Travel diary: Paris

After fabulous experiences in each of our prior stops: great sites, great company, great food, we arrived in Paris exhausted from lack of sleep and lots of walking.  It just seemed wrong to take a nap immediately after arriving in Paris.  But we did it anyway.  And we woke up refreshed and ready to take on the City of Lights.

It was already getting dark by the time we emerged from our hotel, so we headed toward the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night.  As we neared the tower area, we noticed that police cars and officers were swarming the area.  No problem, we'll just go a different way!  Except the officers were everywhere.  The tower had been evacuated, so we shrugged and went in search of dinner to bide time.  After dinner, we picked up a bottle of wine and made our way back to the tower.  It was open this time so we sat on a bench and took it in.  It really was spectacular.  If you go to Paris for the first time, I urge you to visit the Eiffel Tower at night before seeing it in daylight, when it isn't so spectacular.

It wasn't until the following day that we realized the Eiffel Tower evacuation was big news when friends from home e-mailed me about the bomb threat at the Eiffel Tower.  Yikes.

We went back to the tower the next day to take a ride to the top.  The line was pretty long, which gave us plenty of time for people watching, which we quickly discovered is highly entertaining in the touristy areas of Paris.  Everywhere we looked, there were men with trinkets spread out on a blanket, or strung on a large metal ring.  There must be some sort of Oriental Trading Company in France that sells Eiffel Tower replicas in various colors, for a low cost, because I'm certain that the advertised price, while low, was still a rip-off.  Other guys had fake purses or toys that would fly through the air.  All of it was junk, and selling it was illegal.  Which is where the truly entertaining aspect came in.  The blankets that all this crap was laid out on had handles, so when police came through, these men could easily gather up their stuff and run.  The police clearly didn't care to enforce the law, so they would calmly ride their bicylcles under the tower while the se guys ran with their blankets thrown over their shoulders.  We did witness an undercover sting operation busting a couple guys later that day.

If you're looking for miniature Eiffel Tower figurines, this is the place to go.

We eventually made it to the top of the tower, and took in the awesome views.  In contrast to Prague's red rooftops, everything in paris is white.

Next, we took a river boat tour down the Thames, then walked toward the Arc de Triomphe, where I feared Aaron would get hit by a car trying to get the perfect picture.  We walked down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, where all of the famous Paris shopping is located.  I'm not one to spend Champs-Élysées prices on clothes, so my one purchase was a cardigan sweater from Zara.  Exciting, I know.

On Day 3 of Paris, we went to the Louvre, and were pleasantly surprised that the line wasn't too long.  We made our way inside, and were immediately overwhelmed.  It is a huge building, and from the outside I thought there was no way that the entire thing was filled with paintings and sculptures.  Oh, but it was.  Like everyone else, it seemed, we bee-lined to the Mona Lisa.  I was shocked at how small the painting is.  The photo below is practically life size!  (Okay, not quite.)  It is 31x21 inches.

The famed pyramid entrace to the Louvre

Mona

We used the guide and found most of the other popular exhibits, like Hammurabi's Code and the sculpture of Venus de Milo.  We didn't even make a dent in viewing all the areas of the museum, and 3 hours in, we were done.  We are soooo into art.

That afternoon, we toured the Notre Dame, which was near our hotel.  I mentioned in a previous post that I had recently reconnected with an old friend that I studied with in Prague, and he is now in grad school in Paris.  We met him for dinner and drinks that night.  Despite having not seen one another in 6+ years, we had a blast catching up.

On Day 4 of Paris, we decided to get out of the city and visit Versailles.  It was absolutely beautiful; definitely one of those places that pictures does not do justice.  The exterior and interior of the palace are stunning, and the gardens are unlike anything I have seen before.  Soon after we got home, the movie "Marie Antoinette" starring Kirsten Dunst was on TV.  It was really cool to see a movie set in a place that we had just visited, and it gave me an appreciation for the history that took place in Versailles.



Versailles: overlooking the gardens behind the palace



Versailles: inside the palace

We were slightly bored our last night in Paris, so we knew that it was time to go home.  We headed to the airport that Saturday morning, thinking we had plenty of time.  Little did we know that Charles de Gaulle Airport is completely inefficient.  We waited in the ticketing line, then the Customs line, then the security line, before we sprinted onto the plane not long before it took off.   I was ready to be reunited with my dog, eat "American food", and sleep in my own bed, so missing our flight would have made me very angry.  Luckily, we made it home, safe, sound, and on time.  And our dog forgave us within 2 days (the first day was a little tense).