We planned another ambitious day for our first full day in the city. Howard was refreshed after sleeping for 10 hours and we were raring to go. We grabbed a few croissants at Pomme de Pain and hit the pavement. We stayed off the beaten path and walked through a neighborhood on the way to the Eiffel Tower. We approached from the left bank of the Seine and had some wonderful views of the tower. We crossed the river and realized that the mass of people were queued to take the elevator to the top. Predictably, there was almost no line for walking the stairs side. We decided that we didn't want to waste the interminable hours on line, so we vowed to come back Thursday when it opened.

Our route took us up the Rue St. Dominique to the esplanade at Les Invalides. We stopped for some pictures of Pont Alexander III since the skies were bright blue and the gold statues beamed with the sun. We turned right and followed the Seine past the National Assembly, in front of the Musee d'Orsay and down to the Pont Neuf where we crossed to the Ile de la Cite.

We followed the right bank of the Ile to Notre-Dame. It had only been open for an hour or two and already had a huge line to climb to the top. We postponed the climb and went inside to see the spectacular stained glass and reliefs. As we shuffled with the crowd around the outside, we looked up at sharply vaulted ceilings and wondered how nice the organ must sound. Unfortunately we were a day late - there was a performance last night that included the organ.

After seeing the inside of the cathedral, we walked through the park next to it and saw nice views of the flying buttresses. We crossed back to the right bank of the Seine and dove into the Latin Quarter. Weaving through smaller streets, we arrived at the Pantheon, home of Foucault's pendulum.

The Pantheon was built on the site of the grave of St. Genevieve, the patron saint of the city of Paris. The building was commissioned by Louis XV in 1744 as an honor to the saint who saved him from a grave illness. The building was converted to secular use in 1885. The features are all marble and open, letting natural light pour in and focus on the pendulum hung by Foucault from the tallest dome. It looks to be easily 100 feet. Under the floor is an immense crypt that contains remains of many heroes of the enlightenment and revolution. Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and the ashes of Alexandre Dumas all rest in the crypt.

We refreshed with a wonderful lunch at Crepes a Gogo and ice cream at Amorino. Kirsten had a chocolate ice cream with whole hazelnuts that was superb. We finished our ice cream in the Jardin de Luxembourg. These gardens feature an octagonal pool where you can rent a small model sailboat and sail it around the pool. The gardens are immaculate and reinforced the designs we had seen where the trees are lined up straight and trimmed to keep the sides clean and sheer. Rows and rows of trees that create lines shading gravel pathways. If only we could do this at home!

From the gardens, we walked through the St. Germain des Pres neighborhood to the Musee d'Orsay. This museum is made from an old train station and you can still see the lines engraved above the gaping portals where trains once ran. Inside, light pours through the vaulted glass ceiling. The museum has many famous works by Monet, Van Gogh, Manet and Renoir. The galleries were crowded but it is still impressive to see these works in person. One unique feature of the museum is the exterior clocks are backed with glass so you can look through the clock onto Paris. It is a very neat place.

We returned to the hotel by Metro and stopped at the supermarket for a cold drink. Outside, one of the security people was arguing with a group of young men. We went past and fetched our drink. While waiting in line to pay, the security guard brought one of the men down to our register and made him pay for two Red Bull energy drinks and a bottle of Vodka. I guess he was caught shoplifting.

Dinner was at an Indian restaurant in Montmartre. We had a huge meal and then walked up to Sacre Coeur. The many steps leading up to the church were packed with people. Some brought wine, other brought beer; everyone was there to see the sun set over the city. When we got to the top, the church was still open so we paraded in with everyone else. It is much smaller than Notre Dame but better appointed. The gilded pictures and reliefs really shone brightly and we felt that even the few stained glass windows were more interesting.

On our way down, we paused to watch a very fit man do soccer ball juggling tricks on top of the corner of a balustrade. He had about 4 square feet to work with and the crowd cheered him on as the tricks increased in difficulty. The almost full moon was up now and hung like a second ball just above his head.

We decided to cap off the night with an evening trip to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to see some of the city lights. We twisted our way up 284 stairs to the top where all of Paris winked and blinked around us. We were taking pictures towards La Defence when the crowd got very excited. The Eiffel Tower, whose main structure was lit with orange-yellow lights began to sparkle (check out the video). There were many bright white lights placed throughout the tower which created this magnificent effect. We stayed for quite a while looking down the Champs Elysees. It was a stunning view to end the day.

Hotel: Paris Marriott Champs-Elysees
Restaurant(s): Kastoori (Indian), Pomme de Pain (cafe), Amorino (gelato), Crepes a Gogo (cafe)
Attractions: Champ de Mars, Notre-Dame, Pantheon, Jardin du Luxembourg, Musee d'Orsay, Sacre-Coeur, Arc de Triomphe