2014 - Cruising with the Charleston's - City of Lights: Day 2

This morning Viking arranged a city tour for all of us. Driving in a huge bus on Paris’ city streets is an experience! We drove up roads I thought a bus would never fit, and it didn’t. But the driver drove them anyway and stopped traffic doing it. But no horns honked. It’s an every day occurrence for these city folk. You should see the roundabouts. It is every man for himself...or every woman for herself. Buses just can’t merge in; they don’t fit. They can’t come upon the circle and turn right to merge. They have to drive straight into the circle to the center, blocking all traffic and then turn into the street to maneuver the roundabout. The bus driver did not wait for an empty space to pull in (there never is an empty space). He just pulled right in and forced traffic to stop. Again, no horns. Amazing.

We drove by several historic sites of the city of Paris. We made two stops; Norte Dame and the Eiffel Tower.

The afternoon was our free time. We spent it exploring the Louvre. This is my favorite place in Paris. It is a grand building along the Seine River that was the former palace of the Kings of France. Today it is the home of vast collections of ancient civilizations, antique furnishings, sculptures (many by Michelangelo), Islamic arts and Western art from the Middle Ages until 1848. The building is in a “U” shape that is several blocks long and has 4 floors. We spent 6 hours trying to visit each floor, but not seeing everything on each floor. My legs and feet would never allow it. Today was a wonderful, exhausting day. Tomorrow we leave Paris.