The last stop on our week of touring- PARIS!! I was so excited to finally visit Paris and see all the sites. It was a tiring 3 days there, but there is just so much to see! By the end of the trip, it sort of felt like "fabulous building overload" because there are just so many. The food in Paris was fabulous as well...even something as simple as a ham and cheese sandwich turned into something gourmet and unbelievable! The only drawback to Paris was that with so many immigrants, it didn't quite feel as "French" as one would expect...in fact, Carl was chatting with a school teacher in line to get into the Petit Palais museum and she said only about 20% of her students are French! Carl missed the French feeling he used to get visiting there years ago and said that the change was pretty unbelievable. We also found so much of Paris to be really dirty...literally, trash and debris everywhere. Still, we didn't let these things hinder our visit!
Some of the highlights: Friday, Ben and I went up the Eiffel Tower of course...
We toured Notre Dame, yet another amazing cathedral (Europe is just full of them!). There was some sort of service going on while we were in there, and they carried supposed relics (a splinter from the cross and a thorn from the crown of thorns) to the stage and had some ceremony.
King Louis the XIV, XV, and XVI lived at the Palace of Versailles. The inside was just as spectacular, with rooms full of paintings and more gold-gilding, an amazing chapel, the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending WWI, painted ceilings, statues, etc. If you walked through the gardens in the back you could see where Marie Antionette lived, but we didn't get to do that. We ended this long day of touring the palace with a nice, leisurely dinner with- what else- fabulous food.
We saw the Mona Lisa and tons of other famous paintings, sculptures, artifacts, etc. One of our tour books said that just to glance at everything in the entire Louvre would take 9 MONTHS! We stayed about an hour, but didn't have a lot of time so decided to move on...ha. Next we visited the Petit Palais, but Carl was disappointed to find that the huge war paintings he was expecting to find there from his last visit were either only a temporary display last time, or in another museum altogether. We also passed by the Paris Opera House (where the Phantom of the Opera story takes place), and later the tunnel where Princess Di was killed in a wreck, where a memorial now stands. We ended the day with an early dinner before Ben and I caught a train back to Düsseldorf, while Carl stayed behind to fly out of Paris the next day.
...but sadly, only got to go to the 2nd platform on the way up because the very top was too full and they weren't going to sell tickets for another hour. Oh well, still a good view!
Carl poses in front of Churchill, one of his heroes...
We toured Notre Dame, yet another amazing cathedral (Europe is just full of them!). There was some sort of service going on while we were in there, and they carried supposed relics (a splinter from the cross and a thorn from the crown of thorns) to the stage and had some ceremony.We saw the Conciergerie where Marie Antionette was imprisoned, but it turned out to be a flop without a tour guide. We walked down the street where people would have been paraded through town on their way to be killed, ending with the Place de la Concorde where Marie Antionette and others were guilitined. We visited the arch for Napolean with all the names of his generals and all the wars he fought and won, as well as a tomb there for the unknown soldier. Carl took off his hat in respect. Loano (you can see that name at the top) was one the generals Carl likes.
Saturday we went to the Palace of Versailles...WOW! Talk about a palace! That whole thing in the background is all connected...all parts of the palace, not to mention the gardens in the back! Practically all the gates and balconies are gilded in gold.
King Louis the XIV, XV, and XVI lived at the Palace of Versailles. The inside was just as spectacular, with rooms full of paintings and more gold-gilding, an amazing chapel, the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending WWI, painted ceilings, statues, etc. If you walked through the gardens in the back you could see where Marie Antionette lived, but we didn't get to do that. We ended this long day of touring the palace with a nice, leisurely dinner with- what else- fabulous food.Sunday we visited the Louvre. Luckily for us, the first Sunday of the month is get-into-all-the-museums-free day, so no charge! Unluckily for us, the first Sunday of the month is get-into-all-the-museums-free day, so it was packed!
We saw the Mona Lisa and tons of other famous paintings, sculptures, artifacts, etc. One of our tour books said that just to glance at everything in the entire Louvre would take 9 MONTHS! We stayed about an hour, but didn't have a lot of time so decided to move on...ha. Next we visited the Petit Palais, but Carl was disappointed to find that the huge war paintings he was expecting to find there from his last visit were either only a temporary display last time, or in another museum altogether. We also passed by the Paris Opera House (where the Phantom of the Opera story takes place), and later the tunnel where Princess Di was killed in a wreck, where a memorial now stands. We ended the day with an early dinner before Ben and I caught a train back to Düsseldorf, while Carl stayed behind to fly out of Paris the next day. Quite an exhausting week...who knows how many miles we walked all over Rome, Berlin, and Paris, not to mention Carl and Ben walking all over Pompeii, Capri, and Sorrento before I got there! We truly had the vacation of a lifetime and are so thankful that Carl could be there with us!
No comments:
Post a Comment