After returning from Scotland, I did some laundry, re-packed, and slept for a few hours. I woke up the next morning to someone knocking at my door and realized that I had completely slept through my alarm (I never even remembered hearing it, which is odd). So, needless to say, it was a crazy morning. I told Vanessa and Caitlin to go to the airport without me, then hurried and still ended up getting there with plenty of time. It's sad, but now I've lost all rights I had to complain about Caitlin always wanting to be way to early for everything because that's what ended up saving me.
When we arrived in Paris, we found our way to the hostel and hopped the tube to the Eiffel Tower.
I'm pretty sure this is my favorite picture from the trip. It was twilight and the lights had just turned on. Beautiful! The three of us wandered around a bit looking for food and finally found a great little cafe for dinner. I made a promise to myself to have a glass of wine with every dinner (what a great decision!). Eating at a leisurely pace (comme les francaises), we spent a relaxing first evening together and got back to the hostel early.
Here's a fun story from that night at the hostel -- some random guy needed help setting up his iPhone, but he didn't speak any English. Feeling helpful (and wanting to practice my French), I helped him out... for nearly 3 hours. At least he bought me hot chocolate. It was quite the ordeal, but I liked knowing that I could hold a conversation (and provide tech support -- who knew?) in French.
The next morning, Vanessa went off to Brussels while Caitlin and I spent the entire day at Versailles.
Hey look, it's the Sun King! I've wanted to visit Versailles since my sophomore year of high school (it was literally on the top of my list of things to do in Europe) and it was so great to actually be there! I always thought Louis XIV was a genius for building such a grand palace to keep the nobles from becoming too powerful. He'd invite them to come up for months at a time, essentially forcing them to spend valuable time and money there trying to outdo the other nobles. Problem solved! Plus, there's a GORGEOUS palace for us to visit. =)
The Hall of Mirrors was one of my favorite parts of Versailles. It was just incredible, especially the paintings on the ceiling. I also really loved the gold angel sculptures that they had holding up crystal lamps. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life.
Another one of my favorite rooms were the King and Queen's bedchambers (the picture is from the Queen's room). They had separate rooms and the Queen's was much more opulent (as it should be). It was a little much, but still absolutely gorgeous.
Some other highlights were the War and Peace rooms (the IR major in me geeked out about the documents that must have been signed there) and a few display rooms with old formal dresses. I'm glad I didn't live back then because they looked horribly uncomfortable and had cages underneath to keep the dress looking full and, I'm convinced, to detain unruly children.
After Caitlin and I finished exploring the inside of Versailles, we walked through the gardens and had lunch at a little outdoor cafe. It was there that we met a cat who was incredibly skilled at begging. He came up to us, hopped on the bench beside us, and let us fawn over him before demanding payment in the form of pizza crusts. We named him Louis. Awww. =)
After playing with Louis for a bit, we let him have our leftovers and walked to the Marie Antoinette estates. It was a small beautiful hamlet with a lake and adjoining gardens.
No wonder people hated her -- she wanted this hamlet built solely so she could come here with her children and pretend like they were living just like peasants. Like camping, but with servants. And probably cake.
The gardens of Versailles were just about as impressive as the palace itself. I haven't seen that many fountains since I went to Rome! There were some pretty amazing ones, but I fell in love with this one.
It's of a giant struggling in the rocks. Epic, yes? Yes.
Right before we were about to leave, Caitlin and I noticed a bunch of people heading toward a different part of the gardens. We decided to follow them and ended up seeing a live fountain show with classical music. It was gorgeous -- check out the clouds! Our feet aching from the all the walking we did at Versailles, we called it a day and headed back to the hostel to meet up with Vanessa.After a good night's sleep, we spent Sunday at the Louvre (for free! Man, we're good at planning ahead). We saw all the basics -- Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, Cupid and Psyche, and (am I forgetting something?) oh, right... the Mona Lisa.
Personally, I like this picture of the Mona Lisa better than the closeup I got of the 5 feet of glass protecting it both from a nuclear holocaust and my camera lens. It captures the utter serenity of the room.
Once we had been in the museum for a good 3-4 hours, Vanessa and I got a bit loopy and started posing with statues. It was at that moment that we decided to leave the Louvre, but got hung up in a gift shop. They had adorable plates with princesses who taught good manners on them ("Je ne vais pas mettre mes coudes sur la table!").
Another detour in the Louvre! I know it's touristy, but it turned out cute. ;)
After the Louvre, Vanessa Caitlin and I decided to grab a quick bite to eat. I got quiche and orangina! How very French... and delicious!!
