I was fascinated by the amount of traffic circling the Arc with no lines on the road and an apparent free-for-all to get through. I was very happy I didn't have to drive that's for sure. You can watch our narration of what is going on.
Of course the elevator to the top was broken so we climbed all 300+ stairs to the top.
Our first view of the Eiffel Tower.
We then headed over to the Eiffel Tower. It was much more impressive than I expected it to be and just the size of it was incredible. It really does tower over the entire city. Very impressive.
Of course the only time it rained on our entire trip was while we were waiting in line to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was just a drizzle, but thankfully I had my shawl and Diet Coke (with no ice....boo!) to keep me happy while I waited.
It had stopped raining once we got to the top and the sun was setting (close to 10pm!). Perfect timing. We then took the stairs down from the 2nd deck instead of wait in a long line for the elevator. I guy said it was "about 6 flights." I think he meant 60 because it took us 15 minutes or so to walk down all those stairs. Thus began our love-hate relationship with stairs in Paris.
Once we got to the bottom the lights were on so we went to these cement pillars that most people sat on to stare at the Eiffel Tower. Not us....we had a photo shoot.
We then had the BEST crepes with hot Nutella, strawberries and whipped cream. Wow, it was like I'd died and gone to heaven!
The 2nd day in Paris was museum day. Anyone who knows me knows that museums are not on the top of my list. However, being in Paris and not going to see the master's art is like going to BYU and not going to Lavell Edwards Stadium. You have to do it, even if you aren't a fan! Thankfully Elisa and Nicole are efficient museum goers so we went to each museum with a purpose.
First stop was the Louvre. This place was huge and you could spend days and days in here. We spent about 3 hours. This is where the Mona Lisa is. I have to admit I wasn't very impressed, but I checked it off my list of things to see. Probably wouldn't go see it again though.
We then headed to the Musee Rodin. This housed all of Rodin's sculptures like The Thinker, The Kiss, & The Gates of Hell. I really liked this museum. Perhaps I like sculpture a lot more than painting?
To break up our museum walking day we went on a boat tour down the Seine River that goes through the heart of Paris. It was a beautiful day and we got to sit (yipee!) and take in the sites of Paris.
After the boat tour we went to another Musee D'Orsay. My feet had had it so after a little bit of walking I went and sat down while Elisa and Nicole finished looking at what they wanted to see. I was so tired and my feet were so very sore. Afterwards they came and got me to go on the roof for this pretty view of the city they had found.
This is also the day we realized that all the pastry shops close at 4 or some ridiculously early time. We were VERY depressed to not have a macaroon or any other tasty treat for our trek back to the hotel.
Day 3 in Paris started with a visit to Notre Dame, not not the football stadium (that's in October!), but the cathedral. What a beautiful cathedral it was with it's amazing Gothic architecture with flying buttresses, gargoyles and all.
The boys choir came out for rehearsal while we were there. We sat and listened for a little bit. Sadly the man in front of us didn't enjoy us asking 1-2 questions TOTAL to each other about the cathedral. Seriously gave us some dirty looks. We were not being irreverent either. Just whispering a question to each other. If it was that sacred maybe they shouldn't just let every tourist in the world in there and limit it like we do our temples!
Then it was time to hike to the top of the Notre Dame. 400 stairs to be exact. We had hiked SO many stairs that it seemed very daunting and Elisa opted to have Nicole and I tell her about it. It didn't end up being too bad at all which is good because our legs were shot at this point. As you can see these stairwells were made for large Americans.....LOL! My feet barely fit on the stairs and I have "normal" sized feet.
This big bell weighs 12 tons. I marvel at how this bell even got up this high. It is crazy to think how things were done without modern day architecture. It used to take 12 boys to ring it each time it rang throughout the day, but now it is done electronically.
The Gargoyles were crazy (and a little creepy), but really were some nice old fashioned rain gutters. Our aluminum rain gutters do the job, but not nearly as decorative as these Gargoyles.
There is Elisa patiently waiting for us. She had no idea where we were because our cell phones didn't work so she sadly waited a very long time since it took us much longer than the ticket taker said it would.
We then went to look at the stained glass at Sainte-Chapelle which was cool but quite a long wait in line.
We then headed to see the Sacre-Cour Basilica which was at cathedral at the highest point in the city. As we got off the train and came up the stairs we suddenly felt we were in Harlem so we dubbed it Harlem-Paris. We were the definitely in the minority and decided to make sure we left there before dark. It was really beautiful though.
Find Waldo (or Jen).....I'm in this picture somewhere :)
We then went to check out Moulin Rouge. This is all we saw and sadly Vegas is much, much worse than this famous burlesque street in Paris.
Our last day in Paris was spent at Versailles. It was a CRAZY palace built in the 1700's mostly by Louis XIV (and Louis XV and Louis XVI). I had to look it up right now, but there were 2300 rooms in this place. We saw about 50 I bet. In addition they had these gardens that were just beautiful with fountains everywhere. Everything was in gold and just looking at how extravagant it was even for our day made me wonder how ridiculous it must have been to the French people back when it was built (with tax dollars of course). Seeing monstrosities like this made me realize why so many European people were looking for a new free land and government. It did make for a great tourist attraction though :)
The Hall of Mirrors....
No big deal, just a gate made out of gold....
Fountains, Fountains, Fountains.....
So after we were done at Versailles we had about 4 hours of time left before it would bedtime. We decided to go back to the Eiffel Tower and eat crepes while we people watched. It was a beautiful day and a Saturday so there were a ton of weddings going on. It was kind of like sitting outside the temple and watching bride after bride come out. It was very amusing.
Note to the terrorists.....if you want to bomb the Eiffel Tower just send a scantily clad woman near these machine gun men. They were distracted every single time. Very safe, very safe.
Elisa went and got us our treats so we didn't lose our great bench we had right in the middle everything.
All in all it was a fabulous trip to London and Paris. Well worth it!
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