Trip to France & Monaco
Thursday, November 1st, 2001 by Sean |
October & November - Trip to France & Monaco
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Candy and I went to France and Monaco to celebrate our first anniversary. We started out in Paris, where on our first day we attended Mass at the Cathedral de Notre Dame, then walked along the River Seine past the Place de la Concorde and the Assemblé Nationale to Les Invalides where we saw Napoleon’s Tomb. From there we walked to the Champs de Mars. While we were in Paris, there was a strike of all of the museum and monument workers, so when we arrived at our next destination, the Louvre, we were disappointed to find it closed. The second day we started out at the Arc de Triomphe, only to find that it too was closed due to the strike. We walked down the Champs-Élysées to the Place de la Concorde where we rode the Grand Roue. We visited the Opéra Nationale, before taking a twilight cruise on the Seine to see La Ville Lumière all lit up. On the third day, we went to Montmartre where we visited Sacre Cœur, before walking through Pigalle to the Moulin Rouge. Next we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which offered an incredible view of the city. On our fourth day, we went to the Sorbonne and the Pantheon. There we saw the graves of such luminaries of French history as Voltaire, Louis Braille, and the Curies.
From Paris we moved on to Caen in Normandy, where we visited the Musée de la Paix, which commemorates the D-Day Invasion of 1944. On our second day there, we took a tour of the D-Day Beaches, including Omaha Beach. We visited the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, as well as various British and German cemeteries.
After Normandy, we had a brief layover back in Paris where we went to the top of the Tour Montparnasse, which also offered some excellent views of the city. Then it was on to Lourdes, where we visited the basilica built over the grotto where Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette. We also took a funicular ride to the top of the Pic du Jer, just outside of Lourdes. From there we took in the breathtaking Pyrenees and could see as far as Spain.
Our next stop was Nice, on the French Riviera. Our second day in Nice we took a train into Monaco. We watched the changing of the guard at the Prince’s Palace, saw the church where Princess Grace was married and is now entombed, and did a little gambling at the Casino in Monte Carlo. We wrapped it up with a boat ride on the Mediterranean Sea.
Finally we returned to Paris for a final two days of sight-seeing. The strike was over, so we were finally able to get into the Louvre. We were disappointed however, because while the Musée d’Orsay was open, the Impressionist section was closed.
