Spring Break '09 - STOP #3 - PARIS, FRANCE - "The Beautiful Paris"

PARIS, FRANCE

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2009

I climbed to the second level of the Eiffel Tower (only about 600+ steps – No I didn’t count, they were numbered every so often)! The view was simply amazing – you could see for miles and miles (oh excuse me, kilometers and kilometers). The climb to the second level was well worth it! You are not able to climb any further so we took an elevator to the very top!

Dewey, Sarah, Annie and I had a picnic on the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower! It was so epic! I couldn’t believe that I was sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower. I was talking to Dewey and I told him “I am afraid to look away because if I look back it will be gone.” Now obviously people were not going to just pick it up and move it to the next block but it just didn’t seem real to me that we were in Paris, France!

At our picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower!

How big is the Eiffel Tower... really?!?!?!?!

View from the Top!

Paris, France - from the TOP of the EIFFEL TOWER!!!

Just out 'sightseeing'!!!

The Louvre Museum is free to students on Friday nights so that was the next stop after climbing the Eiffel Tower! We made it there but it was after 7:30pm and they closed at 9pm. We were going to just look at the main things we wanted to see because the museum is HUGE and then if we didn’t get everything in tonight we would come back another day while we were there. In order to get in free you had to have a student ID that showed your age on it because you had to be under 26 years of age and only two of us had them. So two of us were going to have to pay to get in and then if we didn’t see everything, they would have to pay again; so instead of paying double, we all decided that we would just come back on Monday to see everything that we wanted to!

We were all pretty tired so we went back to the hostel and went to bed so we could get up early on Saturday to go to the Palace of Versailles!

SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2009

We took the train to Versailles today; it was a long ride so I brought my journal with so I could get caught up… Well, that really didn’t happen, I ended up doing the ‘head-bob’ thing for quite a while but still thought that I could attempt to journal… When we got to Versailles, I woke and found that I had managed to write all over the dress that I was wearing that day! My pen had slipped off the page so many times that I had a nice new design going on!

The Palace of Versailles was beautiful! It was so picturesque – golden gates, and a ‘U’ shaped palace with old stone! We stood in line and waited to buy our tickets and when we got up to the ticket booth, we really didn’t know what we wanted to all see.

The Golden Gates of Versailles

The first building we walked through was “The Chateau.” The Old Chateau was built by Louis XIII in 1623 as a ‘hunting lodge, a little gentleman’s chateau.’ The King, Louis XIV, liked it so much that he enlarged it. The New ‘enlarged’ Chateau wrapped the old chateau in a second building and the white stone facades now served as a garden setting.

The Hall of Mirrors is the main attraction of Versailles. The Hall consists of 17 windows that overlook the garden and each window is matched with a mirror along the wall. The Hall of Mirrors was the place where the First World War officially ended when Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors. Hungary signed the treaty the following year in the Grand Trianon (another area at the Palace of Versailles).

The Hall of Mirrors

We toured the Grand Trianon next and this is where Marie-Antoinette’s Farm was built. The Queen’s House was composed of two parts joined by a wooden gallery. The part that was roofed with tiles was the house and the other parts were the billiard room and a suite. The houses in the village were built so that they looked rustic as seen on farms in Normandy, but the interiors were endowed with the latest technical and decorative refinements. The other buildings include a Mill, Warming Room (dining room), and the Guard’s House (currently occupied by a grounds gardener).

THE QUEEN'S Farm

The Queen's Hamlet - The Queen's House

The Queen's Hamlet - The Queen's Tower

Overall, the Versailles was amazing! Everything was beautiful.

The train ride home was basically the same thing as it was on the way to Versailles; except I didn’t attempt to write in my journal.

After getting back to Paris, we took the metro to see the Moulin Rouge!

The Moulin Rouge

We headed back to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night and the flashing light show was amazing! We didn’t know that the lights flashed so as we were trying to get the Tower to focus in our cameras, they just came on. We all started screaming like the American tourists that we were! The lights were AMAZING!

All lit up at night!

