Paris ... A View From Atop

Let me say right up front, one day in Paris is NOT enough. And one blog post containing a handful of pictures will not do it justice, but allow me this attempt at an overview.

After a hearty breakfast at “our” gite in Jaulzy, we piled into the mini-van, drove 30 minutes or so to Compiegne, hopped on a train to Paris, paid our 50cent-Euro (per person) to the keeper of the toilette in Paris-Nord (second busiest train station in the world after Grand Central Station in NY!), navigated our way through a few city-blocks of Parisian foot-traffic to the appropriate Metro station, purchased tickets and eventually pushed everyone (and stroller) successfully through the turnstiles and onto the waiting train, found seats or poles to hang on to for the 10-minute ride to the Opera House station, climbed the stairs and emerged to this …

Oh, the sights and sounds of Paris --

but alas, our next objective was to find one of these …

If you are trying to pack as much Paris as you can into a single day, we highly recommend the Hop On / Hop Off Bus. Here are some of the captured moments (and who did some of the capturing) atop the big red bus …

Inching through traffic along
the Avenue des Champs-Elysées toward the Arc de Triomphe

While we know Micaiah's shutter had little rest,
we are somewhat less confident that Bear was listening to the English-audio tour! 

No Paris-post would be complete without a shot of the Eiffel Tower.

Did I mention it was an incredibly beautiful day for sightseeing?

Or for a wedding?! 
This is probably a common occurrence, but we found it entertaining!

26 million visitors to Paris each year ... we call this one
"Lonely Man on the Bridge"

OK -- this is a ground-level view of
The Louvre
Our final destination

Ahhh, the sights and sounds of Paris...
Maybe one day is too much.