We originally planned to go to the Musee d'Orsay after the Louvre but we were a bit museum-ed out and the line to get in was long, so we decided to head for Notre Dame instead. The three of us walked by the Seine on our way to Notre Dame and I ended up spotting a wonderful painting for sale. It was painted by an art student at one of the schools in Paris and I just fell in love with it. I don't know how I'll get it home, but I'll figure it out.
Hey, it's the Notre Dame! If you ask Victor Hugo, he'll go on about how gorgeous the church is... for 40 pages (that book is still a painful subject for me). I included a picture so you can save yourself the time and frustration.
It's the Rose window! The inside of the Notre Dame was absolutely beautiful, but a bit different than I expected. I guess it just wasn't as open and sprawling as I thought it would be, but it was still incredible. The towers were closing by the time we got there, so after touring the inside we headed to the Luxembourg Gardens.
The gardens were beautiful as expected and we passed by lots of locals reading by the lovely statues and flowers. We used our time in the park as an opportunity to rest our feet (SO MUCH WALKING!) and just relaxed for a bit. Dinner that night was a 5 star meal at Monsieur McDonald's. Don't judge -- it was close, we were tired, and there weren't any cafes in sight.
The next morning, we headed straight back to the Ile de la Cite. Our first stop was Sainte-Chapelle, my favorite church in France (yes, even over Notre Dame).
The stained glass was so beautiful! The first floor is gorgeous (plus, there's a 12th century fresco), but when you catch your first glimpse of the upper story it leaves you breathless. The walls are almost entirely made of stained glass and it gives the chapel a rich blue glow. I could have spent hours in there, but there were other things to see!
For instance, l'Arc de Triomphe! We hiked all the way here (the towers at Notre Dame were closed for lunch. Our great planning crumbled after the Louvre, I'm afraid. Those of you who are familiar with Paris geography will sympathize with our tired feet).
We had worked up a huge apetite, so we stopped by a cafe we found on a side street off the Champs-Elysees. The food was absoutely delicious and after about 10 minutes we noticed that a giant line had formed in the shop and halfway down the street. We had picked a local favorite, so we bought a baguette on our way out to celebrate.
This is Bernard the Baguette (yes, we named him) and I standing on the Champs-Elysees. He didn't last long... we ate him while standing in line for the Towers of Notre Dame.
This gargoyle had the best view. =) I may have gone a bit crazy with pictures of gargoyles, but they were fun! Unfortunately, none of them sung or danced like in the Disney movie. I also didn't see Quasimodo, but I did meet one of the bells (and it was huuuuuge).
Next stop, the Eiffel Tower! We had walked past it before, but wanted to get a few touristy pictures taken.
Group picture! Awww. =)
Look ma, I'm a tourist!
After performing our civic duty, we decided that the most logical thing to do would be to tear across town to the Sacre-Coeur before it closed. We got to the top in 25 minutes. For those of you unfamiliar with Paris geography, that's 42 miles. Uphill.
I guess I can't complain. It was beautiful and I felt like we really appreciated the view more because we definitely earned it. After poking around inside, we decided it wasn't worth the 5 euro and 500 stairs to climb to the top, so we collapsed on the railing outside. I then had the biggest giggle fit I've had in years. You should be sad that you weren't there to witness it... I pretended to conjugate the word "poke" ("je poke, tu poke, il poke, nous pokons, vous pokez, ils pokent") and then errupted into a fit of giggles so strong that I couldn't breathe. This is what happens when I'm overtired.
We found another cafe for dinner, I had a glass of wine, and we all shared escargots (it was my idea). I had had them (and liked them) before, but it was Vanessa and Caitlin's first time trying them. Caitlin was a bit weirded out at first, but even she ended up liking them! Success.
That night we decided to go up the Eiffel Tower for a view of the city at night. La ville lumiere didn't disappoint -- it was beautiful!
Vanessa had to catch an early flight next morning, so Caitlin and I spent the first part of the day at the Musee d'Orsay before heading to the airport. I really like impressionism, but I'm normally not the biggest fan of modern art, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the museum. Maybe it's because Caitlin and I avoided the rooms with wacky art.
This is a closeup of one of Van Gogh's paintings. I became really fascinated with how thick the paint was and how when you look at one of his paintings up close it just looks like a big mess but when you look at the whole painting, you can see what it really is. Stop me if I'm becoming trite, but isn't that how life is?
I'll end with this picture. By the time we reached the second floor of the museum, my legs were about to give out and I just sat down, exhausted. I looked up and saw this -- Rodin's Porte de l'Enfer (the Gates of Hell). I think it might be my favorite work of art (even above Hausmann's Mechanical Head, which was my favorite for 5 years). It's based off of Dante's Divine Comedy and, to me, completely expresses humanity. It completely changed my view on art.
And that completes the tale of my trip to Paris! It was a wonderful, whirlwind adventure. I'd love to go back someday and experience it at a much more leisurely pace.
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