Paris trip, Day 2

The business district of Paris is called La Defense because of a statue in the area that commemorates the defense of Paris din the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. We started off our day there and went to the Louvre.
It was there that I realized that -- unlike during the last time I was here in Deceber 2001 -- Paris is a very busy place. We took one look at the long lines to get in and decided our time was better spent doing something else. Paris was gearing up for the summer Olympics at the time. So from there we walked over to Notre Dame, which is still under repair following the 2019 fire.
You might think that -- since the only thing going on was construction -- there wouldn't be many people around, but no. In fact, there were bleachers for people to sit on and watch the action.
Although I wasn't interested in sitting around, I did not object to a vin chaud.

In 2001, I got a great picture of the back of Notre Dame. Here's how it looks today versus back then.
From there we went to the Basilisque de Sacré Cœur de Montmartre...
... where the crowds were just as intense. As elsewhere, couples can't resist hanging locks on public landmarks. Then it was on to the Place de la Concorde, where we saw the Luxor Obelisk.
That was enough sightseeing for the day. We returned to La Defense for dinner at the mall.
"I empty my drink and leave my tray on the shelves. Don't take the dishes. We take care of everything!"
In addition to Korean and American food, there was also German.
Because of their participation in JROTC, we needed this picture in front of the Sergent Major clothing store.
We didn't get into the Louvre, but this was close enough.
And one other thing -- Paris has trash cans again. When I was here last, Paris was still reluctant to bring them back because of the bombings in the 1990s. Another fun day with the family.