DAY 1


DAY 2


DAY 3


DAY 4


DAY 5

Pictures taken by
Hana & Mirek

Copyright © 2007 STEMI 
All rights reserved

On Monday, July 30th we had breakfast in the hotel and went by the metro, number 8, lilac line and yellow line, number 1 to the Louvre Museum that we entered from the Palais Royal Musee du Louvre metro station on its basement floor, so we could see its fantastic both the main and an inverse glass pyramids from the bottom. Interesting and nice constructions ! Well. The museum... It was the hugest museum that we had ever visited. Incredible ! Amazing ! So many sculptures, pictures and collections of historical sights ! The core collection was formed by François I, and added to by Henri II and Catherine de Medicis. The Old Master collection was developed by Louis XIV and important Spanish and Dutch works acquired by Louis XVI. Most painting lovers come to view the exceptional collection of European paintings which range is from 1400 to 1900.
We spend there about five hours ... our eyes and legs were tired ... it should have wanted to have more time for it and more days to split our sightseeing to more parts over there. Just a taste.
Then we took a short stroll along the riverbank, relishing beautiful weather and romantic Parisian feeling with a great many views to interesting old buildings, bridges. We had a lunch in a cafe 'At Quasimodo' and continued our sightseeing tour in the Notre Dame cathedral.
No other building is so associated with the history of Paris as Notre-Dame. Pope Alexander III laid the first stone in 1163. The erection lasted more than 180 years and was completed around 1345. The cathedral is a Gothic masterpiece.
So we were slow walking around in that grandiose cathedral, enjoying its special and impresive atmosphere ...
Then we had to queue for climbing up onto its towers. But it was worth to wait for it ! There were without number of wonderful views around the whole Paris on the top ! Fantastic ! Yes, our Prague is also very nice, maybe more cute, but Paris is nice its own way. Prague is more colorful and picturesque with its all red roofs and many towers, Paris is more monumental with all its huge buildings and white color every where ...
Then we even managed to visit another Parisian monument - Arc de Triomphe, that is situated in the middle of Place de l'Etoile - Charles de Gaulle. Napoleon started the construction in 1806, but it was completed only in 1836, during the reign of Louis Philippe. However, the rest of Place de L'Etoile was not finished until 1854. Haussman, the architect responsible for redesigning Paris (1853-1870), added another seven boulevards to the existing five ones and created a big rung circle with Arc de Triomphe in the middle.
There is an excellent view on the top, overlooking the Champs-Elysées, on one side La Grande Arche from La Defense and on the other side the Obelisk from Place de la Concorde. Yes, it is another great place for overlooking the whole Paris including Sacre Coeur, Louvre, La Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Montparnass. And because weather was nice we enjoyed it also so much and I took many interesting pictures because sun and clouds made beautiful sceneries.
Then there was only a short walk along Champs Elysees, then we took the metro, on our way back we bought some croissants in next door 'boulangerie'(bakery), we had a small dinner in our room and jumped in beds at about 9 p.m. because we were really tired again ...