Paris = Love

I can check another lifelong dream off my bucket list: visit the city of Paris. Last weekend, Nicole and I took a weekend to get out of Italy and check out one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And yes it was.

Thursday, Nicole and I set off on a 3pm flight (which was delayed, thank you yet again Air France) for Paris. We arrived at the Charles de Gaul Airport around 5pm, and quickly learned what a large airport it really was. After a few minutes of aimless wandering, we finally found the RER train which would take us into the heart of Paris and to our hotel. We were a little nervous about the hotel, having never stayed in anything booked at "hostels.com" but we were pleasantly surprised. It was small, but clean and we had our own room and bathroom. And of course, we did not spend a lot of time there. After dropping off our bags, the first thing we did was to set off for the Eiffel Tower. We just wanted to see it. Being used to Florence, where everything is in walking distance, we set out with a map and assumed we could walk there. We were quickly corrected when we realized we were only walking further into the outskirts of the city. As Nicole put it, "We would come to Paris, and immediately start walking out of Paris". Once we realized our mistake, we jumped in a taxi and told him to take us to the Eiffel Tower! On the way there, we passed the Louvre with its magnificant Glass Pyramid entrance. After about 15 minutes (and a 20 euro taxi ride, proving that there was no way we could have walked) we were astonished at the symbol of Paris. We were perfectly happy just looking at the tower that first night, and took several pictures of course. We then went to our first french resturant, and had a satisfying dinner of salad and croque monsiours, which is a toasted ham and cheese sandwich.

Day two in Paris we woke up early and ready to explore the city! We grabbed some coffee's from McDonalds and headed into the subway to tour the Louvre Museum. The Louvre is one of the biggest museums in the world, and somewhat overwhelming. We only had a few hours to spend at the Louvre, so we checked out only the major peices. It was incredible to see the Mona Lisa in person. People always say that when you do see her, its kind of underwhelming. The painting is covered with glass, kind of all in a corner by itself. However, I thought it was so incredible to see in person a painting that is so famous. And the Mona Lisa Smile is also very intrigueing- what is she smirking about? I learned that many centuries ago, a man actually fell in love with the Mona Lisa and stole the painting, keeping it hid under his bed for years. Next, Nicole and I traveled across the museum to see the statue Venus de Milo. It is a very old sculpture of Aphrodite which was found on a greek isle. Her arms are broken off (and had been when the sculpture was found) and it was neat to learn that she is actually two separate peices of marble held together. After wandering around the Louvre for another hour or so, touring the medieval and egyptian collections, it was time to move on to something new!

Nicole and I had previously booked a "hop on, hop off" bus tour for our time in Paris. It stopped at all the major tourist sites, and included a commentary for while the bus was driving. With a little bit of difficulty in finding the bus at first, Nicole and I hopped on to travel to our next destination- the Notre Dame Cathedral. I love touring old churches, which is something my family and I have always done on vacations, so I was extremely excited to see Notre Dame. Built as a gothic cathedral, it is very different in appearance than most catholic churches. Two huge bell towers make up the front of the cathedral, and the back is covered with even more bell towers and statues of gargoyles meant to protect this beautiful site. We learned that every bell has a name and a rank; some bells are rung hourly, while others are only rung on special occasions.

With all this learning, Nicole and I decided to take the rest of the day to have some good old fashion fun! With lunch at Starbucks (yes...we found a starbucks. amazing) and a quick stop at the Gallery Lafayette mall to pick up new longchamp bags (we were in paris!) we had a very nice mid morning break before our afternoon destination. Disneyland Paris.

Disneyland Paris was very cool- it had the same warm and welcoming feeling as Disneyworld in Orlando does, but with a French twist. It was also very nice to have a little taste of home. We went for the big thrill rides first- the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith's Rockin Roller Coaster. With a little nervousness that the ride controllers would forget to repeat important information in english for us, we had a great afternoon of thrills and chills. Next, we headed over to the other park for more relaxed fun. Nicole was very excited to ride Thunder Mountain, which is her mom's favorite ride at Disney. I was anxious to ride Space Mountain, which impacted my life greatly as a child, but unfortunately it was closed. We of course rode the obligatory "Its a Small World" before the park closed at 7. For dinner, we chose Planet Hollywood in the Disney Village. With our dinners of a bacon cheeseburger (Nicole) and a Southwest Chicken Salad (your's truly), we left Disney feeling full and happy.

Day three in Paris was just as fun and exciting as day two. We woke up to find the weather very rainy and cold however, which we were unprepared for. We headed back to the Eiffel Tower first thing in the morning, because what trip to Paris would be complete without viewing the city from 300m above? Thankfully, we arrived at the tower early enough that we did not have to wait in line. After riding the elevators up and up and up, the view at the top was absolutely incredible. You could see the Louve, the Seine, Notre Dame, the Luxemburg Gardens and much more. There were pictures of the city at every angle with the major sites pointed out, so it made it very easy to pickout all these famous landmarks. After the tower, we decided to just ride our bus around the city for a while, and take in a little bit of the history of Paris. An extremely exciting moment was when we were waiting for the bus- Barack Obama was actually in Paris the same time as we were to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day and all of the American Lives lost. Obama's motorcade actually drove right by us- we saw the Presidential Limo with American Flags and everything. Very exciting. Another cool moment was when we stopped in a store to buy sweatshirts (it was so cold!) and Obama came on the television, with the French President. The french workers in the shop were very excited to see Obama, and as the National Anthem played, I don't think I have ever been prouder to be an American. On our bus tour, we learned that Napoleon the I and the III basically designed the entire city, and made it so beautiful through their lavish and expensive tastes. We saw the square were Louis XVI was executed and the towers where Marie Antoinette was held.

After riding the bus around for a while, Nicole and I stopped to go to the other famous parisian art museum- the Musee D'Orsay. While the Louvre holds mostly very old and religious peices of art, the Musee D'Orsay is more modern and contemporary. Again, picking our favorites, we spent a lot of time admiring the amazing paintings by Vincent Van Gough and Monet. They were all very beautiful. I enjoyed the Van Gough's the most because they were almost three-dimensional. You could see all of the tiny brushstokes me made to give his paintings their texture. We also went in the "Gold Room" which was basically a ballroom, but was so beautiful with its gold trim and bright lights. As it was getting late in the day, Nicole and I decided to finish the bus tour and stop at the Opera House, which was of course very beautiful as well.

Saturday night was our "big night" in Paris. We had previously booked a tour which included dinner at the Eiffel tower, a cruise down the Seine and a show at the infamous Moulin Rouge. Dinner at the 58 Tour Eiffel resturant was amazing- we ate ceasar salad, chicken with potatoes au gratin, and a desert of espresso, chocolate lava cake and ice cream. The french wine was also very good. The river boat cruise was very interesting. We passed through about twenty bridges and pass all the famous monuments of Paris. We learned even more about the city, and joked about how we were going to leave as experts on the history of Paris.

The show at the Moulin Rouge was extremely cool. After waiting in line with aching feet, they packed us all into the theatre and started popping the champagne! The show was a mix of dance and entertainment acts. The famous can can like in the movie Moulin Rouge was very cool. The show went very late, about one in the morning, so thankfully the tour group arranged for everyone to be driven home. We got home and immediately went to sleep we were so tired!!

Bright and early the next morning it was time to fly back to Florence! It was an amazing weekend in Paris, and we made a lifetime of memories.