I want to put a disclaimer in that I ADORED Paris, so this is a long post...
We got to our hotel and we weren't disappointed! They had Jeff's chocolate-chip croissants and, going with the theme we've discussed from our other hotels, a nice accent piece on the bed's wall:
And yes, that is a spotlight on it!!! The spotlight was right above the bed and aimed at these lips... they must have thought would "set the mood"... not so much. haha A for Effort?
Here are a couple of the views from our room:
And yes - that steeple is the top of the Eiffel Tower :)
So the first thing that we did in Paris was walk down to the Louvre. Our hotel was in an awesome spot because we were within walking distance of the Louvre and of the Notre Dame, and the metro/subway station was a block away to get anywhere else. So here are a few pictures from the Louvre on our first night (Warning: inside of the museum, you couldn't use flash photography and since it was night time, some of them are a little blurry):
Aristotle, Plato, & Socrates
Athena
Venus de Milo - something that was really cool about this that I didn't know was that this statue is actually two pieces of marble that were sculpted and then put together!
You can't see the separation too well, but she's sliced in half at the torso - it was even more impressive when I found that out!
Haha Jeff was so proud of his photography on this one because of the hand placement... haha something really cool about this piece is that this is one of the few copper sculptures still remaining because during war time, most sculptures were melted down for weaponry.
The Louvre used to be a fort that was then turned into a palace and then later turned into the world's largest museum... so every room has extreme detail like this - my eyes were sometimes drawn to my surroundings more than the actual pieces within the room...
Something that was really difficult about the Louvre that I didn't even think about was that all of the descriptions of the art were in FRENCH - duh, you're in France! haha it was one of those, "Oh yeah.." moments. So if I ever get to go back, I'll be one of those tourists with headphones on... :)
So many people have blogged about how disappointed they were with the Mona Lisa - I honestly don't know what they are talking about. It's roped off and has glass surrounding it, but you can see all of its detail and it was amazing to see it in person! I loved that we decided to go and look at it - I would have been disappointed if we hadn't, I think.
This was what Jeff wanted to see... haha not the Mona Lisa or the Venus, "I want to see the inverted pyramid!" So we did :) And it just made me think of the Da Vinci Code...
The next day we went to see the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. I think that the Notre Dame was actually mine and Jeff's favorite part of the entire trip. We got to go through an English guided tour and hear all of the symbolism and the history. It was amazing! And this year is the Notre Dame's 850th anniversary since construction began, so there was a lot going on with celebrations. They were actually having a blessing ceremony for the new bells coming into the cathedral the day that we were leaving! I was so bummed that we missed seeing something like that!
So, like I did with L'Epaule de Gallardon, you get a little bit of a history lesson, because I LOVED HEARING IT!!! The Notre Dame ("Our Lady") is built to honor the Mother Mary. Construction on this building started in 1163 and it wasn't finished until 1345!!! Something that we learned about France during our various tours was that there was a lot of class warfare... the Notre Dame at one point was on the verge of being destroyed because the cathedrals were viewed as a sanctuary for the aristocrats. There are actually statues at the front of the cathedral that are repaired from being beheaded by the lower classes during the revolution. They were later discovered during renovations of another building and then were put on the cathedral (with the heads back on)... Also cool to note: Napoleon was crowned Emperor at the Notre Dame in 1804. So, I think that that is enough to either stop the suffering for some, or get you curious to study more of the history on your own if you're like me :) Now for some pictures!!!
Something cool about that center circle - the Circle is symbolic of God because he is eternal, without end. The square that surrounds that circle is symbolic of man, so the circle being placed within the square represents the communion of man with God.
So at the top of this picture are some of those statues of kings that used to be under the judgment of "Off with their heads!" But they were resurrected and made perfect again... haha
First of all - are you seeing this detail??? Amazing! You could spend DAYS looking at this! There were three archways with different stories behind them. This archway represents judgment day and how our actions determine where we end up after this life.
On the left side were a bunch of angels and the left had demons and they represented the struggle of life. So up toward the top of the picture, you see an angel and a demon holding a scale in determining where the next soul would end up.
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This is the second arch which is about Mary. The statue in the middle is Mary. Above her statue is her passing on to the next life and angels taking her away, and then above that is the portrayal of her being crowned with glory.
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This is the final arch, and it's interesting because these are not original to the cathedral - they were actually a part of the cathedral that existed prior to the Notre Dame and were then used as part of the new cathedral.
And this is our tour guide, talking about all of the symbolism and pointing out the extreme amount of detail and how amazing it is that these carvings have remained so well-intact for this long.
I loved that the cathedral was intentionally constructed to make it very tall and long, so your eyes were naturally drawn up which was symbolic of looking up towards the heavens.
Here are the bells that were going to be blessed on Saturday, and you can also see the narrowness of the cathedral, and naturally looking up.
