Tuesday Touring - Nov 3

The sun forgot to arise this morning in Paris.  We awoke to an overcast sky that never abated.  None the less, our plans to visit more of the City went forward.  We caught the train in Versailles right after enjoying McCafe's delightful fare of french pastries and fresh orange juice.  Our train ride into town was enjoyable and picturesque.  Our first visit was the Le Defense Grande Arche.

The Arche is almost a perfect cube (width: 108m, height: 110m, depth: 112m); it has been suggested that the structure looks like a four-dimensional hypercube (a tesseract) projected onto the three-dimensional world. It has a prestressed concrete frame covered with glass and Carrara marble from Italy and was built by the French civil engineering company Bouygues.

Within the courtyard of the Louvre is a rather old gate constructed by a general whose desire to be remembered got the best of him.

The inverted pyramid is a clever and ingenious idea brought to life in the last 25 years.

La Pyramide Inversée (The Inverted Pyramid) is a skylight constructed in an underground shopping mall in front of the Louvre Museum in France. It may be thought of as a smaller sibling of the more famous Louvre Pyramid proper, yet turned upside down: its upturned base is easily overlooked from outside.

The Inverted Pyramid is located just to the right of the normal pyramid seen above and is located in the courtyard of the Musee du Louvre.

Notre Dame is an historic center of Paris from which all distances in the City are measured.  The interior is spectacular.  Tributes to men overwhelm.  

Stained Glass is without parallel inside the Basilica. 

Not far from the Center of Paris, a statue of Thomas Jefferson stands on the Seine as a tribute to his diplomatic genius in troubled times for both the French and the USA. 

Traffic bustles constantly particularly in the shopping districts. 

The Arch De Triumph fascinates me every time I see it.  Up close it is more mesmerizing.  

Next the Palace built to rehabilitate solders damaged in war still performs perfunctory assistance for war heroes.  

 As the day wound to a close we met Mike and Jill for dinner at a favorite neighborhood Parisian restaurant.  Excellent.