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The Eiffel Tower - 29/12/19

Yesterday, we didn't go up the Eiffel Tower. Today, we did. We got up really early and took the same bus as yesterday to the vicinity of the Tower. We walked to the Tower and stood in the line for the security check. Then we stood in the line for the tickets. Then we went up the Eiffel Tower. This is the part where it really starts to get interesting. We climbed up to the 1 storey, and although there wasn't really such a great view from there yet, we spent a lot of time there because there were toilets there and also benches, so we ate there. Then we went up to the second storey, the highest we were going today. The Eiffel Tower has three storeys: the first storey, one quarter of the way up, the second storey, halfway up, and the third, top storey, at the tip. But we weren't going to the top, because that was only reachable by a heavily booked elevator. But the view from the second storey was good enough: in the words of Mum, "On the third floor, the view is the same, only you're further away". We enjoyed the view for a while and then went back down to the ground. Next stop: Musee d'Orsay.
While the Louvre is about art up to the 19th century, the Musee d'Orsay is about art from the end of the 19th century up to today. For instance, Monet's famous Water Lilies are in there. But when we got there, we saw the line and instantly decided not to go there. Instead, Mum suggested a different museum called Musee de l'Orangerie. This museum was a bit disappointing: it only had a small amount of permanent artwork, and the rest was all travelling artwork. But the art itself was good: the permanent artwork consisted almost solely of Monet's Water Lilies (although not all of them because soma are in d'Orsay), and the travelling artwork was a private collection with lots of well-known paintings. After spending a bit of time in l'Orangerie, we took a bus to the top of the hill known as Mont Matre to see the famous cathedral, Sacre Ceur. We admired the arches of the catherdal for quite a while, then wandered around Mont Matre. There was a nearby square with a bunch of artists sketching or cartooning a subject for money, and we watched them for a while. Then we took a long footpath to Gare du Nord to catch a bus, but because of the strikes, it wasn’t driving, so we took a taxi.

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