Monday September 30, 2013, Driving Tour of Paris and a Visit to the Louvre

We started today with a driving tour around Paris. What a city!

So here's what the bus tour looked like inside the bus:

The only stop we made was at the Eiffel Tower:

We actually got stuck in a huge traffic jam this morning near our hotel because it's right next to the Paris Opera House where Stella McCartney was presenting her new clothing line. (It's Fashion Week here in Paris.) Apparently her Dad was spotted arriving and everyone went nuts...

Then it was off to the Louvre for 2 hours.

First, a model of the Louvre when it was first built in the 12th century:

When I.M. Pei built the glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre about 25 years ago the original foundation of the 12th century castle was discovered. Those columns right next to the drawbridge in the model above are on the left below. The space between the stone wall and columns on the left and the stone wall on the right was the moat:

Our tour guide (who was excellent) started with a sculpture courtyard:

 Inside the Greco-Roman sculpture area:

We liked this sculpture of the baby strangling a duck (1100 BCE):

The Venus de Milo, Greek statue from around 200 BCE:

The hall of Italian painting...only about half a mile long:

Jill with a painting of St. John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci, painted around 1515:

Jill looking at some other da Vinci painting we couldn't get anywhere near:

Jill with a Titien "Portrait of a Man" from around 1520:

That's me outside the I.M. Pei glass pyramid:

What? More Badois and lava cake?!

Sunday September 28, 2013, Pictures of the Swiss Emerald River Cruise Ship

I published some photos of our cabin in one of the earlier posts (9/22/2013) but thought I'd also provide some pictures  of the ship itself... These shots were taken while stopped in Lyon.

So here's a view of the main lobby. The bright area on the right is the area where we boarded and left the ship. If you continue walking through the lobby you end up in the front of the ship in a lounge where we had briefings, lectures, and shows. The room at the very bottom of the stairs is the dining room, which I wasn't able to photograph because my camera battery died just as I got there:

Another shot of the lobby looking back at the spot from which I took the first picture (the 2nd floor railing). Now the entry way is on the left:

If you turned 180 degrees from the picture above you'd find yourself in the ship's lounge:

Again referring to the very first picture above (taken from the 2nd floor railing and looking at the lobby), turning around you'd see the hallway in which our cabin was located (on the left, halfway down):

Continuing down the hallway led to a small lunchroom that people rarely used. This is at the back of the ship:

Walking out the glass doors on the other side of the lunchroom and up to the deck you would see the top of the ship. This is a view toward the front. There were lots of lounge chairs on the top of the ship, but we were either on shore or it was just too windy to be up there:

Continuing to the front of the ship, here's a view of the bridge area (on the right), and of course the bow of the ship in front:

I did take a tour of the bridge on the last day of our cruise. Here's the captain's chair. The hand is that of a passenger who obviously wished it was his chair:

Another view of the bridge, with all the computer displays the captain and 2nd captain use (radar, GPS, engine status, video screens of the sides of the ship, Solitaire, Tetris, etc:)

Saturday September 28, Lyon

Another day in France, so that meant another day of spectacular cathedrals, museums, and food! This time, in Lyon...

Here's Jill outside the cathedral/basilica of Notre Dame de Fourvier overlooking the city of Lyon:

And another shot of Lyon from the same spot:

Inside the cathedral (every square inch was painted, decorated, or covered with tiles):

Looking at the left side:

And up on the right side:

Then it was on to the Fine Arts Museum of Lyon...

Here we are in front of "L'Ascension du Christ" (1496-1498) by Perugin:

And here's a wooden model Bartholdi did in planning for the Statue of Liberty:

Jill in front of two enormous paintings by Le Suer (L) and Champaigne (R):

And Jill with a Van Gogh (upper) and Courbet (lower):

Jill with "Le Printemps" (The Spring) by Claude Monet (1882):

Jill with "Dancing Scene" by Degas (1889):

And finally, with "Young Woman with Flowers" by Edouard Manet (1879):

And of course no visit of a French city is complete without getting a crepe with Nutella from a street vendor!

Friday September 27, Cluny

Today we went to a formerly huge Benedictine abbey in the town of Cluny. The Abbey was built over a period of several hundred years starting in the year 910. It was the largest religious building int he world until the Vatican was constructed, and then the Vatican was only a few feet larger on each side just to ensure that it would be larger than this abbey.

Not actually a lot to see there as the structure was cannibalized for raw materials (stone and iron) first during the French Revolution and later by Napoleon. But one thing Napoleon did do was establish a national stable for the breeding of horses. (The stable was built from stones pulled from the abbey.)

So the tall towers on the left remain from the original Abbey, but this is only one half of the very front of the building:

Jill with a draft horse that happened to walk by:

Inside one of the large towers. This isn't the full height of the building, which is probably another 100 feet above the top of this photo:

A column excavated by archaeologists:

In the stables...Jill makes a new friend!

The "Beyonce Horse!" (Co-cruise passenger on left; stable guide on the right.) Actually the guide told us that this breed, the Auxois, is the most popular draft horse in France:

Then we saw a brief horse show with a trainer showing off various tricks she had taught her horse Shu-Shu:

After the Abbey we went to Chateau de la Barge (www.chateaudelabarge.fr) for lunch. Had a great meal outside in perfect weather:

Another photo of the chateau where we had lunch:

Thursday September 26, traveling between Tournos and Macon

A few shots of Jill showing where our cabin is on the ship and feeding some swans:

Jill said, "Walter would have done the same thing"... (That's a piece of croissant left over from breakfast flying through the air.)

Thursday September 26, Tournos and Macon

We had a light day today, just doing some site-seeing and shopping on our own in two small towns on the Saone River...

First, shopping in Tournos...found a lot of nice stuff in this store:

Strolling down the street in the very quiet town of Tournos. Actually there was some excitement while we were having lunch; a man broke up with his girlfriend at the table next to us, and she left the place in tears. She left her glasses on the table and had to come back. We were sitting outside and I was thinking she might try to run him over with her car, but she was pretty calm (but unhappy) when she returned:

Then in Macon we rested a bit after more shopping:

And Jill checked TripAdvisor for a place to eat:

We wound up at a Tapas place, finishing the evening with a chocolate lava cake: