Paris Holds the Key to My Heart

I'm in Holland right now, but I need to catch up on Paris!

Paris really doesn't hold the key to my heart, but Ale kept singing that song the whole time we were in France, so I thought it would be an appropriate title for this post.

We woke up on Thursday and headed to the Eiffel Tower. Here are some pictures we took on the way:

 

Don't even know what building this is, but it looked important.

 

We had a photo shoot to build our modeling portfolios.

Kate (and yoga students if you see this), this one is for you. Brenna, don't read this paragraph. I saw a man and woman doing tai chi in the park by the Eiffel Tower. I walked up and asked if I could join them. Without interruption, one of them nodded so I just joined in! I only did it for a while, but it was pretty fun. How many people can say that they have done martial arts at the base of the Eiffel Tower? Afterwards, the man corrected my tai chi technique. I'm still working on it.

It took about 15-20 minutes to walk there from our hostel. The tower is even more amazing than I imagined! It was beautiful.

We climbed about 700 stairs to get to the point where we had to take the elevator. Best exercise of the trip thus far! It was really cool to be inside the structure, and to see Paris from up high. No matter how many pictures you see, nothing can replace the experience of being there in real life.

The tower was completed in 1889. Mr. Eiffel used to climb the stairs all the way to the top (1,665 steps), where he had an apartment. Few people were allowed to go up there.Thomas Edison visited him there and showed Mr. Eiffel his telegraph shortly after it was invented.

This is just a picture of a typical building in Paris...typical based on my small exposure to the city. Most buildings have a lot of windows with shutters and flowers. I love it!

 After our Eiffel Tower trip, we headed to the Louvre!

Leopold: Well, not all of the artwork in the Louvre is on the walls. Some is in the basement.
Patrice: You've been in the basement of the Louvre?
Leopold: Why, yes!
Patrice: I was a art history major at Vassar!
Leopold: Ahhhh...

Ummm yeah I went into the basement. I also saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace.We also saw a Da Vinci exhibit, which was awesome.

We honestly didn't last very long in the museum. I think we were still a little museum-ed out from Versailles.After leaving the Louvre, we went to see Notre Dame.

I LOVED being in a chapel with gothic arches because I could really see the manifestation of what I learned in History of Creativity. Because gothic arches could hold more weight than Roman arches, buildings were able to have bigger windows/hallways, and therefore have more light. Notre Dame's windows and hallways are SO huge. It was really cool for me to be able to see that first hand. I love architecture. I'm discovering that it's one of my favorite art forms. In several museums that I've been to recently, I have been more intrigued by the building itself than the art housed within it. 

After packing 3 big attractions into our day, we were pretty tired, so the rest of the night was really chill. We had Nutella-smathered crepes, and we enjoyed simply being in Paris. We shopped along a touristy street and came across a couple of very old men selling very old books, who spoke very little English. At one point, one of them said "ooo la la" when he looked at one of the books I wanted to buy. It was so nonchalant! It made me happy.

We also discovered the best bakery ever. I tried a macaroon and it was so amazing (then I got some macaroons for free at another shop and they were gross). I also had a croissant and it was seriously the best croissant I've ever had in my life. Why don't we have good ones in America?!

After a long day, we said goodbye to Paris and prepared for an overnight bus to Amsterdam!