Tourist Trapped!

Week 2 was all about hitting the major tourist attractions: Versailles, the Louvre, Eiffel Tower and a boat ride down the Seine. We capped it off with an amazing chocolate and sweets tour of our St. Germain neighborhood, and of course, more parks!

Tiff and the girls in Versailles' famed Hall of Mirrors, where the Treaty of Versailles was signed to end World War I.

We did a bike tour of Versailles, which was the BEST way to see Versailles!  We biked through town, picked up picnic lunches and rode all around the vast Versailles gardens and canal.

S&G in front of the "hamlet" created by Marie Antoinette in Versailles and stocked with actors pretending to be villagers so Marie and her children could pretend to be poor...

In front of the Mona Lisa, or "La Joconde", as she is known to the French (her last name). We learned that she was much less well known until she was stolen in 1913. The global press around the robbery, and eventual return, created a "must-see" excitement around the painting that has lived on til today!

Safely back on the ground after climbing the Eiffel Tower.

A perfect day for a boat ride along the Seine!

A cute street in our neighborhood, St. Germain. Georgia tires of my photo taking.  But she will soon be rewarded...

Our amazing chocolate and sweets tour of St. Germain began with Debauve & Gallais. Debauve began as Marie Antoinette's doctor and used chocolate to get her to take her medicine. A spoonful of sugar, indeed!

At La Duree, the famous macaron house.  Beautiful and delicious!

Ice cream stop, to cleanse the palate.

This was a very cute alley along our tour.  In all, we sampled two chocolate shops, macarons, caramels, cream puffs called "Popelini", ice cream and a meringue treat called "Merveilleaux".  You can trust that Georgia is about 10 minutes from a massive sugar crash.  As were we all!

A very cute bird and flower market.

G&S completed their first solo mission to find and purchase various pastries for breakfast.

A suspension bridge in the lovely Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. It was full of joggers, which is a notable difference from our previous memory of Paris. Exercise seems to have become a much more popular activity. I guess they figured out they needed something to offset all the wine, cigarettes and pastries!

The Dragon Slide in the Parc de La Villette. We have found no end of wonderful parks everywhere we go in Paris. Every neighborhood park seems to include some kind of play structure for kids. Even the St. Germain church by our apartment has a play area!