A Day Exploring...

Today John and I experienced the city of Paris the way I have always wanted to experience a great city. We simply picked a direction and started walking. We explored the length of the Champs Ellesse. We shopped through the heart of their retail district, going from Cartier to Louis Vuitton to Hugo Boss to Peugout. We took in the architecture and photographed anything that struck our fancy. We made our way along the river and came back up through the heart of the art district, tracing a portion of the Tour de France route. We stumbling onto a nice little Italian restaurant and had some phenomenal artisan pizza. We watched a French elementary school let its kids out for the day and we explored a little corner grocery store, picking up some of my beloved Red Bull. All in all, we got to see much of Paris from a Parisian perspective. The entire day was very un-tourist and quite pleasant.

I could get quite philospohical about the whole day, but I am going to skip all of that for now and simply share a few photographs and a few captions. Have fun.


Walking toward the Arch down the Champs...


The Arch de Triumph in the near Spring glory of the day...


The Arch and me...


John and the Arch....before the ascent...


The art of a truly monumental structure...


There are a few stairs to the top of the Arch...


The view from above the City....


Sacred Heart in the distance...


Eiffel in all her glory...


John and Eiffel in pose....


The heart of a new Paris in the distance....


The National Gallery...Paris has a lot of art...


More of the National Gallery campus....


Some very impressive portions of the Bridge...


More bridge column illuminated by the hand of God...


Me crossing the river...


I honestly have no idea what this is other than a beautiful woman and a golden sword...


Looking back against the Parisian skyline...


The Obellusk...you know I was going to share this...lol


Looking down the Champs Ellesse....


A beautiful portion of a random park in the heart of the city....