Last weekend Ken and I took a belated anniversary trip to Paris. (More photos are on our photos link.) We left Friday early morning and arrived their mid-morning. We were able to check into our hotel and have a full afternoon for touring. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Notre Dame cathedral.Our hotel was on the Platz de Republik. On the plaza was a restaurant that reminded me of home...
On Saturday, we got to the Eiffel Tower early to journey to the top. I was surprised at how quickly we got in. The crowds were not bad at anything we went to. The view was wonderful.
After that we visited the Lourve museum. Neither of us are art fans, so we didn't think we'd enjoy it, but it was really interesting. First of all, it was enormous. There were all styles of art from all over the world. Secondly, I thought it would take forever to see Mona and Venus. We practically walked right up to them. They roped Mona off, but that was good because more people could look at her at once. Venus was on a pedestal that allowed much better viewing.
After that, we visited the Sacre Coeur. What frustrated me about that as well as the Eiffel Tower were the number of pushy souvenir vendors. I got so sick of gypsies asking "Do you speak English?" We learned in Berlin to ignore that question. It usually is followed by a sob story of babies starving at home or you getting pick-pocketed. At the Sacre Coeur, a group of 5 African men actually blocked the stairwell and Ken had to push through them as they were trying force whatever they had on us. We haven't encountered anything so brazen elsewhere.
Saturday evening, Ken took me out for a nice French dinner and then we walked around Paris at night. On the hour, the Eiffel Tower glitters.
5 comments:
Very fun! I remember studying the paintings that you photographed in art school, that's great that you had the opportunity to see them in real life. The romantic poses will be treasures in your years to come. Was it cold during your visit?
-- Jenn
5 african men pushing stuff on you....ahh life. I know that life very well! Sad you had to experience it in Paris!
Interesting...a restaurant called "Indiana". Did you guys try it out?
I loved the pictures too! I was going through the slideshow and after each photo, I would say "Awww!" and Matt was like "What are you doing over there at the computer?" I told him that you guys had pics up of Paris! He said he would look at them later...don't know if he has yet or not. But he always loves your photos too!
Wow, those pictures with the view from the Eiffel Tower are AMAZING! Paris looks so huge from those views...I wonder how large it is, area-wise, compared to some of our big cities in the US.
As for street vendors pushing stuff on you - Erin, do you remember some of the crazy people in Turkey trying to get us to buy whatever they were holding out to us?
I'm glad you had a great trip! I actually remember that restaurant, it was the Indiana Tex-Mex Cafe, or something like that? I was perpetually humbled by the fact that Europeans didn't really know much about our states, much like we don't about theirs, so to them, Indiana and Texas weren't perceived as anything but American. You didn't mention it, but I really hope you got to go to Sainte Chappel. It's a beautiful crusades-era church inside the Palace of Justice complex with floor to ceiling stained glass. Amazing! Take care, continued safe travels, and hopefully I'll see you in the spring!
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