*Written by Dave*
Today was a nice relaxing day. We woke up early to have breakfast in our hotel. Some cereal and bread with greg's favorite... Nutella. We then headed toward the Arc de Triomphe! There we bought a Paris Museum pass for two days which will get us into a bunch of other places for free. The sight from the top of the arc was great. Paris really is a beautiful city and from a high point, such as the one we were looking from, you are truly able to get a feeling for the architectural history. There is a "new-age" business area with high rises but for the most part you are seeing renovated/maintained buildings from hundreds of years ago. Something you really can't get yet in America. Next stop was The Louvre! After a long walk down the Champs de Élysées we entered a huge garden surrounded by a magnificent u-shaped palace. I saw this place when I was 14 years old but today, I felt like I was seeing it for the first time. We learned that it took centuries for the three sides of the palace to actually connect, crazy. Our museum experience was made by following a walking tour on our iPhones from a Rick Steve's app. Without his clear explanations and quirky comments we would have been roaming around this place for hours mindlessly looking at paintings. Sorry to offend any major art goers but the three of us need a little help to appreciate such fine art. We saw the Mona Lisa and other famous works of art and were throughly impressed by our one hour visit to one of the greatest art museums in the world.
After a quick and cheap lunch we went to the Army Museum which holds Napoleon's Tomb. Countless jokes can be made about this emperor doing things to compensate for his small stature and his resting place is no different. His tomb is the size of a studio apartment in New York. But, to each his own...right? We are truly getting our fix of war museums, seeing the two world wars through British, and now French perspectives.
Next we took a well deserved rest in the yard in front of the palace under some trees for shade. FYI, it was sunny and hot here all day. After a nap and more hackey sack we went to the Jewish Quarter for falafel. Needless to say it was delicious. Greg talked to a guy working there and through his broken knowledge of Hebrew found out this guy grew up near where his uncle lives in Israel...small world. We got a few drinks at a bar and got into some heavy conversations of life, love and business. Now we are getting ready for bed for tomorrow we go to Versailles! Hope all is well back in the states. You are now caught up with our adventure
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