warning: this is going to be a long post. take a bathroom break now.
taylor aside, it's been busy week! i successfully made it to and from paris without any issues despite some anxiety about the current riots that are going on all over france. my second trip to paris was much calmer than our whirlwind visit with my french 1 class in '08 although i did miss high school friends and a certain fur-coat-wearing tour guide :) (and for those of you wondering, yes i did take that class just for the trip and no, i did not retain enough french to communicate while in paris).
we made it to the city thursday night and spent the night at the airport holiday inn. we then tried to wake up early and instead made it to the metro by about 10:30. our hotel was in the gobelins district, a short walk from notre dame!!! all of the buildings looked like the ones that are featured in the movie inception (if you haven't seen it, you need to) so that alone was exciting and made up for our ridiculously chilly room.
after dropping off our bags, we made our way down rue monge towards notre dame. our first stop was a little bakery where i made my first parisian purchase: a baguette. sara and i most likely looked quite touristy walking down the street while trying in vain to look elegant while ripping chunks of bread from our baguettes. paris looked absolutely gorgeous with all of the fall color and the walk along the seine with yellow leaves and notre dame just across the bridge was surreal. we then hopped on our good friend, the metro, to make our way to le arc de triumph before walking down the champs elysees towards the louvre.
we vastly underestimated the size of the louvre and thought we would be able to conquer it in the 4 hours of free entry on friday night. we were wrong. after getting legitimately lost for 1.5 hours in the egyptian antiquities section (we decided egypt would be appalled at the amount of loot paris stole from the tombs) we finally made our way to mona, who was looking as lovely as ever. we also briefly visited french paintings, french sculptures and greek antiquities. we stumbled back to our hotel exhausted and overwhelmed, vowing to return someday to see what we had missied (ie flemish paintings). we watched a documentary in french about charles darwin and the evolution of finches before bed that brought me back to my sophomore year science class for dummies :)
on saturday, we ventured to versailles, the past home of marie antoinette and i was again stunned at how lavish every aspect of the palace was. it was a crowded and uncomfortable tour and people were getting quite vicious as they fought to take pictures. there was a strange japanese art exhibition (see below) going on that we couldn't really wrap our minds around. the sculptures really took away from the whole experience.
we made our way (by tram) to the far end of the property, where marie antoinette had a "country home" created for herself and her children. it was like something out of a fairytale. i wouldn't mind living there!
sunday was our busiest day by far, as we had to cram in everything else that we wanted to see. we started off with another visit to notre dame (we went inside this time) and stood in line for about 30 minutes waiting to go to the crypts... turns out we were in line to climb a 400-step-long spiral staircase to the top of the building. the views were breathtaking and the gargoyles and bell reminded us of a certain disney classic :) next on the agenda were the crypts of notre dame. heed my warning and never pay 2 euro to go there unless you're really into archaeological digs.
we hopped on the metro again and made our way to the musee d'orsay which was much more manageable than the louvre. disappointingly, the two paintings i wanted to see were in storage (obviously) and i didn't get to see van gogh's "starry night" OR renoir's "young girls at a piano". frustrating.
next up - montmartre where we wheezed our way up the hill to sacre cour while vowing to visit the gym more often. we also had to survive the bracelet-makers who were stalking the bottom of the stairs. these guys try to tie a bracelet on you and then make you pay for it! there were about 15 of them lurking around looking for a free wrist but we shoved our hands in our pockets and dodged them. after sacre cour, we walked through a crowded square full of painters and made our way to 54 rue lepic - van gogh's former residence.
our guide book suggested a walk through the montmartre cemetery so we hesitantly walked through rows and rows of these little house-like structures. some of them had giant sculptures on them and we decided to leave after seeing a black cat sitting on a headstone (no joke).
after a brief sighting of the red moulin rouge windmill, we made our way to le tour eiffel! it was bigger than i remember and this time i went halfway to the top. it was terrifying and cold so we didn't go all the way to the top... maybe next time :)
monday was travel-filled and we were glad to be back to our warm apartment and showers! movies we will be renting in the next few weeks:
hunchback of notre dame
marie antoinette
passport to paris
now, i'm settling in to write an essay :) sorry this is so long! hopefully i held your attention. love and miss you all!!
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