Paris!

From my journal: The next day we got up and decided to walk to the Musee D’Orsay. It really was a beautiful day, but we were running late, so I had a pretty bad attitude about walking. So, John and I walked pretty fast along the river. It was so beautiful. The buildings were so cool. The weather was nice. We saw that people would buy locks and write their names on the lock and put in on the bridges. It made the bridges look gilded. I wanted to do that with John, but it didn’t happen.

            Unfortunately my mom tripped and fell because she was trying to keep up with us. She hit her head pretty good and bled all over. It was awful! John went back to the apartment, and she and I went on to the Museum to wait for him to get band aids and stuff. It took forever because he accidentally went the wrong way on the metro. We eventually got her bandaged up, even though we couldn’t convince her to go back and rest. She did pop a bunch of pills though and we were really concerned she was half stoned or high or whatever the rest of the day.

            We did see the museum though. We tried to follow the audio guide, but had a hard time because they would switch where the paintings were located. The Orsay Museum is famous for impressionism. So we saw a lot of Degas, Van Gogh, and so on. There was a lot of nudity. It kind of shocked us at first, but we slowly became desensitized. I thought the building was super cool as it was the old train station in Paris. We looked out of the backwards clocks. (clocks that were windows and faced out). It was really quite cool.

Blog: One thing that I loved in Paris was that many of the bridges had locks with couples names written on them. From a distance the bridges looked gilded. I really wanted to get a lock for John and me, but of course we ran out of time. With good reason too, our days were packed!

The first museum we visited was the Musee D'Orsay. It featured an amazing collection of impressionist art including Van Gogh, Degas, and others.

It is housed in what used to be the train station. I also liked the clock that you could view from the wrong side.

Next was the beautiful, humongous Luxembourg Gardens. The gardens are actually the grounds for the French Senate building. They are many rules about what you can do there, and we definitely got in trouble for walking on the grass.  They are known for the flowers, statuary, and many activities you can do. It was also there that a French woman really yelled at us. We have no idea what she was mad about, but she clearly didn't care that we didn't speak French and just wanted to vent at us. It was actually really funny.

Unfortunately it was that morning that my mom tripped while we were walking along the Seine. She hit her head really bad and got an awful black eye.

Journal: Next we traveled to the Luxembourg Gardens (not actually in Luxembourg this time J ). It was this amazing park that is the grounds for the French Senate building. Very big and famous for the statuary. We loved all of the flowers, statues, fountains, and building.

            We walked over to the Pantheon of France. It was where the first pendulum was built. There is still one there, but obviously it was not the same one.

            We walked to the next stop which was lunch. We tried a more modern looking café, but got kind of burned because we didn’t know it was more money to eat in it than to take the food and go.

            After lunch, we walked to the Montparnasse Building. Longer walk than we thought! It was the super tall building that showed a great view of Paris. I loved seeing the rain coming down in various areas of Paris. We also had fun with taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower. (John pretending to hold it and such.) I think it is interesting that we felt like we were so high, but it was about half as tall as the Eiffel tower. Crazy!

            On our way back to the metro we stopped for a dessert crepe and loved it. Mom and I got nutella and banana (nutella was everywhere in France). John got one that was chestnut paste. Really good.

            After that we went to the Isle de Cite (where Notre Dame is located) and walked to the point to take our boat trip. We walked around the point of it and the beautiful park. We took our boat tour at night, which was nice because we practically had the ship to ourselves. So fun!

            It was beautiful! I loved seeing Paris by night. It was a little chilly, but we to be inside for a good chunk of it. I loved seeing and hearing about the cool things by the river: Notre Dame, Louvre, Orsay, Tuleries Garden, Eiffel Tower and much more. We learned that one bridge (the smallest in Paris had collapsed 14 times.

            After the boat cruise, we walked home in the rain, which wasn’t as bad as you’d think, but it was definitely a long walk. We walked a LOT that day! 

Blog: After the gardens we walked to the Montparnasse Tower. Much more modern tower, with absolutely no wait to get to the top, which was nice. It is actually only about half as tall as the Eiffel Tower, but still seemed really tall to me. While we were up there Miriam was so happy. It was really cute.

John is going to squish the Eiffel Tower! :) We're dorks. Check out the rain clouds that were coming!