The Light Show that happens every hour on the hour!

So HAPPY!!!

SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2009

We went to the Louvre this morning and it was AMAZING as well! A lot of the paintings I saw were ones that I studied in my art appreciation class here so I knew more about the different elements and techniques that were used in the paintings!

The Louvre!

My future bedroom - I just need to move to Paris and live in the Louvre!!!

The Real Mona Lisa

After the Louvre we went to Sainte Chapelle and saw the most amazing stained glass windows I have ever seen - there was a room upstairs that every wall was mainly all stained glass! The sun finally started to shine and the colors were really bright and vivid!

Sainte Chapelle Church

Stained-Glass Windows

The 'Rosebud' Window

Next we explored a few more blocks and came to Notre Dame. The outside had the gargoyles and everything. The inside was just as beautiful as the outside! There were stained glass windows lining the top and an alter in the middle of the church. The alter was surrounded by walls on three sides and there were a bunch of smaller alters around the semi-circle behind the walls. Each smaller alter was dedicated to a different saint.

Notre Dame Cathedral

The 'hunchback' of Notre Dame

Notre Dame Cathedral - inside view

My favorite altar of all of the ones around the main altar.

We headed back to the hostel to get our things and head to the airport. We had the perfect plan: we were going to go to the airport at night and just sleep there. However, our perfect plan was not so perfect. Our genius travel agents (a.k.a. Me, Sarah and Dewey) never thought that an airport would close. Well guess what, it did and we had to get a hotel room. It was only 36 euro a night for 3 people but we had 4 so, we snuck Dewey in and gave him the single bed. Sarah, Annie, and I slept in the queen size bed. We tried sleeping the long way but it was way too small so we un-tucked all of the covers and slept the short way so our feet were all hanging off the sides! It was pretty hilarious.

The closest restaurant that we knew we could afford was McDonalds so we set off to find those fantastic Golden Arches. The register woman did not speak English very well at all. Found this out when I ordered a “Royal Cheeseburger” (Paris’ version of a regular cheeseburger) with a side salad and a Fanta and did not quite get that. She set 2 royal cheeseburgers, a bacon cheeseburger, orange juice, and no salad. I guess I could have messed her up when I said a cheeseburger with only ketchup and pickles. But that should not have given me 3 sandwiches. She finally understood what I was trying to say and I got the cheeseburger, with a salad and orange juice. I was fine with that even though I had a cheeseburger with plenty of onions and mayo and mustard. After I got my order, I decided to take my chances and ask for some salad dressing. She was like right away… I got an order of 5 chicken nuggets. I was like nope, never mind and I really understood what a language barrier was!

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2009

It was about 5 am and we were sitting in the Paris-Beauvais airport waiting to check in for our flight to Dublin. This airport has to be the strictest airport I have ever been in – when they say they carry-on can only be 10 kg, they mean they can only be 10kg or else you cannot take the extra weight onto the plane.

I really wish I would have had a camera – well I did but it was in the pocket of my first shirt. I had so many clothes on; I had a shirtdress, jeans and a jacket (my original outfit) with a sweatshirt and every shirt I owned on my body. I literally had 17 shirts (3 swimsuit tops, 5 tank tops, and 9 t-shirts on) and a jacket. It was working out perfectly. I had to leave my computer with Dewey because my bag was still overweight with that! Oops… I over packed just a little! I needed to wear my belt to keep my pants up because I had all of my change and electronics (camera and iPod and phone) in my pocket. I looked ridiculous but I did make it past the flight boarding check in!

It worked perfect until I got to security and I had to empty my pockets and it looked ridiculous (coins, camera, iPod, phone…) my belt had to come off, which I could not get back on because of all of the clothes I had on! It was so funny. Once I got past security, I jetted to the bathroom and stripped off 16 shirts and a jacket! It was so much colder in that airport without a whole wardrobe on. Our flight finally boarded and we were on our way to DUBLIN!!! Again, I was out as soon as the plane took off and didn’t wake up until we landed, just as I had on our way to Rome.