Paris, France, Day 2 - Musée d'orsay, Palais de Chillot, Arc De Triomphe

7:30am Woke up early and had take away breakfast at McDonald's (I know, it's really French).  Didn't leave the hotel till close to 9am.  My first stop was picking up the Paris Pass from 33 Rue Le Peletier (I'm along Rue Du Rocher which is quite central so it only took about 15 mins to get there) but that didn't work out too well as the address on the website is incorrect.   I gave up in search of the shop and was going back the other way when I found it. It's more like 26 Rue Le Peletier, same stretch of road.  Anyway the Paris Pass gives you entry to museums, provides access to public transport, certain tourist attractions and provides a guide book too so I thought I'll purchase it.  Oh and the best thing is that it allows you to skip the ticket queues directly which is a great time saver.

Caught the train to the Concorde metro stop then walked to the Musée d'orsay.  Photos are taken on the way to the museum.

Opera house roof

Opera house

Near the Concorde Metro

Along Quai Anatole France

10:40am Entered the museum and skipped the ticket queue.  It's a very nice museum and has varying exhibits from photography to paintings to sculptures.  Spent about 2 hours in total here.  Most of the exhibits only have french inscriptions but it's still enjoyable visually.

The flower designs on the sides of the wall remind me of Pompeii

The outside of the museum

1pm or so  Took a walk to the eiffel tower and had some sausages and chips for lunch.  On the way I also bought some postcards.  The queue at the eiffel tower was a bit too long so headed off to Palais de Chillot instead and took some photos there like the following one.

There were also plenty of gambling stands set up along this area, all illegal.  It's similar to three card monte where you guess where the ball is under 3 cups.  They make it look ridiculously easy for you to win but that's because the people work in groups and many of the persons playing are part of the scam.  Then when you play they work against you using various tricks so that you lose.

3:17pm Arrived at the Arc De Triomphe.  I skipped the ticket queue and went straight up.  Paris is a very flat city so even though it's only 50 metres high it has good views at the top.

There's a very small area before the terrace which has a few sculptures like the above

And this one

Came back to the hotel after that.  I spent most of the time figuring out what I'm doing tomorrow and getting to places.  I'll be starting at the Louvre museum, then catching a bus tour, ship cruise and then we'll see what time I have left before heading back to Orly airport and back to Oslo tomorrow night.

8:45pm Watched the champions league final between Barcelona and Manchester Utd. :)  Dinner was kebab but at a different place from the day before.  I know my meals aren't very healthy but that will change when I get back to Oslo!

The pedometer stopped working midway for some reason, the last recorded figure was 12K steps but I reckon the number is closer to 15K steps.

Time for bed!