Paris cont'd cont'd cont'd

Day 5

Our 5^th day in Paris was our Louvre Day! We started our day meandering the Carrousel De Louvre, which is the mall located underneath the ground of the Tulleries Gardens.  There are some pretty cool stores in there. We stopped at the Apple store to use the wifi spot to say we were AT THE LOUVRE! on Facebook and Twitter, and then headed for the museum.

The passes we got allowed to skip the lines and everything and just go from gallery to gallery with ease. It was great! We started in the left side of the building which contains most of the sculpture galeries.  I don’t remember if I have said this before but I have found that I really enjoy sculpture a lot more than paintings. There is just such a movement to them that I do not find or experience in paintings. 

^Berta took this one. It is so Beautiful!^

We continued to explore through the Egyptian and Byzantine collections, and then crossed the main atrium under the glass pyramid to the other side of the museum.  On the other side is where the Mona Lisa, The Winged Victory and The Venus de Milo are located. I got to see the Mona Lisa! It was very exciting! As we walked through the palace, the works of art are almost a second thought compared to the amazing ceilings! The intricate gold work mixed with the paintings and frescos is just beautiful.

Paris - cont'd cont'd

Day 4

We decided that Thursday was going to be our day at Versailles. Versailles is about 2 hours outside of Paris, so Berta and I hopped a train to get there. The Palace at Versailles was built for Louis XIV, when he decided to move his entire residence out of Paris.  The Palace is massive! Made and built upon an old hunting lodge, the building dominates the small city of Versailles.  Berta and I got to walk up the main walkway, which hundreds of thousands of foreign dignitaries walked up in the 1600s on their way to see the King.  I was particularly excited about this Palace because our “history of furniture” class last semester spent a great deal of time on the ornate furniture of Louis XIV. 

We waited in line in front of the amazing golden gateway, and the entered into the marble courtyard. The façade is GORGEOUS! In pictures you do not notice the little details, like the gold rimmed windows and golden tipped roof line. It truly is amazing. We walked the main hallways and made our way upstairs.  I did not realize there would be so many people there! There were more people there than at the Eiffel Tower. It was so crowded.

We caught a glimpse of the Main Chapel, which is a great example of French Baroque Architecture.  From there we continued into the salons of Venus, Diane, Mars, Mercury, and Apollo.  Each room was even grander than the next.  It was designed as a procession to build up to the Long Gallery.  The Long Gallery, or Hall of Mirrors, was actually, sadly, a bit of a let down for me. I guess when you’re comparing everything to the ceilings of the Vatican Museum, not much will stand.  We continued our tour through the apartments, the king’s stateroom, as well as the queen’s, and then exited through the gift shop.  We made our way around the palace and into the gardens.

The Gardens of Versailles are world famous! And they are huge! We definitely did our share of walking. We explored those gardens for all they were worth.  Some parts were just beautiful, while other hadn’t quite bloomed yet. 

After we had thoroughly explored (and gotten a little sunburnt) we headed back to Paris for dinner.

Paris - cont'd

We started our day by traveling a couple blocks north of our hostel in Montmarte, towards Sacra Coeur.  This very pretty church sits on top of Montmarte hill, overlooking the entire city of Paris.  On the inside they were celebrating morning mass so we were hurriedly shuffled through the church and then back out again.  The ceilings were covered in mosaic tiles depicting different biblical scenes, and the chapels on the outside were very beautiful.

From Sacra Coeur, We traveled to the island in the middle of the Seine which contains the Palais de Justice as well as Notre Dame.  We made a stop at the Conciergerie to see the magnifiscent halls.  The gorgeous vaulted ceilings are what make this space famous.  After admiring, we crossed the piazza towards Notre Dame.  I was beyond excited to see this amazing church.  I have posters in my room back home of this place.  It is so beautiful!  I took so many pictures of the front. All the little details were so intricate, the doors especially.  We entered the church and saw the tall Gothic columns and ceiling.  The Church was set up for an orchestra concert that night.  With this set up, the one view I actually wanted to see was blocked. I wanted to see and get a picture of the long nave with the altar at the end and the statue of Our Lady in the middle.  As we walked around the outside, the air is so thick inside the church. Each of the little chapels is so beautiful, each with its own stained glass windows and statues.  

