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Published: August 5th 2006
Eiffel Tower
We were too close, as we sat on the grass below, to get the whole tower in the shot, but the addition of Bryan's big head makes up for that.Hello Everyone. Sorry for the delay in blogs, but we are finally in a hotel that offers internet in the room and I can write at my leisure, so I will try to get you caught up on our adventures thus far.
Here's our Peek at Paris: We left Portsmouth, England on a midnight ferry to Le Havre, France on July 13th. The ferry wasn't as huge as the one we had taken from Ireland to Wales, but it was still large and quite full with passengers. We noticed there was a mad rush for floor space and watched as many of the passengers quickly laid their claim with bedding in between seats and in the isles. We figured these people must know what they're doing so we found ourselves a quiet little corner and did the same. Soon after leaving port, the lights were turned down and I settled in for my first sleep on a ferry floor next to some guy with long, greasy hair that had bummed money for the fair. I was surprised by how many hours of rest I was actually able to get, in between turning-over to let each hip take a turn
Eiffel Tower Crowds Grow
As we waited for sunset, we wondered why the crowds kept growing. Were the lights that spectacular? Did they do this every Friday night? on the hard surface.
We arrived in Le Havre at 7 in the morning and for the first time in our travels, we experienced the language barrier as we entered a coffee shop. I used what French I could remember from school, and ordered: "S'il vous plait, deux cafe con leche, merci" (Please, two coffees with milk, thank you), along with the only thing on the menu I recognized which was the word: omelette. We then caught a train to Paris and got off at the main metro station. Yikes. Talk about metro madness. We were completely in the dark as to how to work the metro, read the signs, buy tickets, find the direction of our hotel... etc. We tried the information desk, but they didn't speak English. We were immediately aware that my limited high school French was not going to be of much help. I don't know how many minutes passed as Bryan and I stood in the station, turning this way and that, bumping our packs into each other, saying "Well?..." but we eventually bought tickets from a machine that had an "English" button and headed for the part of the city we thought our
Eiffel Tower Lit Up
Pictures will not do it justice. The lights flicker and twinkle. Shortly following this, the real SHOW began! hotel might be in. Once off the metro, Bryan left me with our backpacks so he could hunt down ANY hotel in hopes he could ask directions or pick up a map. Map in hand, metro figured out, and hotel eventually found, we felt like true travelers. It was time for food. Still a bit shell shocked, we came across a Chinese restaurant/cafe that had all it's food in the display window. This meant all we'd have to do was point, and although we knew our first meal in Paris probably shouldn't be Chinese, we didn't care.
Nurished, and with several hours of daylight left, we headed for the Eiffel Tower. Seeing the giant tower was surreal but we were sad to find out they had just closed down the access to the top, minutes before we arrived. We decided to take a rest and plopped ourselves on the grass underneath, to wait until dark and see the Tower all lit up. Well the crowds grew, and grew, and grew until we were all butt to butt and shoulder to shoulder, and Bryan and I began to wonder what in the world was going on. There were literally thousands
of people crammed together. Could the tower lights be this exciting? Sure enough when the sun went down and the lights glittered and flitted all over the tower, it was spectacular, but that wasn't all. From huge speakers, mounted in the park, we heard an announcement in French and very loud, moving, classical music began. We then witnessed, just above our heads, the largest, longest, most spectacular fireworks to music show we have ever seen, with the Eiffel Tower as it's backdrop. At this point, we were still in the dark as to why there was such celebrations going on but we felt very lucky to have stumbled upon them.
