Our First Trip to Paris - Part Two of Four

[Note: This was in the spring of 2010.]

French Cuisine

These little take-away crepe stands are popular.

Looking forward to a good meal

Le Select was once the hangout of characters like Hemingway, Picasso and Trotsky. Today it is typical of the dozens of cafes that line boulevard du Montparnasse, where customers like to sit facing the sidewalk to observe the passing scene. We thought it was too expensive, so we ate somewhere else.

Around and About

A golden statue atop one of the pillars on Pont Alexandre III

On the Ile des Cygnes, a small artificial island in the Seine, this one-fifth scale statue of Liberty faces west, toward its sister in New York.

Seriously, what is a Mississippi riverboat doing on the Seine?

The Eiffel Tower, glimpsed beyond the columns of Pont Alexandre III

Along the Champs-Elysees, even the lamp posts are fancy.

Art is everywhere. We saw this reproduction of one of Rodin's sculptures of Balzac on the platform in a Metro station. Nearby was a copy of The Thinker.

This statue is on Avenue Winston Churchill, just off the Champs-Elysees.

The fountain at Place Saint-Michel is a huge monument whose central sculpture portrays Saint Michael
fighting the devil.

A close-up reveals that the devil is really angry. It's hard to tell which annoys him more:
Michael's foot on his back or the pigeon poop in his hair.

The rain didn't stop these bicyclists from racing around and around and around the boulevard.

The archaeological crypt underneath the street in front of Notre Dame reveals ancient Gallo-Roman ruins.

Nearly everywhere we went, we could see the golden dome of Les Invalides church,
in bright contrast against the vast backdrop of beige-and-gray Paris.

The interior of the dome was painted by Charles de La Fosse in 1705.

In the crypt is Napoleon's 15-foot-high tomb, surrounded by elaborate decorations, including marble relief panels celebrating his accomplishments.

In the nearby military museum is Napoleon's faithful horse, stuffed and exhibited in a dim corridor that leads to the restrooms. His dog was also stuffed, but it was not on display at this time.

At the Army Museum, a greatcoat and cape from World War I, still soaked with the mud of the trench

  
On the left, a section of medieval armor designed to let a knight move his shoulder. On the right, sections of modern body armor designed to let a policeman move his shoulder. Not much has changed in the past thousand years or so.