Final days in Paris

Our last day in Paris included a trip to The Lourve, Notre Dame Cathedral, and The Eiffel Tower. The Lourve was originally a medieval castle then home to kings of France before being dedicated as an art museum. In fact they only recently discovered the medieval castle ruins below the museum which we were able to tour. It was amazing to see in person all the things I've seen in the history books such as  Mona Lisa by de Vinci. It was very crowded around her. She is behind a thick pane of glass. We did learn at one point a boy took the Mona Lisa from the Lourve and hid it under his bed for 3 years, but later returned it. I have to say the paintings, sculptures, and all of the other artistry was incredible! Something else that was shocking was the number of signs warning of pick pocketers, even in the museum! Our guide told us they work around the Mona Lisa because it is so crowded that most people would never even know they had been picked. One of the guys in our tour (he was from Lake Tahoe) had been picked the previous day near the train station.

We had lunch at the Eiffel Tower. Good thing we had reservations because three of the four lifts to go up the tower were not working and the wait was at least 2 hours. Everyone who had reservations, went into a shorter line. We only had to wait for ~ 30 minutes. The view was nice. Avery wanted to go all the way to the top, but given only one lift was working, we were not able to go up unless we wanted to walk. That was not going to happen since it is over 1050 vertical steps to the top!  Avery was a little disappointed, but we had to meet back up with our tour guide to head over to the Notre Dame Cathedral. This was our last stop before dinner and heading back to the hotel. The Notre Dame was the birth place of Paris. All distances are marked from this site, so this is the center of Paris. The cathedral was beautiful and the stone work was unbelievable. You will see from one of the pictures below that all of the biblical kings are carved into the side of the structure.
We had a great time in Paris but all good things must come to an end?  Time to get back to the real world! Oh yes, we had a cafe (coffee) at the most incredible Starbucks known to mankind. Avery said "mom this is a 5 star Starbucks" and boy that was true.
Au revoir!

From top left: entrance to The Louvre, painting on ceiling of Louvre, Michelangelo sculpture,  the Winged Victory; At bottom left: The Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Psyche and Cupid, The Lourve (world's largest and richest museum)

Eiffel Tower and Seine River

Notre Dame Cathedral