Luxembourg Gardens, more churches and our Hotel in Paris

Dear Grace,


I think I got a bit ahead of myself in trying to catch up on our blog posts.  There were just so many things we saw in Paris during the weekend that I forgot to copy in our final day.  The girls had their hearts set on shopping considering we stayed in one of the local shopping districts, but to our surprise every store was closed.  While Andy and I were heartbroken for the girls, the bank accounts were smiling for us.  Apparently, Sunday is a day of rest and relaxation and most stores are not open at all.


We ended up walking to the Luxembourg Gardens and seeing many of the churches around the city before saying goodbye to our fabulous hotel that we stayed in.  Enjoy!


Love,
Daddy

The Luxembourg Gardens began as part of the Palais du Luxembourg which was built in 1620 for Marie de Médicis, widow of Henri IV, on the site of former mansion of Duke of Luxembourg. They are part formal garden with terraces and gravel paths,  part "English garden" of lawns, and part amusement centre for gardenless Parisians. The gardens were (and still are) one of the cities most popular public spaces. There are some public park facilities, including tennis courts and children's play areas, and over a hundred sculptures, including statues of Stendhal, Chopin, Montesquieu, Phidias, Baudelaire, Delacroix and Blanche of Castile.

The picture below was of two ladies doing moch sword fighting, but there were so many more people practicing this form of martial arts all around the park.  The first thing that came to mind was the movie 'Role Models', and I couldn't stop laughing.  In this movie, they exposed the world of L.A.I.R.E, which means Live Action Interactive Roleplaying Explorers....yeah, I had to do research and look that up.  Anyway, if you have seen this amazing movie you'll get as much humor as I did from the scene below.

We came out of the gardens and happened to stumble across the Saint Sulpice chuch.  It took more than a century and six architects before the monumental St. Sulpice church was completed at the end of the 18th century. The church, which is the second largest in Paris behind Notre Dame is located in the heart of Paris's popular 6th arrondissement.

The Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which is pictured below is the oldest church in Paris. Originally built in the 6th century, it was long part of an important Benedictine abbey. 

The church is at the center of a popular quarter of the same name.  This is the area where we stayed while in Paris.

We worked up quite the appetite while looking at all of these attractions so decided to stop and get some pizza and beer for lunch.  Once again, as a disclaimer, Grace did not have any beer.  We just think it's funny how she loves to drink out of a glass like a big girl.  She does so much better drinking her water out of an actual glass compared to a sippy cup so she reaches for every glass she can get her hands on.

Before we headed to the Gare du Nord train station, we went back to our hotel to pick up our bags and then visit one last church....the Sacre-Coeur.  These pictures are of our hotel, Le Lutetia, as we went to our last sight-seeing attraction.

The people of Paris earned major bonus points with us since they had a bar called 'Indiana'.  Every city should have a bar like this!

This was a great picture of Grace and her French teething toy, who is named Sophie.  If you have a child, I'm sure this toy was given as a gift or purchased at some point.

The Sacré-Coeur Basilica is one of Paris' major tourist draws. The majestic building is located on top of the Montmartre hill.  Above all, Montmartre, an area on a hill in the 18th arrondissement, north of downtown Paris, is known for its many artists who have been omnipresent since 1880.  The project to build the Sacré-Coeur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) was initiated by a group of influential people. Their reasons to build this monument was two-fold: they had pledged to build a church if Paris escaped unscathed from the war with the Prussians and they saw the defeat of the French at the hands of the Prussian army in 1870 as a moral condemnation of the sins of Paris.

I decided to make this last picture of the church hill extra large because the street performer was the best I have EVER seen in my life and he was also the best soccer ball juggler I have EVER seen in my life.  He literally did show after show in the hot weather as everyone on the hill and below watched him.  He would climb 20 feet up the light pole and hang while juggling the soccer ball like a hacky sack.  I don't know how he was able to keep his hands dry enough to hold onto the pole for so long.  I'm sure this guy makes MAJOR MONEY in tips because he was so good that there would be a line after his performance just to shake his hand.


On another note, Europeans LOVE Michael Jackson.  We hear his music everywhere over here.  This street performer was playing 'Heal the World' while doing all of his tricks.

We had an amazing time in Paris that weekend, but it was time to finally return back home to London.  The new train station, which has the Eurostar high speed trains was built in 2007 and is now preparing for the 2012 Olympics.  I thought the below shot was an excellent way to end the post.