Weekend trip to Paris!

Ahhhhh....Paris!

This past Friday we left for Parijs (Dutch spelling for Paris) for the weekend. Andrew's brother, Dan, was there all week on business and stayed a few extra days so we could meet up!

Our very kind neighbors took care of the pets while we were away. They came in and fed them, and took Sammy for walks in the nearby park.

Friday morning we hit the road at around 0745hrs.  It was pouring down rain. Around 0930hrs we stopped at a McDonald's for breakfast. While we were there, there was a group of motorcyclists who had been riding in the rain that rendezvoused inside.

On the road again!

Art!

Coming into Paris!

What was supposed to be a 5 hour drive turned into an 8 hour drive because of the earlier rainy weather and Friday commute traffic once we got into Paris!  If/when we go back, we will leave the car at home and take the train!

Ahhhhh....we've finally arrived!

We met up with Dan at the hotel when we arrived. From there we went to a restaurant that Dan had found in the Bon Appetit magazine, the Le Bal Restaurant.

After dinner we walked down the Champs Elysees.

We stopped at a little cafe for a little something to drink:

And later got back on the Metro to head back to the hotel:

Saturday:
The view from our hotel room on the 14th floor:

 We decided to go to Versailles for the day!
From Wikipedia:

The Palace of Versailles ( /vɛərˈsaɪ/ vair-sy or /vərˈsaɪ/; French: [vɛʁsɑj]), or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles.

When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a suburb of Paris, some 20 kilometres southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

Who is that in the Hall of Mirrors?!?!?

Modern Art displayed in the Versailles Castle:

After a full day of walking we headed back to Paris on the RER train...There we walked along the Seine River.....

 As we were walking we saw some protestors and a lot of police......we have no idea what they were protesting as we chose to stay away!

We walked up to Notre Dame....

Where we found a wonderful place to stop and have dinner.....on a boat! We sat and ate, drank and the "boys" smoked.....for hours!

On our way back to the hotel we went through the Cite Station...which I thought was quite beautiful:

Sunday:
We met for breakfast around 0800hrs. Dan went to his favorite cheese shop in another part of the City while Andrew and I went to the Arc de Triomphe. We paid 10 Euro for the opportunity to walk to the top....what a view!!!

Afterwards we met Dan for lunch before heading back to Haarlem.....While walking to the restaurant we saw a man selling locks and decided, why not?!?!? So, we bought a lock for 4 Euro and put it on the fence amongst hundreds of others!!!

Another way to get around besides walking!!!

We left Paris around 1400hrs.  Dan was set to leave Monday morning for the States.....We had a wonderful visit to Paris!

During our drive going to and from Paris we noticed that the onnnnly billboards on the road were for McDonald's and for "BOB"!  Who is BOB you ask?!?!  Heck if I know!  I'll find out and get back to you!!!!  I've used Google Translate to translate the signs into English, but I still can't figure out what it's all about!

The old and the new:

It took us only 5 hours to get home!  Yippee!