4th and Final Day in Paris... for now

Eiffel Towerrrrrrrr!!!!
I just love it. I just love it. It's really beautiful. And big. I wanted to go to the top, but the lines were crazy long. So I admired from below. And took enough photos for the Eiffel Tower to have it's own album on Facebook. Unfortunately, due to the fatty French food and my inability as an exchange student to stop eating it, I look a little pudgy in the photos... But ignore that and look at me being happy at seeing the big, beautiful tower I've been waiting to see since I arrived!

We then took a bus through Paris to revisit the Notre Dame, this time the inside! We waited in line for only 15minutes and I bought 10 (for 2E) of those little Eiffel Tower keychains because I just love the Eiffel Tower so much. Myabe next I'll buy one of the flashing ones!

The inside of Notre Dame was stunning. Breathtaking. I would have preferred it to be a little more quiet but there wasn't that much noise when you consider the number of people in there. You could still hear the choir recordings playing in the background. I sat down in the benches and prayed and admired and took a couple photos too. It was huge inside! And there was so much beauty inside too. The stained glass windows, the dramatic paintings, the candels. I'm certain that Notre Dame is one of my favourite places in Paris.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town, seeing the streets of Paris and the smaller, still marvelous sites to see. The first picture is of an old building where people used to go and take their baths and showers back in the middle ages.... once a week! Eww!

Then we strolled by the Notre Dame one last time and I got the night time pictures!

Paris is a different world at night. Things are so beautiful with all the lights added to things. You can see one sight in the day time and then see it again in the evening and it's the same as seeing 2 different sites. Paris, beautiful by day and by night.

Oh and 2 missing stories from before...

First. On Christmas Eve, when I was in the church, I noticed there were all these statues carved into the walls, but every statues' head had been ripped off. Here, on the walls, were all these people doing different actions, with missing heads! I asked the aunt who brought me what happened to the heads and she told me it was a result of the War of Religion that these heads had been broken. Interesting! History, and the length of history too, presenting itself right there in front of me! It's sometimes easy to forget just how old and ancient France, and all of Europe, is. That really put it in perspective for me.

Second. Yesterday, when we were shopping, I saw this old man dressed in an old black suit, who was just standing on the sidewalk. There was something about him that looked a little out of place but I didn't get a good look at him for more description because the second I looked at him and made eye contact, he started shouting weird things at me and wiggling his fingers toward me... was he cursing me? Was he telling me something important? Was he banning darkness and evil from me? I don't know... It startled me and I ran to catch up with my group within 3 seconds! No one else seemed to see it. That was really weird!

Paris Day 3

So today... was mostly chill.

We didn't actually leave the house until about 3:30. We went to go and see the Montmartre. There was a crazy large number of stairs to climb, for those of you who know Tsawwassen, not unsimiliar from Fred Gingell, just more urban. Of course, after climbing the staris, we saw that right beside the stairs, there was a Gondella. Of course.

Stairs:

Gondalla:

Then there was a guy doing a street performace. It was really cool!! But random... I have trouble understanding his reasoning behind trying what he did in the first place. "Let's climb this lamp post on the edge of a cliff that looks out over the entire city and hold onto it with only 1 hand and spin a soccer ball on a straw sticking out of the mouth... sure, why not?!"

It's a really, really beautiful church. The inside was just exquisite. I wish I could have taken photos, but it's forbidden here to take photos inside the churches. The outside was stunning too and had a really nice overview of the city... unfortunately, the Eiffel tower was out of view for this photo. Paris' streets I think are more beautiful than Vancouver, but I still think Vancouver has a prettier skyline.

Inside, there was the most stunning portrait of Jesus that I have ever seen. He was there, holding his arms out and there were people around him and he had a halo of gold around his head. In fact, his whole body was outlined in gold. I'll steal a picture from the internet for you :)

The pictures really don't do it justice, you have to see it in real life if you go to Paris. It's just breathtaking... the kind of thing where you could sit in the benches in front of it and just stare at it in awe. I, by the way, did not sit in the benches and pray or stare at it in awe, there were too many people and I was separated from my group and so they would have lost me and worried if I had. I wanted to sit though, there's something different about being in churches and chapels here. It's very spiritual and has a very different feel from the rest of Paris.

