Travelling with Maveling: 10 Beautiful Days in Paris.

Selection of Photos from some of our favourite spots we visited during out 10 days in Paris.

The Gardens inside the Petit Palais.

Pont Alexander III Bridge - the most ornate bridge in Paris.

Monet's painting in the Musee de l'Orangerie of The Waterlilies.

10 Days in Beautiful Paris.

It is Friday and our last night in the beautiful City of Paris. We have had 10 days in this very large city and seen many wonderful places – cathedrals, churches, bridges, museums, art galleries etc. We have walked miles, ridden the four routes of the Hop-On Hop-Off bus, mastered the Paris Metro and cruised the River Seine. We have also been on an organised day tour by bus to Reims about 150klms away and we have taken the RER train to the Chateaux Versailles. We have been very busy and guess what we are very tired and our legs and backs are a bit sore. We are not as young as we used to be and we are not able to keep up the same pass as we used to do.

The weather has been beautiful –mid to high 20°and sometimes a little humid. On a few occasions we have had a thunderstorm in the evening with rain about midnight. The only day that it really rained continuously unfortunately was the day we choose to go to Chateaux Versailles.

The hours of daylight have been a lot long compared to summer in Melbourne. The sun is up well before 5am and it is not dark till after 10.30pm. People really seem to take advantage of this longer twilight time - the cafés, bars and restaurants are always busy and there are people walking and sitting by the River Seine. It is hard to tell which people are the tourists and who are the Parisians just out enjoying themselves. All intermingle seamlessly.

The cruise boats that do an hours’ cruise up and then down the Seine are always full (some take a 1000 passengers). They move at a fast pace (and go under 8 bridges each way) with an on board commentary and bright happy French music. People on the boats wave and sing out to the people sitting beside the River and they wave back and join in with the excitement. Paris really is a jovial and happy city and everyone seems pleased to join in and to be here. We have really enjoyed being part of the Paris community, if only for a short time.

We have really loved going out about 5pm and staying out till after 9pm. It is such a lovely time of the day. We have been out at this time to walk to over some of the many bridges that Paris has to offer, to admire the architecture of the massive Louvre Museum buildings and to walk in the Jardin des Tuileries, we have been via the Metro to the Montmartre Area and visited the beautiful Cathedral Sacre Coeur and we have been for a ride with a 1000 other people on the River Seine and then we went on an illuminations tour, to see Paris by night with all its beautiful lights.

Our apartment is not far from the main Cathedral of Paris-Notre Dame so we have been there a couple of times and we seem to have been walking up to or past the Louvre on a fair percentage of our outings. Our visit to the Louvre Museum was great but it was also a bit daunting as it is so large and just mastering how to get around such a huge venue was difficult. We enjoyed our visit to the Middle Ages Museum - the Musee de Cluny and just marvelled at their fully restored large tapestries, religious pictures, carvings and stained glass windows. This was a real gem and not mentioned in many of the tourist books. Another little gem that we found was in the Latin Quarter not far from where we were staying it was the Church of St Etienne du Mont. The inside of this church was beautiful and very well looked after by the local community. It had some very special features including an eye catching rood screen. This church houses a shrine to St Genevieve the legendary patron saint of Paris. We enjoyed our visit here more than we did our visit to Notre Dame. It was clean, orderly and full of light. We felt that some parts of Notre Dame were very dark and some parts inside were in need of renovating. This so called Latin area was just a delight to walk around, it was less touristy and had a great feeling of community.

Connecting to the internet has been problematic at times and I am not sure what connection we will have as we travel around France so l am going to finish our time in Paris with a selection of photos. This will give you some idea of the wonderful this that are here to be seen and enjoyed.

One of the many bridges that cross the River Seine in Paris.

Musee du Louvre.

Arc de Triumphed du Carrousel. This triumphal arch was built to celebrate Napoleon's military victories in 1805. If you look in the centre you can see all the way to the Arc de Triomphe.

Place de la Concorde. One of Europe most magnificent squares

The Fountain in the Place de la Concorde.

A View Down the Champs Elysees

The Eiffel Tower taken from the Palais de Chaillot.

St Louis des Invalids - The Dome Church.

Inside the Dome Church with its magnificent dome both inside and out.

The Tomb of Napoleon.

At Les Invalids is a wonderful Museum of Military History.

The Magnificent Interior of the Sainte-Chapelle. These stain glass windows are in the process of being restored.

Close-ups of the beautiful statues and stain-glass windows in the magical Sainte-Chapelle.

The Conciergerie- this sinister looking building was the country's chief prison during the Revolution.

Notre-Dame Cathedral is Paris's major Cathedral and it is a superb example of French medieval architecture.

Major Stature in the grounds of Notre-Dame.

View from the back of Notre Dame.

Beautiful Rose Widows with in the Cathedral.

View of the high vaulted central nave of the Cathedral.

View taken from Pont de l'Archeveche.

Paris at night - The Eiffel Tower and The Louvre.

The magnificently restored 16th Century Tapestries in the Musee de Cluny. This medieval arts and crafts museum was my favourite museum that we visited.

A café in the Latin Quarter or The Left Bank. This was just the most beautiful area of Paris to just wander about and it was just behind where we were staying.

Can you find the real live cat in this photo? He has a birds eye of the people enjoying their meal.

This beautiful stain-glass window is in Musee de Cluny.

Inside the lovely church of St-Etienne du Mont in the Latin Quarter. This church was just fabulous and beautifully kept by the local community. It had a special shrine to St Genevieve, the legendary patron saint of Paris.