Although there is less bustle about Paris than there is about London (at least in comparing the parts of the cities which we experienced), there were quite as many tourists milling about. The city was lovely, at any rate, and our visit was wonderful, in great part due to my friend's fortunate fluency in French (how's that for alliteration?), without which we should have been entirely lost. Highlights for me were the food, obviously, climbing as high as one could take the stairs of the Eiffel Tower, seeing the stunning stained glass of Saint-Chapelle Cathedral, and climbing the famed towers of Notre-Dame after a walk through its vast interior, filled with the work of artists who took on the momentous task of teaching us to remember the Word of the Lord.
And now, a truckload of pictures.
A shot of Versailles. Day 1.
In front of Versailles Palace. All that shiny stuff? Gold leaf. Obviously these kings were absurdly rich.
The Palace after we were past the gates.
The inside of the palace was a little over the top for a private residence: all the walls were covered with marble of several colors, some rich tapestry, or a painting. Paintings of Greek myths adorned many of the ceilings. So I took a picture out the window. How's that for a backyard?
Once we actually got outside, I realized that one could spend an entire day just wandering through Versailles Gardens. Sadly, we were only there until a bit past noon.
A fountain near the palace.
A bit further away from the palace, we encountered Poseidon.
This road leads eventually, I think, to Marie Antoinette's estate. Yes, an entire estate in the palace backyard. Unfortunately, we hadn't time to visit it.
The Gardens (excepting the fountain area) have taken on rather the role of a city park now, which is kind of neat. We encountered plenty of people running or walking with dogs and/or children. The weather was certainly right for a day outside.
That afternoon, we made our way back to Paris and visited the Musee d'Orsay, an art museum that was once a train station. The building is really quite beautiful inside (personally, I liked it much better than the Louvre).
The Louvre's famous glass pyramid felt out of place to me. I think that the building would have been much nicer without the addition. Day 2.
Ah, that seems better.
The Eiffel Tower in the evening.
Looking back at a statute which faces the Eiffel Tower and a government building behind it.
You cannot really get a sense of how big the Eiffel Tower is from the pictures. The thing is massive: this is one of the four foundations.
Fun fact: starting a 9:00 pm, for five minutes each hour on the hour, the Eiffel Tower explodes with white flashing lights, making it look as though the paparazzi had taken the place over. I won't lie: I gasped.
The next morning, we prepared to ascend the Tower. This empty fountain and bright flower bed are located in front of the tower. Day 3.
And we made it, as high as the stairs reached. The view was more than reward enough.
What was left of the Tower after we reached the top of the stairs. Another piece of trivia: although it doesn't appear so in the photos, the Tower is actually entirely brown, not black.
Another picturesque view of Paris; I think this is looking in the direction of our hostel.
Rather a nice city, isn't it?
A street in Paris.
The Seine River. The island between the two bridges in the picture holds up both Saint-Chapelle and Notre-Dame.
The front of Notre-Dame. Each of the statues along the top of the doorways is a different saint.
Even more amazing, each of the little figures in the doorways themselves is different too.
The bell towers of Notre Dame.
We climbed up to the towers of Notre-Dame as well to behold another wonderful view.
One of the towers' gargoyles, looking across Paris with us.
One of the bells of Notre-Dame. I'm afraid there is no hunchback here anymore to ring these bells.
Behind the Musee d'Orsay, we found this plaque, commemorating the time when prisoners from concentration camps and forced labor camps gathered here between April and August of 1945 after their liberation. It is clear from the amount of war memorials in London and Paris that England and France will not soon forget the great and terrible wars that defined the 20th century. Their role in and memory of the great wars was quite different than ours. Our homeland was attacked once; the landscapes and cities of Europe were laid waste.
The Arc d' Triomphe on our last night in Paris.
So our trip to Paris came to a close. On Tuesday, our group, now down to five members, flew out to Italy for an experience of Florence.
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