Bonjour Paris! (Day 1, Enjoying tea and art in the City of Lights)

I've really been looking forward to sharing the reason for my break from blogging--I visited France for two weeks!  It's taken me this long to go through my pictures (I had almost 3,000, I went a little crazy with the camera) so I can finally share my trip with you.  I'm  planning on posting everyday for the next two weeks, so please check back if you would like to see more. 

So...on to Day 1!  My friend Katherine and I reserved a room at the Hotel Westminster in the Opera district, where we stayed for the first week of our trip.  The location of this Hotel was terrific--a five minute walk from the Opera metro station which was right in front of the Opera building itself!  A wonderful sight to come home to after a long day of sightseeing. 

(And yes, the Hotel Westminster had a Cartier as a storefront..it was in a pretty swanky neighborhood.  What can I say--we got a deal on Expedia)

After getting to the hotel and putting our bags away we walked down a few blocks  to the Rue de Rivoli where we had brunch at Angelina's, a famous Parisian tearoom, originally founded in 1903.

The tearoom was beautiful with an art deco flair, and the food!

(sorry for the poor quality of the photos inside--my camera had a difficult time with the lighting)

We both ordered quiches, which was the creamiest, best quiche I have ever had.  Angelina's is famous for its hot chocolate, but I got an ice tea--which was delicious!

 They had an assortment of desserts, which were displayed in the front room so you could order some as takeout.

We both ordered their house specialty--the mont blanc.

Very rich--less chocolaty then I had thought it would be, but still good.

Their menu is in English if you would like to take a look for yourself. 




After enjoying our first French meal (in France!), we crossed the street to the Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden).

  

At one end of the garden was our first touristy destination, the Musee du Lourve. 

 

 

At the Louvre we saw some of the museum's most famous pieces:

(Winged Victory of Samothrace)

(Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa)

 

(Venus de Milo)

 

  (Psyche revived by the Kiss of Love)

 

 

 

(Dying Slave, by Michelangelo)

 

My favorite part was probably seeing Napoleon's apartments--very decadent. 

(Napoleon I, himself)

(Joséphine, first Empress of France)

There was also some beautiful china in the apartments I had to get a picture of (made in Limoges of course!)

 

 

After the Louvre, we rushed down to the other end of the Tulieries Garden, first passing under the Arc du Carrousel (which separates the gardens from the Louvre),

 



until we reached the Musee de l'Orangerie.  The Orangerie houses a few of Monte's water lily paintings, which take up two whole rooms they are so big. 

 

After that we walked down to the Jardin du Palis Royale.  This was a Sunday so many restaurants and stores were closed, so we didn't get to stay her for dinner, which had been our original plan.  This would have been a nice place to have a picnic.

 

I thought I would share a few more pictures of the Hotel Westminster before signing off for today.

 



(Entryway)

(Lobby)

 

(Entrance to the room, looked like French toile fabric!  A nice sized bathroom is to the right)

(The room was small, but we didn't spend that much time here really.  The window was actually a door that we opened to let in cooler air).