The first rainy morning on our way to the airport from our home for a week at Hotel du Champs de Mars. Next to Rue Cler Market.

Musée d ‘Orsay….the Louvre…Pompidou. Yes it was 22,000 steps worth. All my favorite artworks.

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Our goal before we leave Paris….a hamburger, a pizza, and falafel. And as many macarons as possible. Wine seems to go with everything.

Be on the lookout for the street art of Invader. Based on 8-bit pixels you will find the mosaic images on many buildings.

St Sulpice

On our way to pizza we found this place -Pizza Chic – with the most glamorous restroom. Fit for a queen. And the pizza is pretty good too.

This work of modern art is titled “Joyce is Pooped at the Pompidou”

Good view of the city from up there.

There are many fine things to see at the Pompidou, again I didn’t take many photos.

A real Bauhaus chair!

Its best to get there early. We picked up a non-bread breakfast from the CarreFour grocery store on the way.

I didn’t try to take many photos. If you’re viewing this on a computer you can find better photos elsewhere.

Here the famous “Hey! Get this creepy hand off my back!” Statue.

Many of the works of art are missing pieces.

When Hobbits roamed the earth.

I liked the section on the Asyrians the best. Probably would have gotten more out of the Louvre with a guide. Certainly should have stuck to the order of things in the Rick Steves guidebook. Joyce took us directly to Mona Lisa and after that we spent a lot of time lost and going in circles.

This morning we were better prepared and got on the right train to Versailles Chateau. Of course, there were some very nice people from the Portland area across the aisle from us…

Wow, this place is beyond huge. You thought you knew big and fancy, but you would be wrong.

The map they give you shows the chateau, as this tiny section. Also, since it took something like nearly three hours to get in, we were 50% spent before we even got in the door.

You don’t have to stand in line to enjoy the gardens, if we had a few more days I’d go back and just explore those.

No question about it, the place is dang grand. Not much of a point taking photos as google is sure to have better pix than anything I could take.

“Beware of international jewel thieves”

Even the scooters are Le tired.

Note to self: do not assume the guy with an accordion will give you good directions on the metro.

This was our morning:

Got on the wrong train. Ended up in the Paris suburbs before we figured it out. Thought we could stop with a cup of tea and figure it out, but at 10am in that town there’s four places to get your hair cut ready and waiting but god help you if you want breakfast.

Le suck!

Well, that was a waste of a morning, but we went on to have a fun day anyway.

Note: objects in photo may not be tacos.

Not really sure what’s going on here, but it tells a story.

“Pain Pain”

A tool box for her!

Tiki Bar #1, closed!

Le Tiki Lounge is open!

Bar owner Cedric made us feel very welcome. What a lovely place! We felt very comfortable and quite enjoyed our time there.

In retrospect I should have taken better photos, but we were relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

Meanwhile, in case you are lonely…

… and of course, there’s the Bad Life Choices club…

Joyce is going to do her hair up like this lady:

Who needs potatoes when you’ve got all this chocolate?

Joyce signed us up for a cooking class and it was definitely a peak experience. Our instructor Patrick started us off at the market and guided us selecting our menu.

Afterwards Joyce went off on a solo mission to the fabric shops while Steve plunked his bum in Cafe No Problemo.

Afterwards we went to a caberet show thingie which sadly turned out to be a disappointment. It was probably fine, but our command of French is sub-par which makes it hard to get the jokes. Left me feeling awkward and out of place. Le sigh.

A cabaret that you can skip in Paris. Food and entertainment was sub par. But Michou has a long history