We had a harder time getting up today, but it had snowed and was really pretty outside. We headed out, this time by bus, to Hotel des Invalides and Louis XIV's personal church - the Dome Church where Napoleon's tomb lies. The sun was shining and it was fun to do a little travel "above ground". Of course, the people were much more fashionable here than in Germany - women wearing makeup and chic coats vs. granola looking women in parkas! It was fun to notice the differences.
The destinations today were lower on our list but didn't disappoint. Invalides was built by Louis XIV as a place for wounded and homeless veterans and is huge and at one time housed 6000 soldiers. It still houses around 100 soldiers as well as the Musee de l"Armee (War Museum). As we all know Louis liked opulence and the Dome Church is considered the Versailles of churches. It is over the top! The surprise of the day was how much we all enjoyed the War Museum. We began thinking we would indulge Jay a little but to their dad's delight we had to slow down for the girls! It was very well done and we only went through the section on World War I and II. Lots of war clips, dioramas, uniforms and all in English for the most part. We also went to a documentary movie about Charles de Gaulle - as one American travel writer said "I never knew he won the war for the Allieds!!"
From there, we decided to go to Place de l'Concorde and Tuilleries Gardens back across the Seine. We felt the girls were ready for some age appropriate fun and had heard that there might be some things open in the park despite the weather. To their delight the in ground trampolines and the merry go round were open. That was a huge hit along with an English language bookstore (had to drag Scout out) and most of all the ferris wheel ride that Dad indulged in. As Dayna put it, "Dad, just don't think about how much it costs!" The three of them went up and Dayna took some great pictures from the top of the Champs Elysees including one toward the Arc with the modern city skyline in the background. They loved it except Jay got a little motion sick!! From there we went up the Champs Elysees to see the beautiful lights along the boulevard, ate some dinner and then thought about calling it a day but decided to go for a trip to the Orsay Museum rather than squeeze it in the next morning.
The Orsay is housed in an old train station and is a great "little" (by Paris standards) art museum. It was the night it stayed open until 10:00 so again it wasn't crowded at all. Amazingly the girls hung in there and we saw some of our favorite artist's work - Monet. Jay is also shown with his art tutor - Van Gogh!
On Friday, we packed up and did some major league souvenir shopping (guess what one of things purchased was...) and then caught the train back to Tubingen - definitely the way to travel!! Once home, we were greeted by about 5 inches of snow and more pouring down! Great trip and the girls were troopers!
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