Wow what a day. The kids held out great as we did a lot of walking. This time we decided to start the day off early since everyone was up by 7:45am and took the bus to Musee D'Orsay. After which we crossed the bridge to the North Bank to spend the afternoon in Tuileries Gardens and Musee d'Orangerie before making the historic walk to the Arc de Triomphe via Place de la Concorde and Champs-Elysees. Here is a link of our itinerary.
Musee D'Orsay (4.5 of 5)
Packed in a stylish retrofitted train station, is French art from the 1800-early 1900s that picks up where the Louvre ends. You will see works of art from Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, Rodin etc. that you will recognize from your art history text books or movies. So if you don't get a chance to go specifically to the Rodin museum for example, coming here should tie you over sufficiently. One thing that I found really appealing is the variety in works since it spans the old, new, and revolutionary. The second best art museum we've visited so far in Paris and wish that we had more time here.
Jardin des Tuileries (4.5 of 5)
The location of the Tuileries Garden makes it a great place to take a break from all the sightseeing as it links the Louvre, Orangerie, Je de Paume, Orsay, and Place de la Concorde. Not only because of the location though, but it has a bunch of stuff for the kids that include a playground, merry-go-round, mini sailboats, and trampolines.
Musee de l'Orangerie (2 of 5)
I'll admit that our heart wasn't in it in the first place as we really came to this museum to use a clean washroom for a quick nappy change. Our Museum Pass afforded us walking straight in so we checked out the major exhibit that featured Monet's Water Lily series of paintings. Basically the way Money painted this, it covered 6500 sq ft (yes that is just the painting, and was meant to be viewed in a circular room. As such, you enter 2 circular rooms that show a painting that wraps 360 degrees. Interesting yes but only for a minute. BTW the washrooms were clean.
Place de la Concorde (3.5 of 5)
As you know, in terms of squares I was not a fan of Trafalgar square and am glad to say that Place de la Concorde was more my style of what a city square should be. A good size space with a massive size traffic circle, it is home to one of the Luxor Obelisks - a gift from Egypt in the early 1800's. It was transported using major waterways piece by piece and took almost 4 years to move the thing.
Champs-Elysees (1 of 5)
People talk a lot about this boulevard and how it is a must to trek it from the Louvre to the Arc - a 45 minute walk or so. Walking along this street is over-hyped but at least I can say I did it, with kids, which is more impressive since it took us 90 minutes. A good place to people watch though as we saw a break-dancing competition, a fight break out between a guy that we cursing at Turkey outside of the Turkey tourism board and a passerby that was from Turkey (which subsequently got broken-up by plain clothes policemen), and tourist almost getting clipped trying to take photos of the Arc while standing in the middle of the road. If you have kids, I'd recommend to skip the walk, save the energy and headaches, and take the Metro to the Arc from the Louvre.
Arc de Triomphe (5 of 5)
Ah yes, finally the "piece de resistance" of the day which I'm glad to say ended in spectacular fashion. Napolean had the Arc created to mark his victory at the battle of Austerlitz and made it the biggest (165 ft high, 130 ft wide) in the world. As Rick puts it:
"With 12 converging boulevards, there's no traffic circle more thrilling to experience - either from behind the wheel or on foot (take the underpass)"
The foot of the arch is the stage of some major events of the past 200 years of French history such as Napolean's funeral and the arrival of the Nazis and ending with Charles de Gaulle's return after an Allied liberation. The walk to the top of the arch (287 steps) offers another breath-taking vantage point that is becoming a common theme in Paris. Do yourself a favour and ensure you go up - with a Museum Pass of course.
