March 30, 2013 - Top of the Eiffel Tower

It's my final Paris post, 4 years and 1 day after our last day! We end with a pretty exciting event: heading to the top of the Eiffel Tower! The day was once again cloudy and COLD (we seemed to have burned our one nice weather day the day before), but that didn't stop us from heading up there.

We stood in line for the elevator ride to the...middle. Check out that view!

That's right, we weren't at the top yet. Here was the view UP from where we were on the balcony walkway.

See that square part sticking out way up there? You can get there, on a smaller elevator straight up the middle. I have to say, I was not a huge fan of that elevator ride, but I am really glad that we went. Check out how much higher up we were! (gotta say, I love this photo)

Here's Kathy at the "ruler" at the top. 280.5m above the ground!

AT that moment, we were standing higher than the Washington Monument. So high!

And, proof that Evan and I were at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Although I suppose the lack of background means you can't really tell where it was taken, but I swear that's where we were.

On our walk to the Eiffel Tower, we walked across the "lover's bridge" which is covered in locks that couples inscribe with their initials/names. 

The tradition is to put your lock on the bridge and throw the key into the Seine, so that your lock (love) can never be broken.

Totally cheesy tradition, but since Evan is a pretty cheesy guy we had to participate.

Of course, the locks make the bridge so heavy that they all had to be removed for fear of the bridge collapsing, and now you can't do this at all anymore (or so I've read). So our lock isn't there...but it was nice knowing that it was, for at least a little while.

We miss you, Paris, and want to go back! Maybe this time when it's a little bit warmer.

March 29, 2013 - Montmarte & Musee Rodin

Well, it's now been 4 years since we spent a week in Paris, so I think it's time to do my last two posts! And I am even getting this post done 4 years to the day! That's right, on March 29, 2013, 4 years ago, we did quite a lot on that Thursday!

This was the first day when we split up for a bit. Evan wanted to go do a few historical things that didn't really interest the rest of us, and Eric wanted to relax at the hotel. So, Kathy and I took the Paris metro up to Montmarte. It was the first real nice day that we had on the trip - slightly warmer, and the sun actually came out while we were there!

 We quickly realized we were going to have to climb a LOT of stairs to get up to the Sacre-Coeur. And once we did, we realized why there were so many people there - it was some special holy day (I can't remember right now what it was), so the church was actually closed and we couldn't go inside.

 

So instead we took lots of photos of the outside. It's a gorgeous building!

 

We then wandered around the hilltop, and found this fantastic open air market with lots of artists and restaurants. We ate delicious mussels and frites at this lovely place!

We somehow managed to avoid eating all of these macaroons (so tasty).

 And just enjoyed all of the stores and local feel of the area!

 We did walk down from the hill to find the original Moulin Rouge. This area was a lot of fun - it also had a Museum of Sex nearby with some VERY interesting sculptures in the window.

At that point we went back to the hotel, and then headed out with the boys. We ended up at the Musee de Rodin, which I have to say was one of my favorite things that we saw on the whole trip. I didn't know much of Rodin's work other than The Thinker (which of course I have photos of below), but his work is really impressive, and it all being outside is so different from so many other museums.

Here you can see The Thinker from across the garden, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

 

I spent a lot of time looking at one of his larger works - the Gates of Hell. It's rather disturbing, and very detailed. The photo on the left is the whole thing (you can see how large it is); photo on the right is a close up detail of one sculpture.

And I end with a view of the museum from the rear of the garden. 

A pretty great day...certainly better than how I spent my day today, laid up sick on the couch. So I'll just remember back to our time walking around Paris and wish I was there instead!

March 28, 2013 - The Louvre

Argh! My plan to post March 28, 29, and 30 exactly 3 days later failed due to work travel! That's ok, I'll get them up now. I wrote that on April 28. And then planned to do this again on May 28. Then June 28th...and now, as I'll be traveling on July 28th... time to post! Better late than never right? Here's hoping that I have the time/energy to get the last couple of Paris posts done this month, but at last I can get this one in!

Our fourth day in Paris was spent at The Louvre. I'm not always a museum person, but with this being arguably the most famous museum in the world I was very excited to spend the day there. And oh my, do you ever need a full day! Between the acres you can walk inside, and the statue garden area outside, there is PLENTY to see. I'm fairly certain there were wings we never even really went to, or just did a cursory walk through as we went to an area we were really interested in seeing.

At this point, over 3 years later, I can't remember well enough to do a complete walk through of our tour of the museum (see, that's why blogging close to events helps!). But, I've got almost 200 photos that show all of the things that we saw. Obviously I can't post that many here, so I'll do my best to post my favorite dozen or so. I apologize in advance for failing to remember what some of these statues and paintings are - if I can't remember, just enjoy looking at the beautiful art!

