Check list day 2

Clearly a must is to visit the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately we haven't been having great weather, but you just keep going. So we arrived at the tower without an elevator reservation and there was no way I was standing in that line, so 669  steps, here we come.  It actually wasn't all that bad. Somehow we missed the memo about the glass floor opening the day before, so missed that on the first floor. But up to the second level. 

Then we took the elevator to the top. It was a wee bit windy up there. But good views. 

Down at the bottom, the sun started to peak out.

As we walked away from the Eiffel Tower, we saw the picturesque Parisienne apartments, with the little Juliet balconies. Clearly not the Paris of the majority, but the Paris of the movies. 

Next stop - Rodin. As I've said before, sculpture is more my kind of art and Rodin would be one of those artists capable of capturing the beauty of the human form. The Rodin museum has a neat story into itself. The mansion that houses it is where Rodin and many other artistic types, including ballerina Isadora Duncan, lived. It was on the municipal chopping block, but until it was scheduled for demolishing, thy rented it out by the room. The grounds of the property are quite large and Rodin took it upon himself to place his sculptures throughout the overgrown grounds. As he got on in years, he decided that there should be a museum of his work, and he was going to leave his works to the museum, and oh, by the way, the museum should be in the mansion he called home. So, with some back and forth, he convinced the government to keep the mansion and open it to the public to display some of his work. He didn't live long enough to see the project completed, but the gardens have now been pruned and you can wander around to see his work where he thought it should be viewed. One thing I did find surprising was how much of his work was repeated in different mediums and even using portions of the same casts for different pieces. Anyways - two of his most famous - the Thinker and the Kiss. One thing I did notice is Rodin's scale of feet and hands seems off. Either that or people's hands and feet have become daintier in the past 100 years. 

Ok, from one self absorbed French man to the next - across the street from Rodin's museum is the military museum, which houses the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte. The little general may have been over- compensating in his wishes for his tomb. It is huge! 

We also did a quick tour of the military museum, from which I learned that the French didn't get their asses handed to them in WWII, in fact the end of the war really came about because of de Gualle. A little different from the stories I've heard. 

To rest our tired feet, we decided to hop on one of the little boat cruises down the Seine. A nice way to see the sites. But really the best part of it was the views of the Eiffel Tower as the sun had really come out. 

The end of the cruise left us with a very different sky though...time to get inside and under cover. 

Another lovely day in Paris.