Fortnight in Paris - Bus Tour!

We love buses!  We decided to take a bus tour of Paris.  After much research, we decided to use the L'Open Tour Bus company.  They offer four routes and cover an awful lot of Paris.  We were using this as a review of Paris to get our bearings and figure out where we would like to spend most of our time touring.

All the bus tour companies have a sign similar to this.  L'Open Tour Bus sign is green.  We didn't realize it at first, but the bus stopped right across from our apartment!  What a convenience!  Did we figure that out the first day? Not until after we finished the tour for the day, of course!


It was a beautiful day to sit on top of a tour bus and just soak in the sights.  I will share some of the pictures from that day.  Probably not in the order we saw them.  But at least I know what I took pictures of!  And you will get lovely shots of the windshield or other tourists on the bus, too.

This is Opera or Palais Garnier.  We actually went back to tour this the next week.  More pictures to come on the inside of this lovely place.

Wow, I need lessons in photography.  But in fairness, I was somewhat limited by the bus seating!  This is actually the archway that the buses go through to get into the Louvre courtyard.  On the tour bus, they made a very big deal about how narrow this opening was.  The bus drove through it VERY slowly.  And indeed it was very close.  Probably a foot on each side of the bus.  And all of us were properly impressed.  It is plenty of room, really, when you think about it.  And when we took a city bus through this arch, they went through it a top speed!

Here is another view of those archways.

Pictures of the Louvre courtyard, starting with the famous glass dome.  This is actually not the best way to get into the Louvre.  Always crowded.  We went in through the mall in the basement when we went.  Not crowded.  And with a museum pass, you skip all the lines.

This is the opposite side of the courtyard.  The bus folks were excited to see the Eiffel tower through the trees.  This view I had not seen before.  The Eiffel tower is not that close, but it really isn't that far from here, either.  Amazing what you can see from the top of a bus!

I have no idea why I took the picture below.  I don't really think we ever ate here.  They must have pointed it out.  And it certainly must be near the Pont Neuf bridge.  Can you believe all the traffic?  And the bus does. not. stop. for traffic.  It just barrels along and the cars yield.

Now we are off to the Place de la Concorde.  I know it is the largest Place in Paris.  I know that the Guilletine was there during the revolution.  I know it is between the Champs-Elysees and the Tuileries Garden.  There is a fountain, and an obelisk there.  You can't see the fountain in this shot.  Just the obelisk.  I know the Obelisk was a gift from the Egyptian government.  There were two obelisks; one stayed in Egypt, one went to Paris.  You can actually manage to walk up close to it and admire it.  We saw in in 2009.  It is also near the American Embassy, which we were fortunate enough to get to visit in 2009.  We had passes and actually got to go inside the Embassy and talk to the District Attorney type person there.

On to the Arc de Triomphe.  We did not go back and visit this.  We stayed near there in 2009, and really did a great tour of it, both outside and inside.  It has a lovely view from the top, which we saw at night.  So cool!

Here are several shots of the Eiffel tower as we went around it.  This was not our only visit to the tower.  We would see it again later.  I still have not gone up it.  Every time I get under it, I just cannot make myself go up!  I have a fear of heights.  There are actually two restaurants up there, and an ice rink during the winter.  I will make myself go up next time!  (I will have to recite, "Tall bus, Tall bus," all the way up, though!)

Lastly, on this tour day, we drove by Les Invalides/ Napoleon's tomb.  This is another area that we toured extensively in 2009.  So interesting, but we did not venture back this time.  But if you are ever in Paris, great place to go!  And there was a cafeteria there, so we did not have to go hungry either.

This was a really long day of riding a bus!  Not a lot of walking today.  And we listened to a lot of French music when we were in-between tour stops.  We ended our day here:

Yes, the Hard Rock cafe!  I used to collect t-shirts from the Hard Rock Cafe.  I did not get one here in Paris.  It was just like any Hard Rock cafe.  And it was AIR CONDITIONED!  We did not find that very often!  We had yummy burgers.  Ok, I have sworn off soft drinks, but since they offer unlimited refills, I had a diet soda.  With lots of ice!  Perfect end to the day.  And, it was only a 10 minute walk from there to our apartment, where we soaked up more French TV before retiring to bed.

"We feast on the abundant food you provide;

you let us drink from the river

of your goodness."

Psalm 36:8