Paris Day 3

We managed to get going earlier today than yesterday - which is good considering we have a lot on our list for today.

First we went back to Ile de Cite and took a couple of selfies on Pont Neuf. We laugh a little bit about all the places we've been that we see in the Jason Bourne movies. Then we walked down alongside Notre Dame so I could get some more pictures of the church's flying buttresses. Yes, buttresses- it's an architectural support- look it up. ;-)

Second stop was the Musee D'Orsay. This is a museum that's housed in a renovated railroad station and the architecture itself is worth the visit. The huge old clocks are still there and the outside facade is really nice. We looked at the Impressionist paintings - Monet, Cezanne, Degas, some Van Gogh  paintings and several different sculptures by various artists.

Third stop - the Eiffel Tower! We walked there from the D'Orsay via Rue Cler, a pedestrianized street with market stalls and cafes. As we approached the tower we got some good photos and proceeded to the security line to have our bags checked and to be wanded with a metal detector. (We went through the same procedure at Notre Dame. They're being very careful about checking everyone because of the terrorist attacks this year.) We had pre-purchased our tickets for the tower which saved us some money and also secured a place for us on the elevator to the top. People who purchased their tickets on the spot could only go to the second level. I guess they limit the number of the 3rd floor tickets each day.

The tower is huge! It's hard to get a good perspective from photos, but this thing was bigger than I thought! The elevator to the 2nd floor runs up one of the legs of the tower and has a fairly impressive view but, holy moly, the elevator to the 3rd floor is really impressive. Paris just spreads out below you, seemingly for miles. The only downside is the constant warnings about pickpockets here so we made sure to keep our bag closed and right in front of us the whole time.

We have also seen three of the scams that I read about on the travel forums. First, the little petition girls tried to hit us up at Notre Dame. They want you to sign a petition for some supposedly worthy cause and then they insist you make a donation of 20 euro! Not 5 or 10 or whatever you feel like. Sometimes it's just a distraction tool so the others can pick your pockets. Then a man tried the gold ring scam on us. Someone passing you pretends to find a lost gold ring and asks if it's yours. Then they try to sell it to you for some ridiculous price. We just kept walking but shared a little chuckle about it because we couldn't believe someone tried to trick us with that scam. We also saw a large group of people outside the Eiffel Tower who were caught up in the stupid shell game. I can't believe people still get caught up in that one.

Next up: the Arc de Triomphe and a Seine River cruise at night.