Où est la rue du trois frères?

I haven't been able to put my thoughts about Paris down in my blog yet because I'm not sure any words I pick can do it justice. But here is my trip in a nutshell.

(Disclaimer: if I use the words amazing, incredible and beautiful a lot, please forgive me. I need to spend some time with a thesaurus.)

Early morning. Watching the sun rise in Paris. First stop was the Lourve, but just to pick up the tour bus. The architecture is INCREDIBLE. I can't believe they were going to just tear down the building at one time because they couldn't think of a use for it. Anyway, we picked up our hop-on, hop-off bus and were off!

Places we saw:
a) the Lourve
b) the Seine
c) Notre Dame
d) the square with the Egyptian obelisk ferris wheel (don’t think I ever caught the name)
e) Champs Elysees
f) l’Arc de Triomphe
g) the Moulin Rouge
h) the Musee d'Orsay
i) the Rodin museum
j) Galaries Lafayette
k) the Eiffel Tower
l) ALL OF PARIS (from the top of the Eiffel Tower)
m) a MILLION pieces of incredible, amazing, beautiful, iconic (oooh! a new word) art
and a bunch more stuff that either doesn’t have a cool name or I can’t remember it.

We rode the tour bus around the whole route and then started hopping off and on to go to all the museums and attractions. Luckily my travel companions also wanted to do a lot of nerdy museum-going, so that was our main objective, along with the cathedrals and Eiffel, of course.

Basically I just wandered around the museums in a Heritage-fueled excitement/stupor. Luckily, Grace is an art history minor, so she was like my own mini tour guide, especially in the Musee d’Orsay. Grace also took a class on Gothic cathedrals, so we had a lot to talk about at Notre Dame (flying buttresses!). Some of my favorite pieces that we saw include Le Penseur (aka the Thinker), Victory at Samothrace, La Liberté Guidant le Peuple, Ballerinas Resting… and a lot more.

Things we ate:
1. Baguettes. A lot of baguettes. Free breakfast at our hostel was cereal and baguettes, so we stashed extra in our purses to eat for lunch. I probably at 6-7 baguettes in 2 days.
2. Crepes! You can’t go to Paris and not eat crepes, duh. Especially with Nutella.
3. Delicious sausage sandwich thing, with cheese melted on this really swank cheese melty device… on a baguette of course.
4. The French version of a hot dog, which is two weenies in a baguette (I told you I ate a lot of baguettes).
5. Pizza? It was good.
6. Wine!!

Food gave me a good excuse to practice my French. Since I am somewhat of a failure at learning languages, the only conversations I was able to carry on were asking vendors how much things cost, asking for directions/where something was, and being very grateful. I said “merci” more than any other word on the whole trip. (At least I was polite!)… Still, I really enjoyed using the language in a non-classroom setting and it made me want to go further with my French learning. Maybe after I graduate I’ll spend some time trying to pick it back up again.

As for the Eiffel Tower, have I mentioned that I really hate heights and/or enclosed spaces that are high? Which is why going up into the Eiffel Tower (the tallest structure in the world for 40 years when it was built, dontcha know) in a GLASS ELEVATOR was not fun. In any way. I mean, rationally I realize that millions upon millions of people go up in that thing and they all come down safe and sound, but I am not rational. Thank God for Grace, who all but held my little scared hand on the way up. Anyway, I did eventually ascend to the very top and the views WERE worth it. It was gorgeous. We went at night, and all the lights were breathtaking. And when we got down again we watched the light show and it was a great end to the trip.

So after two days of walking EVERYWHERE, my dogs were darn tired. Actually, at the end of the second night (after going up the tower) Grace and I were extremely pitiful. We were both walking veeeerrryy gingerly, trying to put as little weight as possible on our poor swollen feeties. I’m sure we were hilarious to any onlookers. Also, we made the mistake of getting up on this big cement ridge to watch the Eiffel Tower light show. A mistake because in order to get down, we had to jump. Grace went first and as soon as she landed on her bruised feet and started wincing, I KNEW. I knew what was coming for me and there was no way to avoid it. So I jumped down too. And then we limped our sad asses back home.

Fun facts!!
The Lourve started with just 12 pieces of art, including the Mona Lisa, which is the most popular tourist attraction in it now.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World’s Fair. A few years later, to top structures like Eiffel, a man decided to make a structure that moved for the 1893 World’s Fair. It was the Ferris Wheel! (Also, Eiffel the man helped design the Statue of Liberty).

Hmmmm… I knew I should have written the rest down…

To sum: I LOVE PARIS I WANT TO GO BACK NOW AND ALWAYS.