Weekend in Paris

I know, I know... I've fallen a little behind with the blog. Okay, a LOT behind! My friend, Kelli, is here right now, so I haven't had much computer time to spare lately. And you'll probably notice by the date of this post that I actually started it yesterday, and am finishing it today. Better late than never, right?!

Jordan and I had our weekend getaway in Paris -- we left last Friday morning and got back Sunday night. It was a great trip overall, although we were definitely glad to be back in London by the end of the weekend! I took a million pictures, like usual, so prepare yourselves. :) I had been to Paris once before, but it was literally a 10-hour whirlwind trip with my sister where we ran around and saw all the major sights and then went home. So having almost three days this time with Jordan was so nice!

The first day we got there we did a lot of walking around and exploring. There are a lot of "main squares" in Paris, and the one in the picture below happened to be right by our hotel. 

We found out quickly that Paris is a lot more spread out than London, and most people ride motorcycles and mopeds. We walked and took the subway to get around the city, which is pretty similar to London's subway system so we were able to pick it up really quickly.

One of our first stops was the Notre Dame Cathedral. Jordan fell in love with it right when he saw it. It is a lot more gothic than the cathedrals in England we've seen, and just completely unique. 

It's interesting because walking around the cathedral, it almost seems like each side of it is a completely different style. From the front to the back you could mistake it for two different cathedrals entirely.

This is the main entrance of the cathedral. You can go up in the towers, although we decided to pass on that one. We were able to go inside though, which was really neat.

Here is Jordan in front of the gates to the Sainte Chapelle. We also got to go in this smaller cathedral, which is famous for its breathtaking stained glass. I have never seen anything like it -- you literally walk into the small cathedral room and you are completely surrounded by solid stained glass.

This was taken from inside Notre Dame. Since it is free to go inside, many people pay a small donation to light a candle, which creates a really cool ambiance.

Our next stop was the Louvre, although we didn't actually go in it until the next day. The Louvre is considered by many to be Europe's best museum, and is most well-known for being the home to the Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. You also might recognize it from the movie The Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks. :)

It's pretty crazy because the Louvre is this HUGE, old, ornate building, and the entrance is comprised of this totally modern, glass pyramid.

So, oddly enough, the reason we ended up at the Louvre our first night was to meet up with one of my good friends from high school, Eric Williams! Eric and I had chatted on Facebook a couple weeks prior to our Paris trip and realized we were both going to be in Paris at the same time, so after 4 or 5 years of not seeing each other we were reunited in Paris, of all places! How crazy is that?! We ended up going out to a great dinner with him, which was so much fun. 

From there we decided to walk towards the Eiffel Tower because we wanted to see it at night. We had heard that the Eiffel Tower is stunning at night, and it certainly did not disappoint! It really is a beautiful sight.

Also, at the top of every hour, the Eiffel Tower basically becomes a big sparkler. Seriously! It has these sparkling lights all over it that flicker for 10 minutes. This picture doesn't really show it very well, but it's the best one I was able to get. Jordan got a video of it that turned out pretty well -- we'll post it on the blog soon, so stay tuned! 

The next morning we got up early to go up in the Eiffel Tower. The tower has three levels you can view the city from, and Jordan wanted to go all the way to the TOP level, which is 1063 feet high... so that's exactly what we did. :) Honestly, my pictures don't do it justice -- it truly is a massive structure, and so impressive! Someone told us that the Eiffel Tower is three times the size of the Space Needle, if that gives you a better idea.

Here is the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower of the Seine River that runs through the middle of Paris. Everything looked SO SMALL from up there!

Seeing the Eiffel Tower is pretty incredible, hence all the pictures. :) Again, it's one of those experiences where you've seen pictures of it your whole life and then when you actually see it in person it is almost surreal. The Eiffel Tower was by far Jordan's favorite thing in Paris, and arguably his favorite thing he's seen since we've been in Europe.

To see more pictures of the Eiffel Tower, click here. I took quite a few. :)

Next, we made our way back over to the Louvre and attempted to tour it... which is totally intimidating since it is SO BIG! People honestly say that it would take a week to see the whole thing, and I believe it!! We basically picked a few main things we wanted to see and everything else along the way was a bonus. 

Here she is... the famous Mona Lisa. Everyone says how disappointing it is to actually see this painting in person because it is so much smaller than you'd expect. I hate to say it, but it's true. And they don't even let you get up close to it, which is kind of a bummer.

This just gives you a feel for how far away they make you stand from the painting, and how many people are constantly crowded around it. Seriously, most people come to the Louvre just to see this painting!

Another famous thing people come to see is this statue of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, also called the Venus de Milo.

Here is another view of one wing of the Louvre. Yes, that is just one wing. The area surrounding it is a really neat park with a lot of ponds and cute garden cafes. 

If you look in the background of this picture, you can see the Eiffel Tower poking out in the skyline.

We walked from the Louvre down the famous Champs Elyees Avenue, where all the high fashion shopping is, and it took us all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. This monument is dedicated to all the soldiers who died in a French battle back in the days of Napoleon. It is also a lot bigger than it looks in pictures, and it kind of made us realize that the French seem to like their big, tall monuments! :)

You can actually climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, but we opted out. We figured nothing probably compares to going to the top of the Eiffel Tower!

The next day, our last day in Paris, we visited Napolean's tomb and the War Museum in the morning. Not really my idea of fun, but Jordan liked it. :) This incredible building with the gold dome is where Napolean is buried. I have never seen such an ornate burial place!

From there we headed a little farther out of the city towards the Moulin Rouge. Again, this is the type of thing that is fairly anti-climatic when you see it, but oh well. I loved the movie Moulin Rouge, so it was fun to see where the original one is.

In that same area, there is a fun marketplace with food and a ton of street artists. It was a really neat area, and so great to walk around since it was probably 65 degrees that afternoon!

We also got to see the Sacre Coeur, which is a really unique church up on the hillside overlooking Paris near the marketplace. This church looked Spanish to me, and was unlike any I'd ever seen.

There was this crazy street performer down by the church who Jordan became completely obsessed with. He was doing unbelievable soccer tricks, and at one point climbed to the top of this light post with a soccer ball on his nose. Pretty nuts!

So that pretty much gives you the quick rundown of our Paris trip. To be totally honest, it wasn't our favorite city in the world. Don't get me wrong, we definitely had a great time, but we just weren't totally impressed. I know, it's a terrible thing to say. Who doesn't love Paris?! What is wrong with us? 

There were parts of it we really loved -- crepe stands on every corner, really cute buildings, amazing food, a LOT of big things to see, and pretty much the carb capital of the world. I love carbs... Jordan teases me and says I am a walking carb. :) But there were also a lot of things we didn't like -- everything seemed really dirty and stinky (especially the streets), everyone and their brother smokes, everything was outrageously expensive (we paid 3.80 euros for a bottle of Coke!), there were so many beggars and aggressive street salesmen, and not to mention the whole issue of the language barrier! Not speaking the language makes everything a little more difficult and shakes your confidence a little, although we were lucky enough to have a couple English-speaking waiters during our restaurant experiences. Overall, I think the city just got so hyped up to us beforehand to be this ultimate romantic destination; which, it was romantic, but nothing I would feel confident calling "the most romantic city in the world," as most people know it. I think going to Paris just made us realize how much we really do love and appreciate London! :) 

To see all of our pictures from Paris, click here.