When Torin told me Christmas 2012 that we wouldn't be able to go home for Christmas 2013 I was pretty upset. A few weeks later he offered me a consolation prize: Paris. Obviously I accepted. I've never been to Paris myself, but Torin has been a few times, which made him the worlds best tour guide. We spent six days in Paris, and even though there was no big Christmas tree guarding a big pile of presents for me to squeal over on Christmas morning I have to say it was the best Christmas I've had yet (sorry Mom).
Day One:
We started our Parisian adventure at Notre Dame, which wasn't as big as I thought it was going to be, until I stood directly under her doors and looked up. One thing I learned in Paris is that everything was built with one purpose in mind, to be spectacular. Notre Dame was no exception, inside or outside. We first toured the inside of the cathedral, which was dark and very church-ey with lots of hanging candles and stained glass windows.
As we were exiting I said that I wanted to go to the top and look down like I had seen on other people's Paris blogs. So we stood in line for about an hour - which is when I had my first hot wine and crepe experience (holy smokes, delicious!) and climbed about a million small spirally stairs and got to what I thought was the top. Let me just tell you, it was cold up there. However the gargoyles and the view of Paris made up for the wind. All I could think of in my head was The Hunchback of Notre Dame and how the gargoyles would sing and dance.
After we made it down the spirally staircase we made our way over to the Louvre.
Day One:
We started our Parisian adventure at Notre Dame, which wasn't as big as I thought it was going to be, until I stood directly under her doors and looked up. One thing I learned in Paris is that everything was built with one purpose in mind, to be spectacular. Notre Dame was no exception, inside or outside. We first toured the inside of the cathedral, which was dark and very church-ey with lots of hanging candles and stained glass windows.
As we were exiting I said that I wanted to go to the top and look down like I had seen on other people's Paris blogs. So we stood in line for about an hour - which is when I had my first hot wine and crepe experience (holy smokes, delicious!) and climbed about a million small spirally stairs and got to what I thought was the top. Let me just tell you, it was cold up there. However the gargoyles and the view of Paris made up for the wind. All I could think of in my head was The Hunchback of Notre Dame and how the gargoyles would sing and dance.
After we made it down the spirally staircase we made our way over to the Louvre.
Like I said, everything in Paris is ornately spectacular.
Yes, we saw the Mona Lisa, but I didn't manage to get a picture of it, because it was mobbed with people trying to get their picture taken with her. To confirm the rumors, yes, she is small. Neither Torin or myself are a fan of huge crowds, so we quickly moved on and found the Egyptian exhibit, which I believe is the same one the MFA had a couple years back.
I normally am a HUGE fan of museums, but the Louvre to be extremely crowded which made me nervous for myself and my camera and it made me way too hot to truly enjoy anything. Plus people were always stepping on the back of my shoes which further annoyed me. I'm glad that we went, but I wish I could have enjoyed it more. Oh well! We'll just have to return and try again!
After the Louvre we went to Musee de l'Orangerie - which for those of you who don't know is the museum that houses Monet's water lily paintings. You weren't allowed to take any photographs while inside the lily rooms, but if you want to see what it looks like on the inside go here. l'Orangerie was my favorite museum in Paris. It wasn't over crowded, it wasn't hot, it didn't smell like BO or fried food. It was all things a museum should be, a quiet and peaceful place to enjoy art.
After l'Orangerie we made our way down to the big old carousal aka Grande Roue de Paris. We waited in yet another line and enjoyed an almost full view of Paris. Since it had just become night time, the Eiffel Tower was all light up with flashing lights, it does this every hour for five minutes after dark.
We walked down the Champs-Elysees and peeked at the street vendors that were selling Christmas goodies and then made our way to the metro and went back to the hotel for a very good nights sleep.
Day Two (Christmas Eve):
There were two things I wanted to do in Paris. One, go to the Catacombs, two find Chanel. My handsome tour guide decided that we would go to the Catacombs and Versailles on day two. (Chanel was day six and a disappointment) If you plan to go to the Catacombs - which I definitely recommend, I would plan to get there right when it opens and do it on a sunny day. It was pouring the morning we went and since they have a max capacity of about 50 people, we waited in the rain for about three hours. Totally worth it.
There were something like 50,000 bodies down there, maybe more, I'm not a numbers person. We toured through for about an hour and it was a solid hour of stacks and stacks of bones. You're not allowed to use flash down there so my ISO is turned almost all the way up, but I still managed to get some good pictures.
After the Catacombs we hopped on a train to Versailles. *Insert love eyes emoji here* Versailles makes the Biltmore look like a shabby run down cabin. It is quite literally a palace. No words can describe how stunning it is, just go for yourself and walk around with your mouth hanging open like I did.
We got there later than expected and when they say they close at five, they mean there is not a soul left in that place at 5:01, so we didn't get to spend as much time there as Torin had hoped. Since it was raining the gardens were closed, and much of the chateau was closed for renovations so we toured about 1/8th of Versailles, just another reason to go back to Paris!
The rest of the trip will be posted tomorrow!
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