France: Day 6 - Notre Dame de Paris and Musee d'Orsay

Thursday, May 28 ,2026

I was up from 3am to 5am but otherwise slept ok. We drove a lot this day. Our next stop was Notre Dame in Paris. We drove almost 3 hours to get there. We parked in the parking lot underground. Erik reserved (free) tickets for 2:00pm. We walked right in through the reservation line, and we were able to bypass the standby line. There were a lot of people in there walking around and talking. They had a constant announcement, reminding people to be quiet. We took lots of pictures of the stained-glass windows and the towers.

Waiting for everyone to get together so we could go inside the cathedral

The inside is just as spectacular as advertised! I'm glad the fire didn't destroy too much

The outside is almost as impressive as the inside

After Notre Dame, we walk along the Siene river: 

Walking along the Seine River

The kids were starving, so we went across the street to Subway. We didn’t have a whole lot of time, so we took the sandwiches to go and drove back to the next Airbnb. Traffic was pretty bad, so it took a while. Once we got to the Airbnb, Erik and I left for the Musee d’Orsay. We parked in the Louvre underground parking lot. We ran to get in the museum before 5:30 because our 5 o’clock tickets were going to expire. We saw most of the paintings in the museum, but we focused most of our attention on the impressionists. There was a big display of Renoir.

Renoir

Erik, with lots of statue carvings 

Manet's Olympia

Renoir's Dance at the Moulin de la Galette

Renoir's Summer Landscape

Renoir

Renoir

Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party

Renoir

Renoir

Renoir's Umbrellas

Millet's Gleaners

This painting has been made into a meme, that's where I recognized it from

Nudies, but still very pretty.

Couture's Romans During the Decadence

Another couple offered to take our picture.

Monet's Luncheon on the Grass

Monet's Poppies

Manet's Luncheon on the Grass

Pretty sure this is a Monet painting

Degas's Blue Dancers

Monet's Waterlilies

A popular Monet painting, I've seen before but I can't quite pinpoint exactly where...

Monet's Haystacks

Renoir's Young Girls at the Piano

One of Van Gough's many self portraits

Van Gogh's Church at Auvers

A very large, nudie painting-I was surprised that I had never seen before

Rodin's Gates of Hell

After looking around for a while, we walked down the street to one of the nearest restaurants: Le Bistrot du Paris. Fortunately, it had just opened up at 7 PM, so we were able to get a seat right away. We ordered the foie gras, the fillet of beef, the rack of lamb, and crème brûlée for dessert. While driving around Paris, we saw the Eiffel Tower, the arc de triumph, the Champs Élysées, and the Paris opera. When we got back to the house, we helped to open the windows and air the place out since it was so hot.

Foie Gras. We figured we should try it while in France. It was thankfully more buttery than livery

The lamb was so good. This was one of the best meals of our trip.

A French meal isn't complete without Creme Brulé for dessert!