Paris - day 3

Grey skies again!! The temperature should be minimum 5C, but it feels a lot less, it's really freezing!

Back on the blue line to get the underground train to the "Opera" to start day 2 of my bus tour.
I'm starting early today to take advantage of the hop-in and hop-out facility and visit as much as I can of the places I haven't yet seen.
First stop - The Arc de Triomphe to photograph the Avenue des Champs Elysee. This is the longest avenue in Paris, and is one of the 12 leading to roundabout where the Arc de Triomph is.
Traffic is crazy, I don't know how they manage to cross all those lanes, and there are no lines on the roads either!!

 

Back on the bus, the next stop was the Eiffel Tower, so I could go see "The Statue of Liberty".
Yes, there is one in Paris too, a smaller copy of the New York statue, given to the French by the american community in France. It faces New York too and is in an island in the middle of the river.

Next stop - the Louvre Museum, so I could go to the Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel in the Tullerie Gardens next to the Louvre. The gardens are lovely, full of golden statues and well cared for.
Across the road over the Seine is a pedestrian bridge - Pont de Arts - full of lockers that young lovers leave to symbolize "eternal love".

Millions of love locks on the Pont d'Arts bridge

View from the bridge

Next stop - Notre Dame church for a visit to the Latin Quarter nearby and the Sorbonne, a famous university. This is a very hip area, full of young people, small restaurants and cafes.

I got on the bus again and stopped at the Musee d'Orsay on the left bank.
This used to be a former railway station. It's now an art museum, very interesting, with various galleries in 5 levels according to the different art styles.There is also sculptures and furniture.
Entry costs 8 euros and you can rent and audio guide for 5 euros.
The only drawback is "no photos allowed", what a pity as my favourite painting from Monet and Renoir were on display.

  

The clock from inside - I managed this one photo as I saw other people photographing it.

By the time I left the museum it was getting dark outside, so I hopped on the bus back to the Opera and just crossed the road into the "Galeries Lafayette" for a quick peep into the deparment store.
It is an amazing shop on 9 floors and a few more floors in another 2 buildings, not cheap though!
Their Gourmet foodstore is just delicious and they have a spice bar that smells a mile away!

After 1 hour in the shop it was time to get the underground back home as I was by now feeling exhausted and it was now past 6pm.

The windows of the Galeries

All decked out in Christmas lights

The inside of the shopping

The spice bar at Galeries Lafayette

The macaroon bar - look at that colourful macaroon tower!