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Paris Picture
A Sample Tour of Paris
This half-day driving tour
of about three hours with ten to fifteen minutes stops at Notre
Dame and the Eiffel Tower can serve as
a basic overview of the city. You can modify it as you wish to exclude
or include sites.
We start the day by meeting you at your hotel,
with a chauffeur-driven car. Our guide greets you and explains the
plans for the day, which are no surprise, as you have conferred
in detail before hand to ensure that your points of interest will
be covered. We settle into our comfortable car, and our driver/guide
carefully brings us to our first destination.
Our first destination is the Cathedral
of Notre Dame, anchoring the island where Paris was born
over 2000 years ago. Notre Dame is a stunning aesthetic and technical
achievement of the Middle Ages, a masterpiece of the Gothic style.
Only a few minutes away is another gothic jewel, the Sainte
Chapelle, built to house the holy relic of the crown of
thorns brought by St. Louis back to Paris during the Crusades. In
this same area, we see the magnificent 18th century Palace
of Justice, the law courts where famous trials continue
to be held today, and the formidable former residence of the medieval
kings of France, the Conciergerie, later the notorious
prison where many of the victims of the guillotine spent their last
hours.
Crossing the river on some of Paris’s architecturally
impressive bridges, the tour continues past such famous museums
as the Louvre, the former residence of kings, now
a treasure house of artistic masterpieces from as early as 18,000
years before the birth of Christ. The Musée d’Orsay
is opened in 1986, converted from a former train station on the
river into a magnificent place to display nineteenth-century French
art. It is now one of the city’s most popular museums, housing
the works of the Impressionists and their followers.
Again, crossing the Seine, we come to the nearby
Place de la Concorde, an ideal spot for an exceptional
panoramic view of a number of famous landmarks, leading us to
the
Champs Elysées, the world renowned avenue
that takes you to the Arch de Triomphe, and
the tomb of France’s unknown soldier with its eternal
flame.
We circle the arch, then make our way over to
the Dome of the Invalides, built by France’s
most famous king, Louis XIV, where the Emperor Napoleon’s
red marble tomb lies surrounded by sculptures celebrating the achievements
of his rule; through St Germain-des-Pres, a chic
district of galleries and boutiques; past the Rodin Museum,
once a private residence and then a elite school for young women;
by the Cluny Museum and its Roman baths; near the
famous Sorbonne University, one of the oldest in
the western world, and finally to the Luxembourg Gardens,
with the palace built by Marie de Medici that is now the home of
the French Senate.
We stop for dinner at a carefully-selected restaurant,
chosen in collaboration with our guide, for an excellent evening
meal. Sated and full, our guide returns you to your hotel, for an
evening nightcap and a quiet night.
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