Paris- la ville de mes reves!
After three days in Paris, I’ve decided I’m moving there one day. All three days were either cold, rainy, or a combination of the two, and still, I fell in love.
I arrived Sunday night after spending the day in the Copenhagen airport after seeing Dylan off back to St. Petersburg. I arrived around 5:30 and headed straight to Gare de Nord where our hostel was located. I met a friendly old man who tried to explain the directions on how to get to Gare de Nord in French, however that failed. I ended up going in the right direction, though, and rewarded myself for the long journey with a delicious crepe once I finally found the hostel.
I met Amanda at the train station, and after settling in, we headed off to be true tourists in Paris- we went to visit the Eiffel Tower!
We spotted it as soon as we stepped out of the metro station and it definitely lived up to our expectations. We made our way under it and strolled along the park in front of it for a while. Between the two of us, we took dozens of photos, and even more so when the tower lit up like a Christmas tree. It already had its lights on, but every hour for a few minutes, thousands of different lights blink on and off – it is spectacular. After getting our fill, we headed back to the hostel and called it a night.
Monday was a crazy busy day filled with all things tourist. We started out bright and early at the Louvre. Luckily there was no line and as we are now officially residents of the EU, we got in for free, so we splurged on an audio guide. We visited our friends the ancient Egyptians, lots of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, Mona, and hundreds and hundreds of others. They say that if you spend one minute at each work in the Louvre, it will take you a full 26 days to see everything. Taking that into consideration, we spent 2.5 hours – we were content with what we saw but acknowledged we definitely could’ve spent at least an entire day. We had to head out for our walking tour, though.
In the afternoon, we took a three hour long walking tour through all the major tourist areas of Paris- we saw Notre Dame, the Latin quarter, walked along the Seine, Pont de Neuf, the lock bridge, the obelisk, the Jardins de Tulieres, the Eiffel Tower, and the Champ Elysees.
We didn’t get to go into any of the places we visited, so after the tour we headed back to Notre Dame to see the inside. Needless to say, it was breathtaking – it was enormous with beautiful stained glass and gothic architecture. We also learned on our tour that it was intended to be destroyed, but due to Victor Hugo’s focus on its history and former glory in his novel the Hunchback of Notre Dame, it was saved.
We then moved on to explore the area a bit and find dinner. On the way, we happened across St. Sulpice, another gothic style church that we visited quickly. We found dinner at a touristy, but good and cheap restaurant (it was a fixed menu so I had French onion soup, chicken and a crepe) but unfortunately sat right next to the door that the host enjoyed opening every thirty seconds. It was a bit unpleasant, but the food was good so overall not a big deal.
To finish up the night, we headed to the Champ Elysees to see the Arc de Triumph. We accidentally got off at the wrong stop and from there went three wrong ways before we found the right one. Whoops. We got a nice view of the Hotel des Invalides and the Christmas markets that open on Friday.
All the trouble was worth it though! As Monday was November 11, which is the day the First World War ended, it was a national holiday in France. The Arc had an enormous flag flying in the middle, as well as flowers to commemorate the day. Definitely worth the visit.
Tuesday was just as jam packed as Monday. We started out at Saint Chapelle – otherwise known as the stained glass church, and for good reason. Three of the four walls were floor to ceiling stained glass. Each section told a section of the bible, both New and Old Testament, but I found it very difficult to follow.
Our next stop was the Bastille- we hoped to be able to see the building itself, but the best we got was the monument in the square, which was still good to see of course. From there we headed to the catacombs.
A 45 minute wait outside in the cold later, and we were descending into the depths of Paris. The catacombs are old queries that were transformed into mass grave sites in the 1700-1800s. Most of the large buildings of Paris, including Notre Dame, were built of the rock from the queries that goes back tens of millions of years. There are lots of relics of the queries still in the mines- there are etchings on the walls and wells, for example. They were really interesting to see, but most interesting were the graves. It was literally just piles and piles of ancient human bones (by ancient I mean a few hundred years). Usually the walls were composed of what looked like leg bones or arm bones, and there were skulls on top. There were also rows of skulls in the middle of the wall and occasionally designs in the walls using the skulls (hearts, circles, crosses, etc). There were a lot of poetic quotes about death and information in what cemeteries the bodies came from. Overall it was quite a site to see, but definitely fulfilled my quota of death for the day!
After the depths of Paris, we headed to the top of Paris- 650 stairs and an elevator ride up the Eiffel Tower! It was quite the hike after all the stairs in the catacombs. The first and second levels were most definitely worth it for the view. However, when we reached the top it was quite a different story. We were floating in the clouds! We legitimately could not see anything- we were staring into white space, which, while not what we had hoped for, was still pretty cool.
After the descent, we headed to our next stop, Musee Marmottan Monet. Being one of my favorite artists, I definitely enjoyed seeing a lot of Monet’s work all in one place. There were a variety of other artists too and an exhibit on Napoleon’s sisters which was new to me, but cool.
We then headed to our last stop of the day, Sacre Coeur basilica (we did a lot of churches on this trip) that is quite the sight. It is on the top of a large hill with an enormous dome and of course lots of stained glass. It was beautiful inside and out, and was in a nice neighborhood we were able to find a small restaurant for dinner in. After dinner, we walked back to our hostel and explored the area a bit, ended up with some pastries and at a cafe for a drink before heading in for the night.
Wednesday was an early morning – we had to pack and check out before getting breakfast and going to Versailles! The directions the hostel gave us were most definitely not the most efficient, so it took us a while to finally get on the right train out if the city. We made it though, and managed to make our way to the great palace.
When I imagined Versailles, I always pictured it with great lawns in the front, so it was interesting to see that was not the case at all. We walked on pavement up to the front gates, went through security and entered the palace grounds. Our first stop was the museum inside the palace describing all the occupants and traditions that went on there. We then toured the rooms use by the kings and queens in their daily lives. As expected, they were magnificent. Italian frescos adorned all the ceilings, the walls were covered with paintings of the palace and its occupants, and the furnishings were grand. From there we move outside to the gardens that were fit for such a palace. They were sprawling with many paths through the trees, many statues and ponds with various sculptures. Overall, a wonderful way to spend a morning in France.
We finished earlier than expected so headed back to the city for some food and wandering before heading to the airport. We tried to find a street recommended by my host mom, but had some trouble so stopped first to grab a quick lunch. We wandered a bit more and finally found it, and it’s a good thing we did. It’s called Rue Mouffetard and has lots of cute little shops, cafes and bakeries. Most important to us though, were of course the bakeries! We had the best macaroons of our lives! After enjoying our snack we headed to the river to do some souvenir shopping and then back to the hostel to head to the airport for our next city.
A Danish Adventure 