Arc De Triomphe, Sacre Coeur Basilica, d'Orsay, l’Orangerie, Napoleon’s Tomb, Rodin Museum, Anne Frank House, Days 15, 16, &17, HOME

The next morning we got up early and headed over to the Musee de l’Orangerie.  This art museum holds impressionist and post impressionist paintings.  One of my favorite artists is Monet.  This museum is where eight large Water Lilies murals hang on the walls.  They were huge, too!  Here’s a few pictures of the murals:

Water Lilies paintings are a series of approximately 250 paintings by Monet.  The paintings depict his flower garden at his home and was a main focus for him to paint.  This museum was home to one of my favorite Water Lilies paintings.  It was fun to see it in person again.  Here’s Aaron looking at it.

When I was in Paris 23 years ago I picked up a copy of this this particular painting and shipped it home to Utah:  

I then got it framed and it has been hanging in my home ever since.  It is currently hanging on the wall at the top of the stairs.  I still love it!!

I even made the kids go and see another similar painting of the Water Lilies series when we were at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC a few years ago.  I don’t think they were as impressed by it as I was--haha!

Anyway this museum was not very big so it didn’t take very long to walk through.  We did see this other painting by Renoir which we liked, too:

After we finished at the Musee de l’Orangerie we walked over to the the Musee d’Orsay.  But on our way we did cross the Seine River and grabbed a picture:

 This particular bridge is one of the many ‘Lock Bridges’ in Paris.  It’s where people lock a padlock on the bridge and throw the key into the Seine to signify their love to one another will always be unbreakable.  There were quite a few padlocks on there:

We made it to the Musee d’Orsay.  They also had one of the Water Lilies paintings there, too:

I loved Impressionist art.  Here are some of my favorites.  Here is The Ballet Class by Degas:

The Poppy Field by Monet--I picked up a copy of this print as well 23 years ago. I love it!

Renoir’s Bal du moulin la Galette:

These are mini paintings that Seurat did before he put them all together in the main painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.  The main painting hangs in Chicago.  I am hoping to get a chance to see the main painting at some point next year when Josh gets home.  Anyway,  but they had these mini paintings here in Paris:

Here’s another Seurat painting called The Circus:

Here’s a Van Gogh entitled Starry Night over the Rhone:

Self Portrait by Van Gogh:

Van Gogh painted a few self portraits.  The kids also saw this one in Washington DC a few years ago.

Another Van Gogh:

Van Gogh’s Bedroom:

Anyway, there were so many cool things to see at this museum.  They had paintings, sculptures, furniture displays, etc.  It took a bit to walk through.  Here’s a few of our favorites:

The whole museum used to be an old train station.  This clock was from that time, but they kept it:

They even had a sculpture of the Statue of Liberty:

Whistler’s Mother:

After getting through the Musee d’Orsay we made it over to the Arc de Triomphe.  

It is bigger in person than you think it is!

We went to the top.  After we showed our tickets they waved us on.  We walked over and realized there were a lot of stairs to get to the top of the rounded staircase--284 steps to be exact.  About this time Aaron decided he was absolutely DONE with stairs especially spiral staircases--haha!

We finally made it almost to the top.  There was a small museum before you went up even more stairs to get to the roof.

The views were beautiful, though:

After enjoying the view we then got to head down all the stairs again.  I will just say going down is a lot easier than going up--haha!

The Arc de Triumph was built and dedicated to the armies of the Revolution and the Empire in 1836.  The Unknown Soldier was buried at the base of the arch in 1921.  Here’s the Unknown Soldier with flame:

Next I talked Aaron into visiting the Sacre Coeur Basilica.  I had been there 23 years before and loved it.  We took the Metro from the Arc to the basilica.  When I talked Aaron into going here I failed to mention there are about a million stairs to get up to the basilica.  When we got off the metro and started heading toward the basilica Aaron saw all the stairs and was not very happy with me--haha!

But we made it to the basilica without needing marriage counseling, but it was close--haha!

The inside was pretty and also cool in temperature so we sat and rested for a bit.

It really was pretty inside, but I still have to say my favorite church this whole trip was the Cologne Cathedral. 

I love the stained glass windows:

The views were really pretty from the top, too:

While looking at the views we saw a really pretty church that looked close enough we could visit.  We looked at our map and figured out it was called Saint Augustine Church and decided to go and look inside.  It was a few Metro stops away, as well as about a mile walk.  However, it was pretty cool inside, too.

It ended up being a really warm day so when we found it was cooler inside this church we stayed for a few minutes to rest and cool down.

As we worked our way back to our hotel via the bus and Metro we did stop and grab some pastries which were yummy!

After that the sun was starting to set.  We wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at sunset/night so we walked over there as the sun was setting. 

We hung out until it got dark.  AT sunset they turn the lights on.  Then every hour on the hour they turn on sparkle lights for five minutes.  It was fun to see the lights turn on.

