Paris!

Paris, France

Mile Count: 1,346

Thursday, November 17:  We got there late Thursday night, arrived at our hotel (which was more like a hostel and management immediately hated us because we were American/college students) and just walked around for a bit.  Tired from a long day of travel, we crashed pretty early and woke up at 8 the next morning to start our adventures through Paris.

Friday, November 18:  We woke up, had a lack-luster breakfast where the only good thing was croissants.  We walked about 5 minutes to the metro, and took that to a central point in the Touristy center of Paris.  From there we walked passed Notre Dam, and to the Sainte Chapel.

Group outside of ND

The buildings honestly are not that impressive from the outside, but when we got to the inside of the first chapel and up to the second floor, it was AMAZING.  The entire room was a panel of 14 stained glass windows, with each window telling a story of a different book of the bible.  This was one of the many times I have wished I had a better camera, the room was so huge I couldn't zoom out enough to get a good view.

Nuts

4 wide, 15 high.  Read bottom to top left to right.

As you can see, each window was divided into 4 columns, with each column having 15 mini scenes in it.  You read the columns from bottom to top, left to right, like the form of a snake.  It was a cloudy day (as is the norm in Paris apparently), but the glass was still incredible, and it was really cool to see.  Even cooler and pretty unbelievable, this chapel once held the Crown of Thorns that Jesus wore on the day he was crucified, but it is no longer there, I forget where it is thought to be currently. 

From there we went inside Notre Dam: neat but I am officially burnt out on cathedrals.  Almost every single one we have seen is of Gothic architecture with the same huge columns throught and “x” shaped ceiling supports so that the churches could be built bigger and with larger domes.

Notre Dame from the inside

After that, we had free time for lunch, where we went for cheap and fast...and got these huge Kabaabs with chicken and fries and tomatoes – delishh.  

ohh yeahh

After lunch we walked along the river which was sweet.  The street vendors all had their art work out – from paintings, to photos, to prints, to pottery – they had it all.  I love random stuff like that, so I sort of lagged behind and looked for cool things to buy, with definite success.  

Street vendors!

Seih!

It was just so great to be walking along the river in Paris on a cloudy day, I felt very French...(I like feeling American better if anyone was wondering, love you dad!)  We arrived at the Musuem d´ Orsay, where all of the famous impressionist and neoimpressionist artwork is.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, but impressionism was definitely something else – very interesting how those artists could take what they saw and distort it into a blurry yet beautiful work of art.  We were free to go after the Orsay....let the walking begin. 

We tried and failed to find the Effeil Tower (don’t ask me how, but were further away than we thought).  I did manage to get a freakin’ GORGEOUS picture of it at night with clouds and susnet when it was lit-up, I’m convinced this could be a post card or something.

Boo-yah

7pm rolled around, and it got COLD.  Tim and I decided it was time to find a bar to occupy our time.  I had already talked to Thibaut, my Dad’s super nice old business associate and family friend, about meeting up for dinner when he got back into Paris from Rome.  We found the best little place:  “The Highlander”

Heaven in Paris

We walked in and heard the bartender speaking perfect english, a perfect start.  We then realized it was happy hour, score.  We then realized there was free wifi, and a college basketball game on – Tim and Aj: 4, Paris: 0.  

We ended up staying there till about 9:30 when Thibaut got back into town, then met up with him and had probably the best meal I have had thus far in Europe.  I cannot say enough about how great of a guy he is: he made the reservation, paid for the meal, and took us around to see some sights after dinner.  I was so happy/excited/content that I totally forgot to take any pictures, but it was an authentically tiny French restaurant that didn’t seat more than 15 people.  We had fou Grouis with a poached egg and cheese to start.  Tim had this duck,potatoe, cheese, cream cassarole thing, I had a bread crumb crusted cut of veal that was awesome, and Thibaut got this huge leg of lamb – it was INCREDIBLY GOOD.  Big shout out to Thibaut, we owe you a good dinner next time you come to the states, thank you so much!!  Full and content after seeing some sights, we went home and crashed.

Saturday, November 20:  Saturday we woke up bright and early again to hit the Luvre.  The glass pyramid right outside is really cool, very very neat that the bottom part is self sustaining and not grounded into anything.

The sheer size of this museum is absolutely ridiculous.  Here is a view of it from the Eiffel Tower, a probably 4 or 5 miles away at least.  

Massive.

Jesús, who is our program coordinater and takes us around all of these museums and explains them to us was very sick, so we didn’t hear much explaining, but he took us around to all the major points: the mona lisa, the headless angel, and some others.  Everyone knows what the mona lisa looks like, so I'm not going to post a picture.   I personally preferred the art of the Orsay to any art I have seen, although the Sistine Chapel was pretty amazing, I just like the impressionist stuff the best.  We walked around the Luvre for about 2 more hours, and what people don't know is there is the CODE OF HAMMURABI.  An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth - it was SO cool to see this.

up close and personal

Hammurabi was the man

From their we got lunch, which was my first Falafel experience, and a great one at that.  Then we went to the Eiffel Tower, which doesn't look all that great from afar quite honestly, but up close it is very very neat.  The architecture is intricate, and it apparently was supposed to be temporary when it was built for the World Fair whenever that was, I can't remember the year.  Here are some awesome pictures:

awesome awesome

Pretty clear day in Paris.

Saturday night a few of us went out to some bars, but it's very expensive to go out at night in Paris, so we didn't do very much and it wasn't all that exciting.  That's it for Paris, hope ya'll liked it!

Blog about the week with Mindy to come sometime soon!