After barely making it to the train station on time we finally got settled on the Eurostar which was only a 2hour journey under the Chunnel from St Pancras London-->Gare d'nord Paris. Thank goodness Jon knew enough French for us to get around. We got our metro tickets and headed to our hotel.
Because we got in around 5pm we still had enough time to get around and sitesee. The Lourve was open until 10pm only on Friday's so we went there first. When we first turned the corner to see the large glass pyramid surrounded by magnificent buildings, I was breathless at how amazing the entire structure was. Altogether the Lourve is supposed to have 12 miles of artifacts and art pieces..we obviously could not do all areas but did see the major works. We saw the Mona Lisa and a few of the other exhibits (it was more than a month ago so I'm having trouble recalling now..). People had told me about the Mona Lisa before so I was expecting it to be a lot smaller than it actually was. It was mounted by itself on a wall that stretched all the way to the ceiling. The rooms there were simply jaw dropping; some of the paintings went from top to bottom of a room and over 5 meters long, incredible pieces of art, see an example below!
It wasn't just the art that we were looking at, the rooms themselves had the most amazing architecture and exquisite colors and textures. Jon an I took a picture of us with the long corridor stretch of one wing of the building.
After wandering the Lourve it was starting to get late so we walked toward the Eiffel Tower in the (far) distance, also looking for food. I was insisting on getting to the Eiffel tower because I figured there would be food places around there...unfortunately there weren't too many when we got there by Cab so we forgot about our hunger and took a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The top was spectacular and at night you could really pick out all the landmarks because they were brightly lit up No picture could capture the beauty from the top of the tip and it was totally worth going all the way up even though we were starving. We found a cute place after on the corner and just ate the two things they offered because it was so late and the cook was about to leave haha.
After splitting a bottle of wine Jon and I were a bit tipsy as we headed back to the Eiffel to get a crepe from a small stand across the Tower. Nutella, bananas, whipped cream in a crepe; succulent goodness in my mouth-it was magical. We were so happy we bought tickets for a ride around the merry-go-round..Jon got a bit backwards on his horse. All in all a successful day 1 in Paris!
Day 2: We woke up and headed toward the Notre Dame and it was a beautiful morning. There were little cafe's around the Notre Dame and I ate an incredible croquette. We went over to the Notre Dame and the history behind the church, how Joan of Arc was executed in front of it and the number of super powers who used it; They also had really nice stain glass windows illuminating the building :)
After leaving the Notre Dame we found our way to little market stalls and food areas on the way to the Pompidou Museum.
We headed to the Pompidou Modern Art museum where we first went in the wrong entrance going into the public library instead. which was interesting in itself. People were watching TV in different languages at little stations and there was a cafe. We found our way to the actual museum and walked around; I think I need an art appreciation crash course because some of these modern art pieces are less than interesting and uninvented to my (non art major) eye. We then went took a metro to the Arc de Trioumph which was spectacular because it had about 11 streets around its round about. You could climb it but we passed and headed down the Champs Elysse with the posh stores and the massive 7 story Louis Vitton.
That night we went to a close by French restaurant and ate escargot (it was so goo dthere, i love love love snails in the garlic sauce) and lamb / duck entrees...pretty amazing food. We had to have an early night because the next day was either Versailles or....EuroDisney! The choice was unanimous and we went to see Mickey on sunday!!
Basically Day 3 was a full day at EuroDisney...as if we were 5 again. We figured Versailles would always be there but our youth days are leaving us...and we need to be kids while we can! hah. We went on all the rollercoaster rides: space mountain, thunder mountain, indiana jones ride, etc, ran through the Alice in Wonderland maze with small children..and ate overpriced park food. It was actually a nice break to get to explore like a child again. And with us returning to Paris from EuroDisney, we headed back into the night to London,
No comments:
Post a Comment