Next on the agenda for that day was a night boat tour of the Seine River. It was absolutely gorgeous!

I love the lit bridges with all of the architectural detail.

It wasn't particularly crowded, which was nice because it was a constant struggle to keep the baby happy.

It was well worth it though with views like this!

The next day we started out at the Lourve. It was amazing!!! I just can't say enough about this museum. First off, it was huge! It is housed in a palace. So the area is the whole palace with floors beneath ground. 

The Mona Lisa!

The Code of Hammurabi, which was carved about 1780 BC. I studied this quite a bit in a college world history class, so I was super excited to see it in person.

Journal: The following day we started off kind of late again and went to the Lourve. It was amazing! It was raining that day, which was not unusual, but it still made it a good day to stay indoors. We had the museum pass, which allowed us to cut the line. It was really crowded but for some reason that didn’t bother me that much. We saw the Winged Victory Statue, which was sculpted 190 BC. The Aphrodite statue was created around 100 BC. We went to see the Mona Lisa first. It was painted by da Vinci around from 1503-1506. One of my favorite things was the code of Hammurabi that we saw. It is from Iran and was made 1792-1750 BC.  We saw a humongous painting of The Consecration of the Emperor (Napoleon crowning himself emporer) by Jacques-Louis David. This painting took up the entire wall. It is extra special to us because we bought a puzzle of it and have put it together since we got back. Mom saw The Seated Scribe a sculpture from the 2600 BC. We also saw The Wedding Feast at Cana, which shows Christ turning water into wine. From 1562. It was also humongous and directly opposite of the Mona Lisa. We saw the famous statue of Ramesses II from 1279 BC. The whole place was amazing! The palace itself was remarkable, let alone all of the art in it.

            After the museum we went down the street to a bar actually to have lunch. It wasn’t too bad though and most people were eating food rather than drinking. Mom had some delicious French onion soup. 

Blog: I could really just go on and on about the Lourve, but I will move on. One piece of advice though, if you are planning a trip to Paris I would research what you wanted to see in the Lourve beforehand because the place is huge and there just so much you could see. I wish we had spent more time there. 

After that we saw the famous St. Chapelle Church. This is actually on the same island as Notre Dame, but only royalty were allowed to worship here. It is famous for the 13th century stained glass that makes up more of the walls than stone does. It is stunning!

Journal: From there we went to the St. Chapelle church to see the amazing stained glass. It is sad because on the royal family was allowed to worship there, but the stained glass was amazing. The walls were more glass than stone. There was a beautiful chapel underneath the first where the servants worshiped.

            After that we went up to Montmarte and went to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. It was fun to go up the tram to the top of the hill. We looked out at the beautiful view and then went to Basilica. It was so humongous. There was actually a Monday night Mass going on. I fed Miriam in there, which was kind of awkward, because there was such a big deal being made of being quiet. Signs and security guards were everywhere.

            After that we walked around and found a place to eat that was recommended in the Steve Ricks book. La Relais Gascon. It was my favorite meal in France. I had the famous huge salads. (We called it the French Café Rio) and John had the famous French duck. Delicious! Huge salad with lettuce, olives, tomatoes, bacon, garlicky roasted potatoes, and a fried egg topped with creamy vinaigrette, sounds weird, but it was amazing! I have tried to recreate it a bunch of times since we got home and I still love it. Who knew that a fried egg would be so good on a salad? For dessert we had crème brulee which was phenomenal. Seriously so amazing! We sat by this British couple who were fun to chat with. 

Blog: From there we went to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, where I fed baby Miriam and consequently sat through a Monday night Mass. It was kind of interesting to see, but I felt awkward because the signs and security guards were making such a big deal about being silent. Needless to say, baby Miriam didn't care about being quiet, she just wanted her milk! :) It was beautiful though, and the view from the hill was great! 

It was there in Montmartre that we had my favorite meal of the trip. We went to Le Relais Gascon, which I can only describe as the Cafe Rio of France. Seriously what could be more French that adding garlicky potatoes, bacon, and a fried egg to a salad with creamy vinaigrette. Seriously so good!

Miriam liked when we stopped to eat too, because then she got to play with the bread basket. So fun!