This is the South Rose stained glass window - it is dedicated to the New Testament and its apostles and prophets. at the center is a depiction of Christ of the Apocalypse. The bottom windows were interesting, too - I stole a picture from the internet so you could have a better look:
So in the center four are the four great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) with the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) on their shoulders to represent that we can see more than the prophets of old, not because we are wiser than they are, but because we are lifted up by their greatness (dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants).
This is the North Rose which is mostly original stained glass window from 1250, which is extremely surprising since most of the other stained glass windows have since been replaced since original installation because of poor workmanship or wartime. If I remember correctly, it was around 85% still original. The North Rose represents the Old Testament, and is purple to represent sorrow. At the center of the circle is Mary.
In the center of the building were engravings depicting Christ's life. Jeff especially liked this one because on the left it shows him as a resurrected being, to which the tour guide said, "And Mary Magdalene thought that Christ was a gardener because he was carrying a shovel..." haha pretty sure that a shovel's not mentioned in the scriptures.
Out a few steps from the cathedral is the center point of Paris - all measurements of the city are drawn from this point. So we were literally at the heart of Paris :)
So after absorbing as much of this information that we could, we were off to the Eiffel Tower! Enough said.
Me and ol' Gustave :)
I HAD TO TOUCH IT!!! haha it kept making me think of Finding Nemo: "He touched the butt!!" haha I have no idea why... but it did
So on our last day in Paris, we decided to be tourists and go on a tour bus and see everything that we missed... which is when we truly realized that we needed more than three days here! :( The main thing that I took away from the tour was that I needed to read a biography about Napoleon. Because that guy seemed like a character, to say the least. So many of the artifacts around Paris were ordered to have his war triumphs carved or depicted somehow on them. He was pretty obsessed with himself and grandeur - right up my alley! haha
What would a tour of Paris be without the crepes and pastries? Mine was kind of like a cream puff, but was more bread than I would have liked, and Jeff's was delicious with all of the hazelnut goodness we put in it :)
This is in front of the Musee d'Orsay - it was a museum converted from a train station that contains art of Monet and Renoir and Van Gogh - this was the one place we definitely would have gone if we had one more day to spend there. Next time. :)
This is the Egyptian obelisk of Luxor that is placed in the center of the Place de la Concorde. It used to be the place of a statue of an old king... but with the revolution... that statue was battered. One of the bridges we went over was also part of an old aristocratic building that was then made into a bridge so the people could literally "trample on the elite." haha I love it!
This is a random obelisk that Napoleon erected to brag about his victories... :)
Us in front of the Arc de Triomphe - another one of Napoleon's monuments for "showing off".
Champs Elysees
L'Hotel des Invalides - this is the place of many museums, and under that dome rest the remains of Napoleon as well as other military leaders. (Napoleon's remains were moved 19 years after his death from St. Helena to here by King Louis-Phillipe in 1840)
And a random statue of George Washington :)
And then back around we came to the Eiffel tower to go to the top and end our trip with a great memory!
A graph to show how the Eiffel Tower measured up to other landmarks... the whole floor was lined with the comparisons.
That ferris wheel is at the Place de la Concorde :)
Champs de Mars and L'Ecole de Militaire (where Napoleon attended, and his superior officers said of him, "He will go far." That man was clairvoyant, to say the least.)
Look who else was up there! Gustave and Maurice Koechlin going over the plans (it was a little creepy, not gonna lie)
Thought I'd leave you with a video: Every once in a while, the tower would start sparkling with the lights. And right when we were leaving they were bidding us "Au Revoir!"
Things we learned about France this segment:
-French Toast: Not to brag or anything, but mine's better. Although, I do like their concept, so I might try it sometime with my flair added to it. They dip their croissants in the egg batter and leave it at that... so it was like super moist croissants... not sweet or anything. So I'll donate my win to America :)
-Metro Entertainers: Jeff and I thought they were pretty cool... the French did not! haha I remember Jeff and I looking at each other and telecommunicating, "This is AWESOME!!!" (because they were good!) and then we quickly changed our faces to blend in with all of the French people around us which looked like these guys (courtesy of Google Image Search: "French scowl"):
haha but seriously this is what we saw on ALL of their faces!!!! Really funny! So don't try to move to France to be a metro entertainer - I don't think you'll make it. So for mastery of the metro scowl - I'll give it to France :)
-Fire Trucks: America wins!!!! Jeff and I were driving to the airport and we see this on the road:
when it comes to putting out fires, I think anyone would want a super soaker for the job over a teeny squirt gun... :)
I REALLY MISS FRANCE, BUT I'M SO GRATEFUL THAT I WAS ABLE TO HAVE THIS EXPERIENCE AND HAVE MEMORIES TO SHARE WITH YOU!