Here’s the sparkle lights:

Here’s a short 5 second video of the sparkle lights that are pretty cool:

We definitely were feeling tired at the end of this day--haha!

The next morning we it was our last morning in Paris.  We packed up and checked out.  We did discover our hotel window actually opened the entire way which was pretty cool.  Aaron took a picture of me leaning out our hotel room window:

We didn’t want to lug around our luggage so the hotel staff was kind enough to let us store our suitcases for us while we did some more sight seeing.  We visited the bakery one last time to pick up croissants for breakfast.  Our hotel in Paris didn’t offer a breakfast, but luckily there was a bakery/patisserie right around the corner that we would pick up croissants every morning.  Next we rode the Metro over to the Trocadero Gardens which is a big open green space in the middle of town.  However, the views of the Eiffel Tower are pretty cool there so that’s what we went to go and check out.

Then we headed over to Napolean’s Tomb.  

It was quite ornate on the inside:

Here’s his sarcophagus view from the second story:

The ground level:

There are a few other people buried here, but none of their graves are as fancy as Napoleon’s, though.

Next we headed over to the Rodin Museum.  Rodin as noted for his sculptures.  He did The Thinker:

The Rodin Museum is about half outside and half inside.  The outside grounds were beautiful:

It is set half inside and half outside an 18th century hotel.

The Three Shades by Rodin:

The Gates of Hell door by Rodin:

Bhurgers of Calais:

The Kiss:

They also had a few Van Gogh paintings here, too:

The grounds were beautiful:

After finished up at the Rodin Museum it was time to head back to the hotel, pick up our luggage and head over to the train station.  Aaron and I disagreed about how we should get to the train station.  We could either wrangle our luggage up and down the Metro stairs and on the very crowded Metro for a 30 minute ride, or we could pay 30 Euros for a taxi that would drop us right in front of the train station.  Anyway, after much discussion I lost this argument completely.  We ended up taking a taxi to the train station to make things easier.  However, it was a crazy ride.  Lets just say I would never want to drive in Paris...

We made it to the train station in one piece and grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to Amsterdam on the train.  We had tickets to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam at 6 pm.  When we got in to Amsterdam we didn’t have time to check in to our hotel so we had to stash our luggage in some lockers so we could make our ticket time.  Needless to say we were pretty exhausted at this point in our trip.  We took pictures of our locker numbers because neither one of us were sure we could remember the numbers when we would need to come back to pick them up--haha!

We rode the tram/train over to the Anne Frank House.  The building actually looks modern.  You would never know this is where Anne Frank and her family were taken from and put into Concentration Camps.

We did an audio guide.  They didn’t allow any photography inside, but I did find a few pictures online of what it looked like.  Here’s the secret bookcase that the family used to hide in the secret apartment in the attic.

Anne Frank’s father was the only survivor from their family after the war.  He helped the museum recreate what life was like during their time in hiding, but he didn’t want them furnished.  There were diagrams of how the furniture was laid out during the time they lived there, but no furniture was there now.  Otto, Anne Franks father, said, “After the Anne Frank House had been restored, they asked me if I wanted to have the rooms refurnished.  But I said, ’No. They took everything out during the war, and I want to keep it that way.”  Anne put pictures up from magazines on the walls.  They had faded, but were still there.

The Anne Frank House was very well set up.  It was interesting to learn what life was like before they had to go into hiding and what life was like while they were hiding.  It was so sad to hear about what happened to everyone after they were discovered, captured and put into Concentration Camps.  No one survived but Anne’s father Otto.  I can’t even imagine losing my whole family in such a way.

After our tour we did walk around Amsterdam and pick up some cheese, chocolates and a few souvenirs.  Then we headed over picked up our luggage from the train station lockers and rode the train out to our hotel which was by the airport.  Aaron decided to try out a hotel he had never tried before called Citizen M.  It was the weirdest place.  You checked in yourself and programmed your own key card.  We then headed up to our room.  When we got off the elevator this is what the hallway looked like.  I was seriously getting some ’The Shining’ vibes.  It was so creepy.

As we walked all the way down the hallway to get to our room which was the very last one at the end this is the picture that was on the wall:

When we opened the room it was the weirdest layout.  The toilet was in the open two feet from the front door.  Then the tiny shower was right next to it.  You can see me standing in the shower.  There was no dresser or drawers and the white pedestal was the sink.  Needless to say I really didn’t like this place.  

Oh well, we only had to stay here one night.  It was a long night, though.  The next morning we Covid tested and luckily we were both negative so we could fly home.  We then checked in at the airport and made our 10 hour direct flight home to Salt Lake City.  I did my Amsterdam stamp in my passport, though. Wahoo!!

These past 17 days have been amazing and I am so glad Aaron and I got this awesome opportunity to travel to so many incredible places and see so many fascinating things.  It was truly a marvelous experience!