Paris, Je t'aime

Bonjour mesdames et messieurs! I'm back from Paris and I have a ton of pictures to share with you all. Let me just begin by stating how unbelievably exhausted and sore I am from my excursion to Paris. We had to be at a bus stop on campus by 5 in the morning and from there we took a coach into the Ashford train station. The trip itself wasn't too bad because we mainly slept in the coach and in the train. The trip through the English Channel wasn't exciting as I had anticipated. It just seemed like the train was in a long black tunnel and the only difference was that my ears popped a few times.


When we finally reached Paris, we took the Metro to our hostel (which I forgot to take a picture of naturally) and from there headed to the Louvre! I recall hearing stories and accounts of the size of the museum, but you cannot completely get a grasp of its size until you're actually there. Now I can believe it when people state that they've spent weeks just visiting the Louvre alone! It's absolutely enormous!

The Venus di Milo

The Winged Victory of Samothrace (a.k.a. Nike)

My sincerest apologies on the outcome of this picture. I was a hundred people back or so and it's pretty obvious that I used flash photography in a no flash photography zone. :)

The entrance to the Louvre

After the Louvre, we walked about half a mile or so (in the heat and humidity I might add) to the Notre Dame. The sky looks so wonderful here that it looks like I stole this picture from Google images, but I swear I own the rights to this!

We then proceeded to our river boat trip on the Seine. The journey (and believe me, it was quite a journey) to our destination took quite a bit of time since certain Metro stations were closed (due to Bastille Day). We had to navigate through a massive crowd of people who were already camping out in preparation for the fireworks that were to happen later on that night. Since time was against us, meaning that our boat was scheduled to leave within the next twenty minutes and the closest stop (as well as the train line) to the boat was shut down, we were forced to run/walk for about a mile! Thankfully we made it to the dock about a minute before it pulled out. This is how I felt once we were seated on the boat:

One of the shots I took from the boat - sister statue to the Statue of Liberty. I was also able to take a picture of the Eiffel Tower from the boat.

After the nice relaxing boat ride, our group decided to stake our claim on a curb with a view of the Eiffel Tower in preparation for the upcoming fireworks. We each purchased a baguette with meat and vegetables placed in the center and waited for the sun to set. When it finally did, the Eiffel Tower was lit up and the firework show began! I wish I took a picture of the crowd, but even my camera couldn't capture the millions of people that turned up on the streets!

After the magnificent fireworks, two girls in our group had their friend, who is studying in Paris for the summer, meet up with us. We then went to a cafe and enjoyed some dessert! A couple of girls and I shared two cups (more like goblets though) of chocolate mousse. They were 8 Euros each (eek!), but they were quite tasty. Once everyone had consumed their dessert, we quickly tried to find the nearest Metro station to take us back to our hostel. The lastest Metro runs until

2 in the morning. We managed to catch one, but missed our connecting train by about 4 minutes. So we were forced to get a taxi.

The next morning we had to check out by 10 so that meant we had no choice but to lug around our huge backpacks until our train left later in the afternoon. After we enjoyed our free continental breakfast, we immediately took a train to the Eiffel Tower. The weather was pleasant and nearly not as hot nor humid as the day before. The line to purchase tickets to climb up the tower was as long as we had anticipated, but the wait seemed unbearable with our backpacks on our backs. When we finally bought our tickets, we had to climb two levels, which doesn't sound bad in writing, but believe me it was very, very difficult. According to Wikipedia (I know, I know): "The actual count of stairs includes 9 steps to the ticket booth at the base, 328 steps to the first level, 340 steps to the second level, and 18 steps to the lift platform on the second level. When exiting the lift at the third level, 15 more steps exist to ascend to the upper observation platform. The actual step count is printed periodically on the side of the stairs to give an indication of progress." From the third level, we had access to a lift (thank God!), which is basically the skinny portion of the tower. Here's the view from the bottom (I took this before our climb up):

I believe I took this picture during our hike up towards the third level. My face is a result of the madness I developed while climbing hundreds of feet up. We were all going pretty crazy at this point. Add our mental state with the fact that I felt like I was carry a child on my back! The subsequent picture (stolen from Ulanda, the photographer) is the result of a group of girls climbing up three hundred steps with their luggage on their backs:


Please don't believe that my time spent on the Eiffel Tower was spoiled due to the climbing, not at all! The view was simply stunning, gorgeous, breathtaking. It was all worth it and it will be an unforgettable experience!

I simple adored the heart that someone engraved into the grass. When I saw this from the second or third level, I couldn't help but take a picture.

The view from the very top! Beautiful, isn't it?

The quality of this photo isn't the best because I took it while we were descending via the lift. It was thrilling to say the least! After a quick pit stop at a cafe to grab a bite of lunch, we jetted over to Arc de Triomphe.

So concludes my weekend adventure to Paris. I wish I could have stayed another two days because there was so much more I wanted to see and do (i.e. Moulin Rouge, Montmartre - home of Amelie, Place de la Concorde, the Latin Quarter, ride a bike and/or moped around the city, etc.). Hopefully some time in the future I will come back to Paris and actually absorb the city in a more relaxed fashion. Paris breathes sophitication and Parisians certainly have joie de vivre. My two days there were simply amazing!

EDIT: I forgot to tell you what I have in store next! On Tuesday a group of us (a couple newly converted fans) are taking a train into Portsmouth to see Feist! This Thursday marks the end of our first session thus our final papers are due (I haven't started yet, eek!) so a few friends and I are going to have a picnic afterwards to celebrate! Then on Friday night I head off to Amsterdam! I probably won't be able to write another entry until next week. Cheers!