Hello my dear reader, and might I add, happy belated Easter! I'm sure you spent Easter with friends and family but I spent my Easter weekend in Paris. Yes, Paris, the city of light, the city of love, the city of ... baguettes. You see, Easter Monday is a holiday in this country, meaning no work or class (which doesn't make sense for a "secular" country). That means more time to travel! You may be thinking that it is not a good time to travel around Europe, and you may be right in light of the recent events in Brussels. But I have to applaud France for the security throughout Paris (whether it was a recent addition or has been like this for a while I'm not certain). There were police and soldiers with machine guns EVERYWHERE... it was fantastic!
I spent most of Friday at the Musee D'orsey which is an art museum in an old train station. (Avid readers will recall my new found love of art. I encourage new readers to scroll down to my "Art" post, I think it's one of my best). Yes, we did go to the Louvre as well, but The Musee D'orsey had more of the art and artists I enjoy; such as Sisley, Monet, Pissarro, Degas, and Cezanne . Don't get me wrong though, the Louvre is incredible! We spent around six hours inside trying to see as much as we could. We focused on the rooms and rooms of renaissance art, French painters, and sculptures. I gotta say it one of the best parts was the sculpture galleries, it was pretty incredible to see something made by Michelangelo.
We stayed in a hotel that was about a 2 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower and we could see it out the window of our room! Being so close to the Eiffel Tower I took loads of pictures of it and the best ones can be seen later on once you've finished reading all of my words. At night the tower was illuminated in the colors of the Belgian flag which was a lovely tribute to Brussels. Of course we also went to see the Arch de Triumph which is huge! Of course everyone knows it is big but standing next to it is completely different. The statues on the side of the Arch are very impressive and something you definitely need to experience in person. No, we did not go to the top of the Arch de Triumph because the queue would have taken around two hours.
My friends and I treated ourselves to a fancy lunch at a restaurant Will's mom insisted we try. It was great! (and might I add one of the best deals ever). I mention this because I couldn't resist telling you all about foie gras. Yes that's right, foie gras (it means fatty duck liver). I may not be the most adventurous eater (correction: I'm not an adventurous eater in any sense of the word), but something came over me that day and I decided to give it a shot (when in
Rome Paris). It;s funky. Not a good funky and not a bad funky, just funky. It defiantly became harder to eat as Nate insisted it was fancy feast cat food. (I can't blame him, it kinda looked like it). WE ended on a high note however with some of the best creme brulee I've ever had. Thanks Will's mom for restaurant tip!
Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower might be one of the scariest things I've ever done. In case you were unaware my dear reader, I'm terrified of heights. On top of that it was extremely windy, like knock you off your feet kind of wind, not fun when you're 300 meters off the ground. I'm a bigger fan of the Eiffel Tower from the ground, but I can check that one off the bucket list. And to be fair, the view is incredible. We went at night when the line was shorter and I don't think the daytime view could come close to what we saw (yes, there are pictures).
On my last day in Paris I woke up a little bit earlier than I needed to so I could go to Notre Dame before I left. It's one of those "must see" things ya know? It's an impressive building and the artwork inside is beautiful but I had just one problem with it. Well two problems. First there were a large number of people there who had no respect for the religious aspect of the cathedral. They just clog the isles in large packs while taking a billion selfies with their selfie stick. The other thing that bothered me: You know those machines that they have at the zoo or the aquarium where you pay a dollar and insert a penny, turn the crank and it turns the penny into a keepsake with an image of wherever you are on it? Well they had these machines inside, and not just off in a back corner but about halfway down the side isles. It wouldn't kill them to put those somewhere else (like outside). But these are just my opinions, but hey you love my opinion. That's the whole reason you read this thing.
What's that? Ah yes you want to see pictures, well you're in luck!
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| The Musee D'orsey |
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| They left the giant clock from the train station inside |
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| Really just a super cool gallery |
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| Honestly, I don't know the name of this Church , but it was pretty |
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| The inside of said pretty church |
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| This church was beautiful. You can't see it but behind the bus on the left is the security check point and my first glimpse of the French military. |
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| This the courtyard behind the church, pretty cool building. |
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| My first view of that French tall pointy thing |
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| I took this right outside the front door of our hotel, incredible location! |
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| Our hotel room view |
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| Look mom! I'm in Paris! |
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| Tried to keep a straight face but couldn't |
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| Everyone else was doing it and if you can't beat em join em! |
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| Our first attempt at a group photo. My roommate Nate is on the left (my right) and Will is on the right (my left). |
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| Second attempt: with a cameo from the photographer's finger (which is why the picture looks weird) |
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| The Arch de Triumph. It's massive. |
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| I'm the tiny thing in front of the really big thing |
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| To clarify that's the wind and not a new hair style. |
We left the arch and walked down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees. There was a Peugeot store with three Peugeot race cars! (still cool even if they are Peugeot's)
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| Pikes Peak race car |
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| Le Mans race car |
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| Dakar rally car |
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| Near the Eiffel Tower there was this small race track for little kids in pedal cars. As much as I wanted to, they wouldn't let us race. |
Next are the pictures I took at the top of the Eiffel Tower. As you might be able to tell, I stood as far from the edge as I could. As I said before, we went up at night because the line was much shorter and the views of Paris at night were spectacular.
Now before you say anything, I did get my picture taken at the top of the Tower. This is me safely inside the Tower, not on the terrifying deck. We had already left the top deck when I realized I didn't get my picture taken at the top and there was no way I was going back.
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| much better than outside if you ask me |
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| I guess you'd call this a park which lead from the Louvre to the river. More cities should have places like this. Green lawns with fountains and marble statues. |
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| You can never have too many big arches if you ask me. |
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| The Louvre |
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| I'll be honest, I think the glass pyramid is a bit silly. |
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| The Mona Lisa. One of the least impressive paintings at the Louvre if you ask me (and by reading this blog you did ask me). Across the room from The Mona Lisa is a painting the size of a house which far more impressive. |
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| Rather than having the sculptures in a gallery they were places around a glass roofed courtyard. |
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| I like to call this the Paris Eye because I think it's catchy, plus I don't know what they call it. |
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| I'm a big fan of these cities with rivers running through them. |
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| Notre Dame, but no hunchback. |
To top off the trip I had a window seat on the Euro-star back to London. That may not sound cool when the train is under the English Channel, but what most people (including myself) don't realize is that most of the journey is above ground and through the beautiful French countryside. A big plus for taking the Euro-star rather than flying if you ask me. Well my dear reader that about sums up my weekend in Paris, stay tuned for the next adventure you can live vicariously through me.
Long Live the King