After the show, the crowds to get out were scary and I held Bryan's hand as tightly as I could, for fear we'd get separated. We followed the wave to the nearest metro but with so many people trying to funnel into the small entrance the pressure started to be to much and several girls collapsed. We were squeezed so tight I felt panicky and we decided to push our way out and start walking for the other side of Paris rather than endure the madness. This turned out
Arc de Triomphe, Changing of the Guard
Didn't take long, but very interesting to watch, as the commands were given and the switch was made with such precision. to be a good choice because shortly after, the police shut the metro down for safety sake. We walked for a very long time through the streets of Paris but realized we were never going to be able to walk all the way to our hotel and there were too many people trying to flag down taxis. Bryan had the great idea to go into a hotel and pretend to be a patron and thus ordered a taxi that arrived at their door soon after. The taxi driver said we would never have gotten a ride otherwise and he enlightened us to the fact that July 14th is France's Independence Day, Bastille Day. Our dumb luck, to have arrived on one of their biggest holidays. I was happy to finally land in our hotel bed at about 2 AM.
The following day, we walked the famous Champs Elysees Avenue from the Louvre Museum to the Arc de Triomphe. What beautiful (and
expensive) shops and restaurants line this huge avenue. Our dumb luck continued just after arriving at the Arc, because we were in a perfect spot to watch the guards of the unknown soldier and the eternal flame change
Eternal Flame and Grave of the Unknown Soldier
This was during the changing of the guards at the Arc de Triomphe located at the end of the Champs Elysees Boulevard. shifts. It was this eternal flame that burns for the French soldiers killed in World War I and II that gave Mrs. Kennedy the idea to place one for her husband, John F. Kennedy's grave, upon his death. A massive French flag waved in the breeze from the center of the Arc and Bryan and I sat and stared down the Champs Elysees boulevard, as countless others have done, before heading back to the hotel.
Having seen how massive the Louvre Museum was, we saved the next day for touring it and arrived mid-morning to enter the glass pyramid where tickets are sold. To say the museum was large or overwhelming would be an understatement. There were three sections, or buildings to this huge structure with three and four floors each and wings with-in the wings. Being a visual person, I looked to the map, but found it of little help in how to go about formulating a plan. The teacher in me desperately wanted a plan, for fear I would miss important pieces of artwork or whole sections of history. It was decided that we would start with one of the three main sections, and maybe a "system"
"Look, It's a Louvre Museum sign!"
P.S. Hey, Marina, I bought your Paris sweatshirt right on this corner. for tackling the museum would present itself.
Upon entering the Denon wing we were disappointed to learn that none of the display cards describing the artwork, statues, etc. are written in English or any other language, except French. We wondered for several minutes having no idea what we were looking at and my desire for a "system" grew more and more intense. We spotted a few people with head-phones and figured this was probably a self-guided tour we could purchase. Off we went to find the desk with headphones and start anew. The next problem came when we realized that you punch a number into the headphone that corresponds with a display (fine enough) but that only about 1 in 20 displays have numbers with them and these pre-selected display descriptions weren't necessarily on the pieces we wanted to know about. But... we were at the Louvre, and plough ahead we must, because we were going to make the most out of this opportunity. We spent the next 6 hours getting lost among the different wings and floors and taking in what we could. The highlight (because we knew what we were looking at, and it came with a
number for our headphones) was the Mona Lisa. We left the Louvre thoroughly exhausted and a bit disappointed that we'd seen so much "art stuff", of major importance, in ignorance. I'm sure there was probably a better way of doing the Louvre and we will learn of it after the fact, but as the French saying goes: C'est la vie. We returned to the hotel for a good nights rest before heading off on our next adventure... The Swiss Alps!
Swiss Alps blog to follow. We love you and miss you!
P.S. If I've misspelled my French words, give me a break, it's been 20 years folks!
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Jennifer
non-member comment
Trying to catch up
Hey Sara and Brian: I just returned from vacationing in Park City, UT and CA, but my adventures are not nearly as exciting as yours. I love the pics and stories. As we are nearing the beginning of a new school year, I am trying to catch up on your blogs while getting my kids ready not to mention myself for whatever 2006-07 brings. I will think of you as I wander the halls, and will smile at the thought that you are probably having another adventure while we are dealing with the day to day grind. Keep the stories coming. I love it! Miss you... Love, Jennifer