Runners' Record: Paris 2024, Day 2 (Part 2)

Not too far away was the Musee Rodin. Some really impressive works. Not a huge place, so going through it in 1.5 - 2 hours is eminently possible. Here's a small taste of what you can find here.

(The Defense or The Call to Arms)

(The Kiss)

(Miniature version of The Thinker)

(Danaid)

(Victor Hugo -- despite the fact that he refused to actually sit for Rodin)

(Illusion, the Sister of Icarus)

(The Fall of Icarus)

(Balzac -- he did LOTS of sculptures of Balzac)

(Auguste Rodin, himself)

(Monument to the Burghers of Calais)

(Young Woman and Child)

(The Gates of Hell -- truly an impressive sculpture up close. All of the figures trying to "escape," and notice that one familiar figure in miniature near the top. Look familiar? These smaller versions were actually the first versions, prior to the large version, below.)

(The Thinker)

Thankfully I chose a package that included a 1-hour Seine River cruise, as it turned out that the 2-hour night cruise w/ dinner on my last day in Paris (prior to my day at Disneyland Paris) wound up being canceled. It was a nice walk to get to the pier, complete with a few sites along the way, some of which would wind up being part of the tour.

Believe these were some stages that were used during the Opening Ceremony -- but I only watched a small portion, so it's just a guess on my part.

Totally random sculpture I couldn't resist taking a snap of.

Part of the Alexander II bridge. These will make an appearance on the tour.

It was a nice, relaxing ride. Given I rode atop the boat, there were only intermittent burst of tour guide narration (since the people inside the boat had access to a voice track talking about each of the sites, and it only had a few breaks, which the tour guide filled with his additional tidbits).

Assemblee Nationale - not visible from this angle on the water are the various sculptures each with a different piece of sports equipment added, clearly honoring women in sports. (It will be evident later.)

Musee d'Orsay -- really big museum, which used to be the Paris train station; think a very large Grand Central Station with tons of side rooms, filled to the gills with amazing artwork.

Louvre

Approaching Pont Neuf

New Bridge -- ironically, the oldest bridge in Paris, connecting the Left Bank to the original city (Il Cite) at Pont Neuf.

Notre Dame

I have no idea how they think the reconstruction of Notre Dame will be finished in time for this December. It looks like there is so much left to do.

Hotel de Ville - our starting area for Marathon Pour Tous; not the best of angles from the water.

Better angle of the Assemblee Nationale to be able to see some of the women in sports on the steps.

Completely random sculpture -- no clue who this was supposed to be.

Countdown to the Opening Ceremony, at the base of the Olympic rings-clad Eiffel Tower

On the back side of the countdown clock was the Countdown to the Closing Ceremony.

From here, it was off to the Tuileries to get some dinner. While I had originally scheduled a couple of hours to wander those gardens (despite not going into the Louvre for a few more days), two things made that not possible: 1) I wound up quite a bit behind schedule and 2) They were pretty much closed off to everyone who wasn't either participating in the Olympics or part of the Olympic family. But my plan included walking from the western end of the Tuileries all the way up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.

As part of honoring part of French history during their Opening Ceremony, they used a big balloon as their Olympic cauldron, as the Montgolfiers invented hot air balloons in 1783. This balloon isn't quite the same thing, though, rather supposed to simply be reminiscent. During the day, it stayed tethered on the ground across the street from the Pyramid out front of the Louvre. After sunset, they allowed it to rise up (still tethered), and the bottom part of the sphere was lit up by the "Olympic flame" -- which really wasn't flame at all, rather simply light being projected up (lame!).

For some reason, part of the street on Rue de Rivoli was blocked off from pedestrians, so we were forced to go one block out of the way before returning on the other side of a long block. Seemed inexplicable at the time, but whatever. It was a nice relaxing walk as the sun was setting.

Concorde, but the better shot is the other direction, looking up the Champs-Elysees.

The Champs-Elysees is essentially Paris' equivalent of Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive. For the most part, there's little that is remarkable enough to bother with photos of the stores, with one very notable exception:

Look very carefully. Can you tell what it is underneath that construction crane in the background? That building is in the design of a piece of Louis Vuitton luggage! Neat!

Finally made it just a few minutes before my ticket -- timed so that I would be up top after it got dark and see the city lit up.

How many stairs is it to get to the top? Really? More than in Sacre-Coeur? Good lord. And here they didn't bother putting any signs along the way encouraging you to keep on going or showing the countdown of how many remain. Just keep on trucking!

At the top of the stairs is a small museum. One of the few displays was this sculpture of the Spirit of Liberty. But finally, after that ever-so-fun-ascent, I got to the long-awaited sight.