We then walked around and found a market and people drawing paintings of people. I got really excited because it was the exact place that I had Googled back in Spring and used as a cover picture on Facebook.

Cover picture:

My photo:

Then, we were supposed to go to see the Eiffel Tower and meet up with another Canadian exchange student, but we had a change of plans because it was getting late and Constance and Anais wanted to go shopping before the stores closed. There are 2 nail polish colours they have desperately been searching for for days, and Anais wanted to buy (and did buy) probably 10 books or so... and Constance wanted a special trunk to keep her nail polish in. I got to use the metro more! It's honestly like a freaking maze down there... I'll film it for you tomorrow. And I bought 2 more nail polish colours. I think I should stop that now... It is starting to become an unhealthy expense even if I only buy nail polish at good prices... like OPI at 5 Euros less than the normal cost.

After shopping, we stopped in to see L'Hotel du Sulley. It's really pretty.

I feel like there is more to write about but I can't think of what for the moment... Tomorrow Eiffel Tower and hopefully the inside of Notre Dame :D The highlight of this Paris trip I hope!!!

OH! And today marks 4 months in France!

Bonne nuit (:

Paris Day 2

Well this morning, we went shopping! I guess you can't go to Paris and not go shopping! I bought a shirt and some nail polish! Another blue, a sparkly cover, and a clear cote. Nail polish is much better priced here than in Canada... Kiko! <3 Then we went to the Louvre! Le Louvre! The triangle museum! It was beautiful! I had my camera out and I fit right in with all the Asian tourists, snapping pictures of everything! The Louvre is actually an old castle. We started by walking through the base of it before we went into the chambers and special rooms with marble staircases and gold ceilings with paintings and statues.

We saw the Egypt part of it first for Baptiste and he really liked that! He knew a lot of facts about it too. Like which God was which, and what each statue was. Sometimes he'd tell me to take pictures of things and other times he's show me things and tell me about them, then I offer to take the picture and he said "Yep." A lot of it, I had already seen before. Obviously not the exact things, but I've studied Egypt in school before and a week before I left for France, I saw a special Egypt exhibit in Seattle. It was still nice to see it though, and I loved seeing Baptiste so happy and excited about something. He really enjoyed it and that made it worth while.

The best part of the Egypt part was seeing the real mummy, something I haven't seen before! It was kind of weird... that was a 1000-something-old dead person wrapped up... in a glass box... and a crowd of people around it.

Then we saw the part of the Museum with all the statues! It was my favourite part. I found them all so beautiful and stunning. I couldn't imagine someone carving it all out of stone. I really couldn't, that was art at it's finest.

I have pictures of the beautiful ceilings in the castle, but due to a rule, no flash photography, they didn't really come out nicely. You're better to Google pictures or just see them in person.... honestly, everything in the Louvre looks 1 million times better in person than in a picture.

We also saw the famous paintings! So beautiful. So many! Long hallways and rooms just covered with paintings on the walls. Here are some of my favourites. Once again, no flash = bad quality.

Can you believe the crowd there was to view this tiny (still amazing) painting? She smiles and her eyes follow you everywhere! They had signs giving directions on how to find her throughout the castle. Voici le Mona Lisa!

After the Mona Lisa, we left the Louvre, from outside, we walked to the Champ d'Elysee and I saw the Eiffle Tower from a closer, but still far distance. Paris is really beautiful at night. We walked through the Christmas market at the Champ d'Elysee and I swear my feet were killing me at the end. I didn't get good pictures of the Arc de Triomphe beause everyone was exhausted and just focussed on getting home and I'm pretty sure we will be seeing it again.

2 things I learned today:

First: Navigating the Louvre is like navigating a maze,
Second: Navigating the metro is worse.