Day 2 in Paris - Car Tours, Museums and Lido Dinner Show

After going to sleep around midnight for the first time in nearly 46 hours, we slept until the alarm went off and we met the group for tours via private cars in antique "2CV's." We all felt like movie stars with people taking pictures of us (probably the cars) as we drove through the streets of Paris for 2 hours.

Sebastian was our driver, a 24-year old native Parisian who shared with us all kinds of fascinating facts about Paris including answering our questions about real estate. Get this... apartments with views of the Eiffel Tower are the most coveted in all the city and 600 square feet apartments go for around $4.75 million US dollars. WOW!!! This is Notre Dame..

We then had a very French lunch at a restaurant that was 100 years old and famous for all the mosaic tile detail that it has inside... it was amazing.

We then walked the streets of Paris and saw the famous Opera house where musicians such as Beethoven and Mozart have performed. This was on the steps of the Opera House.

Then it was off to the Louve, where on the way, we discovered all this "modern" art... this is an actual art piece in the gardens in front of the Louve... a shoe shining machine... strange, very strange what some consider art.

Mission accomplished.. we saw the Mona Lisa... sort of disappointing, she is very small but we had to see her. Blake and I decided while walking through the French painting section that French artists love naked women and Italian's love fat naked babies! Then we headed for the other great "Musee d'Orsay," which has a huge Picasso exhibit. We found that very very interesting... Picasso is stranger than we ever imagined.

We strolled back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and it had turned into the sunniest, most glorious day in Paris... from what we hear it is very rarely sunny with blue sky's... it was majestic!

For dinner, we got all dressed up and headed to the Champs Elysee to see a French "Broadway like show" - LIDO, complete with a nice dinner. We again were served duck foie gras... don't ask... a French delicacy. The show had hundreds of costume changes and the French women were truly beautiful! It ended with the stage turning into a mini ice skating rink and some amazing tricks that were done. Our favorite part were the 2 men painted gold that did the "strength show," similar to what we have seen at Cirque de Soleil shows here in the states!

Poor Blake has had a horrible cough now for nearly 3 weeks and now of course with our worldwide traveling and intense long days, it has gotten worse...but he hasn't complained once!