Day 2 December 31, 2023
Dear Adventure Avenue,
My brother and I woke up at 7 and met our parents for breakfast on the 34th floor club level. We sat overlooking the Eiffel Tower. The highlight was the fresh squeezed orange juice.
Champs de Mars
Then we headed to the Metro to go to the Champs de Mars (next to the Eiffel Tower). Unfortunately, I realized the stop we wanted to get off of was closed so we had to change metros again so we wouldn’t have to walk 20+ minutes.
The Champs de Mars is a green space near the Eiffel Tower.
At the Champs de Mars, we saw a monument dedicated to le droit de l’homme et du citoyen for its 200th anniversary.
We saw lots of Christmas trees on the street to be picked up.
Invalides
Be sure to look through these pictures for a note on the entrance of this place. These grand domed structure is NOT the entrance!
We then walked to the Invalides to see the Army Museum and Napoleon’s Tomb. We started with the World War II exhibit. One thing to note is this museum doesn’t have a ton of information about the artifacts on display in English- it’s mostly in French.
Then we went to see Napoleon’s tomb which is located in half of the cathedral. There is a second half which is separated at the altar by glass.
I went and saw the special exhibit: Victoire fabrique des héros which I thought was mostly eh.
I also went up to the fourth floor and saw the Musée des Plans-Reliefs which shows military models (it was included with my ticket).
After the Army museum, we walked to Petit Palais which is a free museum! (That is, after we tried (and failed) to find a cafe to eat at – They were all too busy to eat inside and it was too cold to eat out).
We ate at the cafe inside the museum and they were able to make my brother plain pasta. I had the salmon pasta and my parents each had a croque monsieur.
We then looked at some of the artwork there. We didn’t have time to look at the antiquities, Middle Ages, or Renaissance pieces but checked out the paintings including a Monet and 2 Cézannes.
We then took the nearby Metro (line 1) back to our hotel. Luckily it hadn’t been closed yet because they start shutting down metro lines for New Years Eve. In fact the stop next to the Arc de Triumph had already been closed but we got off at Porte Maillot so we made it back to the hotel.
We relaxed in our rooms, my mom and I joined Mere in her room for a bit. Then Dad, my brother and I went up to the Club level so my brother and I could grab a hot beverage. Tea for me and hot chocolate for him. Then we went to Mere’s room to hang out before dinner.
For dinner, we went to Le Congrès, a very short walk from our hotel. I had Rabbit Tartine (a cold ground rabbit with ironically carrots), shrimp avocado and grapefruit (the flavors went well together), and for dessert profiteroles!
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and got ready for bed, but it was New Years! We went to our parents’ room because they have a view of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph which the arc is where their New Years Eve show takes place. We played cards and watched a Nate Bargatze special on Netflix. At midnight, we were able to see the fireworks from their window.
Until tomorrow,
A
PS
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