Day 161
Paul and I went to visit the memorial sites at Place du Republique and the Bataclan. Extremely sad.
We went past the Bibliothèque Historique de la ville de Paris, which looked appropriately historical.
We went down the Avenue Winston-Churchill, between the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts in the Petit Palais on one side and the Grand Palais museum on the other. Quite an impressive pair of museums, which we will still need to visit.
The gilt-bronze statues of Pegasus on the columns are one of the reasons why the Pont du Alexander III is considered the most ornate bridge in Paris. It was constructed in the late 1800s, in a way that wouldn’t obstruct the view to Invalides or the Champs-Élysées. There is a view of the Eiffel Tower beyond the Seine. We were on the bridge when the city-wide moment of silence was observed.
Next we walked through Place de la Concorde, toward Avenue des Champs-Élysées, where a village of Christmas market booths are being built. Christmas is Paris is something I’ve wanted to experience since the first time we came here, and I can hardly wait.