Paris in a Day (and a Half)

This is my last post about my trip!  I was only in Paris for a day and a half, and my first impression wasn't overly favorable.  Our hotel room was small and smelled, with an exciting view of our hotels utility boxes.  The streets were fairly dirty, drivers were rude (just my first impression...then I realized they just do things a little differently there), tourists crowded everything (how dare they!), and it seemed like there were shady people everywhere looking for a handout or looking to pick your pockets.  We even had a guy try to pull a fast one on us where he tried to tie a bracelet onto Brandon and pick his pocket at the same time...we were no fools, though!  But, by the end of my day and a half, I started to see why people fall in love with the city.  I liked Paris, but I still don't love Paris.  I guess I'll have to go there again to get another feel for the city!

We arrived here Sunday afternoon.  Our hotel was conveniently located about 3 blocks from the Eiffel Tower, so we went there first.  I was feeling kind of grimy from traveling, so I told Brandon I didn't want my photo taken in front of the tower.  Then I thought, "when am I going to be here again???"  So I had my photo taken.  We also went to the Arc de Triomphe, which was pretty spectacular-looking.  It's in the middle of the crazy roundabout, with seemingly no rules, and yet about 5 lanes seem to be continuously weaving in and out.  We caught a cab here to take us back to our hotel, and it was the craziest cab ride of our whole trip...and we went over 100 mph on the autobahn in Germany!  I also loved seeing the sign for the Champs Elysees.  I just kept thinking, "Lance Armstrong's been here!!!"  (I had a thing for him in college and loved watching him in the Tour de France.  I would seriously get up at 3 AM just to watch it live in my apartment.)

Brandon didn't have to work the Monday I was there, so we got to see Paris together.  We first went to Notre Dame.  I loved this place.  It was cool to see all of the architectural details, the gargoyles (shoot water out of their mouths) and grotesques (statues that we usually think of as gargoyles), and the view from the towers.  I didn't actually go up to the top of the towers (heights!), but Brandon went up to see Quasimodo's bell (not actually called that).

These are from the interior of Notre Dame.  With respect to the side chapels, it was surprisingly plain inside compared to some cathedrals I've been to.  The architectural details were not so plain, though.  It was really lovely inside.  I wish more of the tourists had adhered to the signs asking visitors to be quiet and reverent.  The upper right two photos are of the large bell and my leg next to a sign indicating caution in climbing the steps to see that bell.  I know the sign maker meant well, but a caution sign with a person falling is not going to get me to go up those steps!

We also signed up for a lunch cruise on the river.  It all started off well, but then the cruise photographer kept trying to pose us, and I knocked over a large bottle of water on our table.  We were kindly shown to another table at the back of the boat (all they had available).  The very empty back of the boat.  We actually liked that because our extremely understanding and kind waitress brought us extra juice and an extra cheese platter for Brandon.  She also told us little factoids about the buildings we were passing.  For example, the building in the upper left of this photo is actually the tax building.  It looked much too cool to be a tax building.  We also had live entertainment on the boat.  A woman walked around singing to everyone.  When she got back to our table (right after the water incident), she was singing, "La Vie en Rose," and my face went bright red, I'm sure.  I was not in a very good mood at that point, which she sensed, and she left us alone the rest of the trip.  The cruise, however, was really enjoyable overall!

We ended our day at the Louvre.  I really fell in love with art museums on this trip, and I wish we could have spent way more time here.  It was like an art museum inside of a palace.  That's probably because it used to be a palace.  But it still felt like a palace inside because of all of the architectural details.  I'm glad we were able to take photos (without the flash, of course).  

Of course we saw good old Mona Lisa, but I didn't think she was really that impressive.  Still, it was cool to say that I saw the painting.  One of my favorite paintings was the one in the lower right, St. Joseph the Carpenter, by Georges de la Tour, depicting Christ as a child with Joseph.  We also liked the apartments of Napoleon III that were still furnished to look like it did when he lived there.
And while it doesn't have anything to do with the Louvre, other than it was in the mall attached to the Louvre's underground entrance, I had to include a photo we took of McDonald's  McBaguette.  McDonald's will add specialty items to their foreign franchises for local appeal.  We loved that the McBaguette came with a little wedge of cheese.  We decided we wanted to try one of those for dinner that night, since there was a McDonald's just a few doors down from our hotel.  Unfortunately, we were given fries instead of that wedge of cheese.  Sigh.  The McBaguette was huge, too, and could have easily served both of us.

The next morning, Brandon and I parted ways at the subway station, and I headed for the airport, while he headed to work.  I flew home from Paris-Amsterdam-London-Boston (overnight stay in airport hotel)-Chicago-Cincinnati.  I was so excited to see my kids at this point, but let's just say that not all of them were as eager to see me.  Nicholas and Renae couldn't stop chatting and hugging me, but Seth immediately started crying when I tried to get him out of the van.  All he wanted was for my mom to hold him.  Talk about heartbreaking!  But, I persevered, and by the next morning he was all mine!