Paris for the weekend

I am a bit behind on my blog posts.....we are back from our week in Italy (which was wonderful!) but I still hadn't posted our weekend recap from our trip to Paris that we took the weekend before we left for Italy. It's been a busy spring season of travel for us so I am not fully up to speed with the recaps! 

A few weeks ago we met Scott's good friend Andrew in Paris for the weekend. Andrew has been coming to Amsterdam on business once a month, so we decided to all meet in Paris for the weekend before he flew back to the US.  We stayed in a little boutique hotel about a stone's throw away from the Arc De Triomphe. 

Andrew & Cassie out on the balcony of the hotel. Note the Arc de Triomphe in distance on the right. 

Scott goofing around and I am still amused by him! 

The view of the Arc de Triomphe from the hotel's balcony. It was so close and quite a sight! 

Friday night we enjoyed a dinner of steak frites and then took an evening boat cruise to see the sights of Paris lit up at night. Later that evening, we headed to a bar that Ernest Hemingway used to frequent and stumbled upon the Opera building lit up in its grandeur. 

The Paris Opera. 

We spent most of Saturday morning just walking through the neighborhoods. We started wandering by the Bastille metro stop and stumbled upon the Place Des Vosges Square: 

One of the many red brick buildings surrounding this square. 

Scott and Andrew enjoying our walk through the square in the Marais neighborhood.

A view of the square from an end of it. Victor Hugo, who wrote Les Miserables, lived in one of the red brick houses to the side (no. 6).

Our wandering took us through many neighborhoods, but we stopped for a while when we came to Notre Dame. 

Cassie & Scott sitting on a bench at the back of Notre Dame.

A closer photo of us sitting there....it actually seems to be a silly photo up close! 

Stopping for a great view along the Seine River.

After a day of strolling through the city by foot, we hopped onto the Metro and made a visit to the Musee D'Orsay. The Musee D'Orsay is a museum in Paris, on the left bank of the Seine, that is housed in a former railway station, the Gare D'Orsay. The museum contains mainly French art, and is most known for its extensive collection of impressionist masterpieces.  

Scott looking around the first floor of the museum. The building itself is quite impressive, as you can see the domed ceiling in this photo. 

Cassie in front of the clock inside the museum's main hall, the old train station. 

Scott in front of an art piece at the museum. I was surprised that they allowed photographs to be taken everywhere in this museum. Sadly, my camera battery died after this photo was taken so it was my last photo of our weekend in Paris with Andrew....