Last Tango in Paris

Today, we arrived in London!  But before I post about that (and since we haven't really had a chance to do anything or take photos here yet), I will bombard you with details of our last day in Paris.

We had tried to go to Sainte Chappelle two days ago, but the lines were so long that we gave up.  So we skipped breakfast the next day in order to get there early, but everyone else must have had the same idea.  After waiting about an hour (Paris Museum holders got no special entry lines), we made it into the cathedral.  The stained glass was amazing, for sure, but it was definitely dampened by having to wait over an hour for basically a 2-room, 10-15 minutes tops visit.

Our next stop was the Georges Pompidou Centre, and as you can guess by the photo above, there were more lines! 

Thankfully, the Paris Museum Pass probably got us in about 2 hours sooner than if we hadn't had the pass, so after 40 minutes, we were inside.

I loved the Georges Pompidou Centre!  Its exterior is avant-garde, with these fun escalators that are attached to the outside of the building.  Inside is a fabulous collection of modern art, pieces from Kandinsky, Rothko, Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Gaugin, Miro.  Amazing.

We finally got those meringue treats called "merveilleux", too.  They were as light as air and gone in about 4 seconds.  I took a photo of the last one before we ate it, but the photo looks a bit pathetic, so I decided not to post it.

Steve had been wanting to go to La Defense, which is the ultra-modern new downtown, waaayyyy on the western side of Paris.This photo was taken in front of the Grande Arche, which is the modern version of the Arc de Triomphe. 

As you can see, this side of Paris was extremely uncrowded.  I wonder what it's like during a normal business day.

The coolest thing is that you can stand in front of the new Grande Arche and look all the way down to the other end of Paris, where you can see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance.  See it poking up behind Steph's head?