mind-boggling collection of over 300,000 pieces of art plus the crown jewels and antique collections. There are 4 floors of galleries and hallways that run for miles. The building itself is something to see. We had a plan of things that we wanted to make sure we saw such as "Venus de Milo", Vermeer's "The Lace Maker", paintings by Rubens and Rembrandt, and "Winged Victory" sculpture. We also wanted to be sure to see the Egyptian exhibits. This section was especially well done. We also saw Napoleon's ornate apartments. We finally saw the "Mona Lisa" which was a bit of a let down to me. It was so much smaller than I had thought it would be and is behind glass to protect it. We ate lunch at the snack bar at the museum. Even staying most of the day, you cannot even begin to see it all.

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We came upon this magnificent church while walking to the river. It was Not on our list of places to visit but it was such a beautiful place, we took the time to go in. It's flamboyant Gothic architecture which was the house of worship for the royal family before the French Revolution. It was built during the 13th to 16th cen. The stained glass windows are beautiful and there was a rather crude wooden statue of St. Peter, fisher of men, that somehow spoke to me. I was well worth the visit. Sometimes these accidental things are some of the more interesting.

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Directions: I forgot to write down where it was.