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Published: August 1st 2006
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We cut in line!
Due to the rain, we were delayed by 1.5 hours leaving London. This is the line of planes waiting, once the rain ended. For some reason, our pilot told us we got to cut in line...and then they closed the airport again! Well, I would like to begin by saying that no matter what conclusions the title of this post may bring you too, I really did enjoy Paris! The weather was great the entire time we were there. It rained Thursday before we arrived and dropped the temperature from highs near 100 to highs near 80. It only rained Sunday, but we were in Versailles and actually enjoyed it...we were sitting at a covered, outdoor cafe watching all of the people in lines get soaked. 😊
Now on to the activities! The first morning in Paris, Nate and I went to the Eiffel Tower. It really is quite impressive to see- and a little factoid for you is that in heavy winds, the top of the tower only moves by 5-6 cm. Pretty impressive, no? So while we were standing under the Tower pondering the impressiveness and trying to decide whether to walk up it or take the elevator...I was hit by what must have been at least 10 birds. You can see the picture (taken by a laughing Nate) where I circled the 18 different places I was hit. Some of them you can't see...but trust me, they were there!
For your viewing pleasure
I think this is pretty self-explanatory... After visiting the bathrooms, we left the Tower...Nate with a good picture, and I with a new hatred for pigeons...
Next we walked up to the Arc de Triomphe. There were no pigeons there, so we climbed up it and had a view of the city. It is cool because there are 12 roads that all intersect at the Arc de Triomphe, and each one of the roads is lined with huge trees and sidewalk cafes...
From there we spent most of the afternoon wandering down the Avenue des Champs d'Elysées, which is one of the more famous streets in Paris. Another little factoid for you: it is the street of the final stretch of the Tour de France. They were still in the process of removing the crowd barriers from it finishing the week before! The street is basically lined with lots of little (and big) shops and cafes. (Nate particularily enjoyed this afternoon!) We ended our walk by arriving at the Palce de Concorde. It is where a bunch of people (including Louis XVI and his wife) were killed by the guillotine...and it also has several pretty fountains and an Egyptian oblisk!
We ended that
Eiffel Tower
The Tower...after The Incident! At least it still looks pretty. day with a delicious dinner at a cafe near the hotel, and met an Australian couple there who was quite nice!
We began Saturday by going to the Louvre. We hurried up to the paintings display (with the Mona Lisa) and luckily beat all the crowds there. That area was neat- although I will admit that I don't see what the big deal is about the Mona Lisa. Personally, I enjoyed a lot of the other paintings a lot more (like a really large, pretty one just oposite the Mona Lisa, called the
Wedding Feast at Cana, for example.) After looking around there for a while, we left due to the large crowds of people. All of the other areas were much less crowded (the Mona Lisa area was also extra crowded because they now have entire audio guide tours strictly devoted to exploring the Louvre with the Davinci Code...) We then proceeded to amuse ourselves for the next 3 hours by looking through all of the Italian and French scupltures...and posing with them. I am posting a few of the pictures and Nate has several more. All in all I think we took about 40- they still make me laugh looking
Eiffel Tower
Nate and I in front of the Eiffel Tower. Notice how my shirt doesn't have spots...I luckily was wearing 2 shirts that day, so I didn't have to walk around with bird poo all over me (and the Tide Stick cleaned the residue off my undershirt.) back through them. It was a lot of fun!
After the Louvre we ate at a sidewalk cafe and then walked up to Place de Madeline and visited the Church of Mary Magdelene. After this we were pretty tired from walking, so slowly made our way back to the hotel, at which point we got ready for dinner and met some of Nate's friends from Granada, Spain (where he had studied earlier this summer.) We went out to eat at a really nice French restaurant and had an incredible meal...and I think the best dessert I've had since coming to Europe! (see picture)
Sunday we visited the Luxembourg Garden (which for those of you who know Paris, we were staying right across the street from it in the Latin Quarter) and ate Frosties with milk there for breakfast. It is a beautiful and large garden- and I was amazed at the large amount of people there on a Sunday morning! We then caught a train to Versailles and watched a "Spectacle of Horses." It was quite a wonderful hour-long performance with a bunch of Lipazzanier stallions (and other horses.) They did a bunch of really cool dressage movements
One of THEM
Can you see the red in its eyes? They are evil little creatures! to music! We then got to tour the stables too. As I mentioned at the beginning, we didn't tour the actual palace (any more than could be seen without having to get tickets) but that was okay because instead we ate at a nice restaurant and stayed dry when it rained...
When we returned to Paris we went to 6:30 mass at Notre Dame. It is really pretty from the outside...but the inside was much more dark/dreary than I had been thinking (although I guess that fits with the whole Hunchback of Notre Dame feeling...) And thus concluded our trip to Paris! Well...almost. Our trip was almost extended by the fact that when we checked in at the airport (the metro was a bit slow) they tried to tell us that the check-in was already closed. We CLEARLY were there 1 minute before closing time...but that was a moot point since they ended up still letting us on. Come to find out, they hadn't even begun boarding yet... O well- cela est la vie!
Nate posted a lot of pictures this time too, and I think they're all different from mine (kind of) so look at
his blog for
Champs de Eysees
View from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We ate at the second red-tented cafe on the left... more!
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Clean Maureen
non-member comment
HEHEHEHE
HA hahaha! Thats really all I've got! Sounds like a blast ~ all except the pooing part! Love! ~Maureen