Paris was as busy as you can imagine. It took us almost 2 hours to get through traffic once we hit the outside of the city!
The Etap Hotel was the worst of our hotels, but still not bad. There was not much to be done Monday night, but we walked along the St. Martin Canal behind our hotel. It had a lot of Parisians out and about exercising, eating, dancing, and doing other leisure activities.
On Tuesday morning, we took a 5am visit to Rungis Market, the largest wholesale food market in Europe. There was a fish, meat, vegetable, cheese and flower warehouse. After the morning tour, we took a walk through the city to see Notre Dame, the Pantheon, Latin District, St. Sulpice, Hotel Invalides and the Eiffel Tower. The tourist attractions were very nice and clean, but the rest of the city was a little on the shabby side.
On Wednesday, our group took advantage of a morning at the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks, etc. The place was enormous and packed. I think you could spend a week in there and not see everything. Afterwards, we took a walk down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. We also got to see Sacre Coeur which is a church a top Paris. Very interesting spot.
On Thursday, our program took a tour to Moet et Chandon in Epernay of the champagne region of France. We got to taste some fancy champagne by the makers of Dom Perignon! Very prestigious place to see and the country side was gorgeous.
On Friday, we saw the Hotel des Invalides where Napoleon is buried. It also houses the French Military Museum. We tried to go to the catecombs, but they were closed at 4pm! Then we went souvenir shopping in the Turkish district, big mistake. We could not get through this place fast enough. One of those shabby areas I was talking about….
Headed to London on Saturday….
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