After walking all the way around the inside, we went back outside and stood in line to climb the towers.  After about a thirty minute wait, we climbed the spiral stairs up the towers. I have never been so dizzy. The stairs seem like they will never end.  But when you finally reach the top, it is definitely worth it. I got to get some really cool pictures of some gargoyles. The view is really pretty over the river. We continued climbing to the very tippy top of the tower and you could see for miles up there. Not quite as high as the Eiffel Tower, but still really pretty.  After climbing down the dizzying staircase, we walked over to Sainte Chapelle, in the Palais de Justice.  This small 2 level chapel is known for its amazing stained glass and beautiful paintings.  It is currently being restored and you can visibly see the difference in panels of stained glass that have been cleaned and those that haven’t. 

From the island, Berta and I traveled to the Pompidou Center.  I found the building incredibly confusing. We tried to make our way up to fourth level where the art museum is located.  Took us a little while but we made it. There was some cool stuff in the museum.  All the descriptions were in French, but there was an Architecture and furniture section that I enjoyed looking at. After fighting to find our way out of the building, we were both exhausted.  On the way back to the hostel, we grabbed a Rotisserie Chicken and some bread in order to make some dinner. 

Paris

Day 1

The weekend after Venice was very short.  We got home Saturday morning. Slept all day pretty much and then went back to re-packing on Sunday.  We took the last train to Rome on Sunday night and spent the night in the McDonalds across the street from the Station.  At 4:30 in the morning, we hopped on the shuttle to the airport which took about and hour.  Roma Campiagno is, for lack of a better word, unorganized. It is pretty much just a hanger and you get bussed to your airplane.  I slept from take-off to landing. It was awesome.  We landed around 9:30 in Beauvais and then had to take another shuttle from Beauvais to Paris.  Berta and I walked from Porte Maillot to the tourist office to pick up our passes for the Metro and the Museums. We then walked up to our hostel and got settled. 

Once settled, we grabbed a map and started formulating a plan.  We settled on the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysees for the day.  Being in Paris for me was a blur and a dream.  We got out of the subway at the Eiffel Tower stop and we came around the corner and there it was. I have had my room decorated with Paris for like forever! And I always wanted to go and now I was there!! We took pictures with it and of each other and decided we would climb it another day.  We took the subway over to the Arc de Triomphe and started walking down the Champs Elysees.  The road was blocked off because of a celebration for the 15^th anniversary of the end of the war in Albania.  So we got to walk in the street and get pictures. After walking for awhile we were pretty exhausted so we decided to go back to the hostel and crash. But first, without fail, I of course had to injure myself somehow.  I took a nasty fall in one of the subway stations and slammed my knee into the edge of the concrete.  Nothing broken, but it swelled to the size of a grapefruit and it turned some pretty colors.

Day 2

The next day was going to be our garden day, including the Tulleries and the Luxembourg Gardens.  I think Berta and I have decide that we are not garden people.  First of all the Tulleries are a joke.   They are just trees and gravel infront of the Louvre.  We thought they were going to be really impressive. That’s a big negative though.  But we walked through them all the way to the Louvre.  We ended up taking pictures with the glass pyramid and everything when we got there. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays so there is no one there making it a great day to take pictures outside.  From there we took the subway to the Luxembourg Gardens.  These were more green than the Tulleries, but there were so many people….(maybe I’m just too picky about my outside spaces…).

Once we finished walking around the gardens, we had only been out for about 3 hours. So we had to decide what to do with the rest of our day.  We settled on climbing the Eiffel Tower. (Keep in mind, Melissa slammed her knee the night before. Oh yeah. I’m awesome.)  So we paid 3 euro to climb the stairs to the second level. And I survived too! I actually did really well and kept a good pace the whole way up! I was proud of myself.

We stayed up there for quite awhile, just taking in the sights.  When we descended we decided to go back the hostel for some dinner.  We found the Moulin Rouge on the way there (our hostel was only 2 blocks away).

After dinner we ventured back out to the Arc de Triomphe to see it at night. We made a split second decision to climb it also (oh yeah…more stairs.). The winding circular staircase made me very dizzy, but the night view at the top was totally worth it. Paris is so much prettier at night! From the Arc de Triomphe, we could see La Defense, so we decided to go check that out as well. Then we went back to the Eiffel Tower to take night pictures! By then we were both exhausted, so we went back to the hostel to pass out.