Wednesday was a day of hitting the highlights of Paris: Seine River Tour, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Notre Dame. The Louvre, one of the world’s great museums, was packed with tourists. It was wonderful because of the great art, but not fun making our way following our tour guide through the throngs of people. Trying to see the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Venci’s great work, was next to hilarious. I pushed my way forward to get a good picture with the best of them! Basically, we got to see the greatest works in the collection in this huge former palace before getting out into more people-less spaces.

Our Seine River boat tour was relaxing, moving under beautiful bridges and past majestic buildings–I think Paris is one of— if not the most— beautiful city in the world. It has harmony in style and glorious scope in magnificence. Soon we arrived at the Eiffel Tower—such grace in design—and took the elevator up to our restaurant where we were served a noon meal—the duck liver with foie gras was especially delicious. We marveled at the views over the city.

Our tour boat took us onward to Notre Dame, the iconic Paris cathedral with its flying buttresses on an island in the Seine. Kathy and I have been there numerous times, with our attendance at an Easter service standing out in memory. It was cool and refreshing inside the building. The stained glass stood out as the sun shone brightly outside. We learned that an evening vesper service was soon to begin and, as our tour for the day had ended, we decided to stay for this meditative time. It was uplighting and beautiful.

We found an outside bistro, took a seat and watched the world go by as we enjoyed typical Paris bistro selections. WEG