A few days in Paris

Last week Ben had a conference in Paris. We decided to make a little vacation out of it and I am so happy we did. Turns out Paris is awesome. The weather was beautiful and the city is absolutely amazing. We only saw a fraction of the things on our list, but we were so happy with everything we did.

*Disclaimer* We ate A LOT of delicious food. I however didn't take any food pictures. I was simply to busy enjoying the food, the conversation, and the weather.

As we were there for Ben's work, we got put up in a really nice hotel. This is the view standing in front of the hotel. It was a 5 minuet walk to get to the Eiffel Tower. Convenient.

We spent the afternoon we arrived walking along the Seine. It is a beautiful walk and there is so much to see. We especially liked this bridge.

Here is the Fountain of St. Michael. It was a nice fountain.

Here is a street performer taking a smoking break. I found this pretty funny and had to jump to get my camera, but then be sneaky, so that they didn't know I was taking a photo :)

Here is a nice arch by the Louvre. Don't worry, there is a bigger arch to come.

Here is the main court yard of the Louvre. This museum is impressive from the outside. Not only is it enormous, but the architecture is simply stunning. We probably spent an hour just looking at the outside of the building. Once we got inside we spent the better part of a day looking at as much as we could. We did the obvious things and saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus del Milo, but our favorites were the Napoleon apartments and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

While we were waiting to get into the Louvre we saw these police men. Yup roller police. What a great idea.

 Oh hey Notre Dame. Sadly we didn't make it inside, but the outside was quite pretty.

While Ben was in meetings one day I went off on my own little adventure. Here is a picture of the clock inside of Musee de Orsay. This museum is full of impressionist paintings and sculptures. The art was simply amazing. Sadly, you can't take pictures of the art. But as least this clock is cool. And you can see a bit of Paris from the middle of it.

Here is another picture from the roof of Musee de Orsay. What a  lovely day.

Another beautiful old church in Paris. This one is right across from the Louvre.

Here is the National Academy of Music, also known as their Opera house. It is an impressive building, with lots of gold (a general theme for old building there.)

I promised a bigger arch and here it is, the Arc de Triomphe. It is huge. If we had been in Paris one extra day we could have seen the finish of the Tour de France race around here...I guess that will have to wait for another year.

As part of Ben's conference there was a dinner cruise of the Seine. It was really neat to see how many people congregate around the river in the evening.  The river side is full of little outdoor restaurants and cafe's. Here a bunch of people are simply enjoying the evening.

 And finally, no trip to Paris is complete without seeing the Eiffel Tower twinkle at night. This video was taken while we were on our dinner cruise for Ben's work. Pretty much a perfect way to finish an evening.