Paris Day 2: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Versailles, Louvre

Paris Day 2, Friday February 22
        Claire and I woke up early for a really busy day. I liked breakfast because it was more than just toast and fruit like in Spain! We had hot chocolate, orange juice, baguette, and croissant thing with chocolate inside it.

Breakfast, yum! They also had sugar cubes named Saint Louis sugar!

         We headed off to the Eiffel Tower, and got there before they started selling tickets. Since it was cold, windy, and snowing a little bit, I guess they only had the lifts open, so you couldn't walk up to the top. But we paid for the lift to take us to the 2nd level and to the top, and it was so worth it! It was super cold and windy, but I got some good pictures.

In front of the Eiffel Tower

Palais de Chaillot and Gardens of Trocadero from 2nd level of Eiffel Tower

River Seine from top of Eiffel Tower

           After the Eiffel Tower, we went to Notre Dame, which was absolutely gorgeous! This year they were celebrating 850 years, so they had some special things going on with that, like old church bells in the middle of the aisle. There was a fairly long line to get in, but it went pretty fast, and it is free for everyone to go in.The inside was beautiful too, and had pretty stain-glass windows. It was really big too!

Notre Dame

Rose Window of Notre Dame

Flying buttresses, commonly found in Gothic churches

              We then walked around Notre Dame and looked at some of the souvenir shops they had. We both decided to get knitted berets because it was so cold outside! We ate lunch at a stand outside of a restaurant and I had a mozzarella and chicken panini and then a strawberry crepe for dessert! It was so good! 
              We then found a metro/train station and went to visit the Palace of Versailles, which was also really pretty. Very ornate and gilded with gold. In my history class, we learned that Versailles was a symbol of wealth for France, to show all the other countries how rich and powerful it was. The construction of Versailles started in the mid 1600s, and continued to be built until the early 1700s. During the French Revolution (late 1700s to early 1800s and Napoleon's rule), most people living in the city of Versailles left, as it was partially destroyed, and the palace was stripped of furniture and decoration. In the 1830s it was then turned into a museum. 

Exterior of Palace of Versailles...Gilded with gold!

Famous Hall of Mirrors...there were so many people! 

Gardens, taken from inside the Palace

      After we got back to Paris, we went to the Louvre. The Louvre was really big too...you could have stayed in there for hours! But since we were on a schedule, we just got to see the highlights, which I had written out ahead of time! We saw the Hammurabi Code, Assyrian winged bull, Venus de Milo, Nike of Samothrace, a lot of Ancient Egyptian Art, Seated Scribe, Wedding Feast at Cana, and of course the Mona Lisa!

The Louvre Pyramid. Although I think there are actually 3 and are supposed to be like the Pyramids of Giza

Mini Arc de Triomphe! It is actually called Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.

My art history teacher said I needed to take a picture with Nike of Samothrace (also called Winged Victory of Samothrace), a 2nd century BC Greek marble sculpture hororing the goddess Nike. (I'm wearing my beret in this picture!)

And there she is! The Mona Lisa...its like they don't want you to actually see it though, there is this wooden rail and she is covered with glass. I wish I could have seen it closer!

     After an exciting trip to the Louvre, and stopping by the giftshop to get a postcard of Mona, we went to the indoor mall they have outside of the Louvre, that also connects to the metro. We decided to just eat at McDonald's and have Filet-o-Fish because we had forgotten earlier that it was a Friday in Lent and we weren't supposed to eat meat! To tell you the truth the entire trip I didn't know what day it was, so....   After that we went back towards our hostel and stopped by a souvenir shop where I got a mini Eiffel Tower, because you always need one of those right? We collected our luggage from the hostel/hotel and headed off to the train/bus station to go to London! That adventure I will save for next time. 


Things I learned in Paris:

• It is really cold, and windy, and snowy. Again, wear layers! 
• Crepes are really good...kind of bummed I can't eat Nutella, because crepes with Nutella were everywhere! 
• It just isn't right to leave Paris without something having the Eiffel Tower on it
• If you plan things out ahead of time you can fit a lot into a day
• I was really excited to go to the Louvre to see things I have learned about in art history class
• I could never live in Paris, but it was fun to visit for 2 days...it would probably be more enjoyable in warmer weather!

Au revoir!