Winged Victory is absolutely stunning, and placement in the museum is perfect. Your eye can't help but be drawn to it.

Even the ceilings in this place are works of art!

 

Hallways too. Of course, they know what they're doing, but to see it in person is something else.

We of course had to see the Mona Lisa. Do you see it down at the end of this room? Not quite what you would expect of it, right? Teeny tiny, behind bullet proof glass, with a crush of people.

We did get closer. Slightly underwhelming in person, frankly, which was what I had heard. I definitely was more taken by some of the other art!

Like, for example...the Venus de Milo!

Kathy and I figured we could hang just like these ladies of old were :)

This atrium, with its statues of Greek gods (I think, again hard time remembering) was just beautiful.

 

More gorgeous ceilings...such detail!

And then what turned out to be my favorite piece in the entire museum: Cupid & Psyche. First off, I'm a sucker for Greek myths (I went through a whole phase in middle/high school), and the emotion conveyed in this statue just got to me. Plus, the lighting was absolutely perfect. I took a ton of photos!

 

We then met back up with Kathy & Eric (after splitting up for a bit and wandering by couple), and headed outside. The Louvre is even gorgeous from the outside! And so massive. We definitely did not get to see everything, but I'm so happy with what we did get to see.

March 27, 2013 - Versailles

So...I never actually finished blogging about the trip to Paris that we took with Kathy and Eric 3 years ago. I posted about our first two days (and an over view, linked above), and then had all of these grand plans to keep posting, but other things got in the way. I did organize all of my photos (and a bunch I got from Kathy) into an album so that I could order a photo album...and jeez, I haven't done that either. I also haven't ordered the photo album I was planning to from last summer's beach trip yet...sigh. Gotta get on that stuff!

Anyway, Paris. Day 3 there was spent at Versailles. We took the train out to the castle, and wow, am I ever glad that we did. Kathy really wanted to go see it, and I'm glad that she sold us on the idea - it's something you really have to see to believe. Looking at all of the opulence really makes you realize why the peasants rose up and overthrew the monarchy - to have to look at the royal family living in this, while you are essentially living on dirt, would just be too much.

For those who haven't been there, I'll try to narrate through the photos, but after 3 years I'm having to refresh my memory too! Here is the front of Versailles.

 Again, when you go inside, everything is just SO over the top. Gold, gilded, sparkling...it's almost too much to look at. Everything has been restored to how it looked at the time - again, it's just so decadent!

 Here's the king's bed chamber.

 One of my favorites (and a well known part of Versailles) was the Hall of Mirrors. I have so many more photos I could show, but tried to just pick my favorites to showcase the Hall.

 I like the photo on the left below) because you can see Kathy and I in the mirror.

 

After touring the inside for a couple of hours, almost getting swamped by tour groups, and having lunch, we escaped to the rear of the castle. Here you can see Versailles from the back.

 And...the view of the grounds. The castle sits on about 250 acres; all of this belonged to the royal family, and is now part of the historic site.

 We decided to take the (not insignificant) walk down to the Queen's castle - you know, she needed to have her own castle with grounds for when she needed to escape from the main castle. Smaller, but no less opulent - here you can see Marie Antoinette's private boudoir.

 She also commissioned an entire English village to be built near her castle, just for her enjoyment. A lot has fallen into ruins, but it was quite pretty to look at.

 This was another part of the Queen's area; I think this was her dance hall, or something similar. Complete with real swan!

 Oh, and the king needed to have his own castle-away-from-castle too. His was a bit more grandiose, and simply covered in marble.

Kathy got this photo of Evan and I on the stairs :)

We then began the long trek back up to the main castle. I then took photos of the massive fountain that sits in the center of the estate; I hadn't taken any photos of it on our walk down, as we took an alternative route. You can see Versailles Palace sitting up behind the fountain in the photo below. 

 I grabbed this photo of Eric and Kathy in front of the fountain (facing the Palace).

When we arrived back in Paris, we wanted to try to make it into Saint Chappelle, which we had heard was absolutely stunning inside. We managed to make it in not long before it closed, and wow was it ever worth entering. My jaw literally dropped. Everything was very low light, so I did the best I could with my camera at the time (Canon Rebel) - not too bad!

 

The church is best known for it's amazing stained glass windows. Look at how beautiful! There was a project under way (likely still going on) to clean and recreate some of the stained glass that has broken or been destroyed over the years. Painstaking work, but definitely worth it!

 

 And here's a close-up of one part of one window. The detail and color is absolutely stunning, particularly considering it was created almost 800 years ago!