Well I think this weekend was probably taken at the fastest pace ever! The Paris trip was very fun all in all, especially since there were 12/13 of us there. (We missed you Rebecca!) However, and I'm sorry Dr. Wasser, Paris absolutely was not a city that I fell in love with as soon as I got off the train. In fact, I could barely tolerate it until about noon on Saturday. It was smelly, it was dirty, the people were rude, we had a bad experience getting to the hotel on Friday night, our hotel was in a bad neighborhood, and random lines on the metro were closed. Oh, and I had a couple of run-ins with dirty, sleazy French men. But all of the sights really were awesome...and we did get to see all of the sights in two days!
Ashley and I received the nicknames "Tour Guide Barbie" (me) and "Tour Guide Skipper" (Ashley) for all of our planning, map-reading, and guide-book carrying. But all of that paid off because we got to see Versailles, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Sacre Cour and Montmatre, and Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France. We spent a good amount of time at each spot too, and got all of it in during the 48 hours we were there (counting from Saturday morning until Monday morning). Pretty impressive if you ask me. Who needs sleep? Just kidding, we could have definitely used some sleep. But its Paris, and personally I'm not going back for awhile (if ever). So sleep wasn't a high priority.
After the 2 hour-long trip out to Versailles...which was longer than it would have been since one of the RER lines was randomly closed with no warning...we walked waiting in a huge crowd until Ashley and I found a cheaper, cooler way to see the palace. For 14,50 Euro we got an English guided tour through the King's Private Apartments and the Opera, plus entry into the public rooms by skipping the long line. The private apartments, and especially the Opera made it totally worth the money. A little opulent, but I could totally be ok with living in a place like parts of Versailles. Just give me pretty dresses, heels and a tiara and I'll fit right in. =)
The train back from Versailles to the city wasn't too long, although we had to get off the line at one point because it was closed, so we tried out the bus system to get to Notre Dame. Notre Dame was pretty, but honestly no match for the Dom. Too bad we didn't see it before the Dom so we wouldn't have been biased. I mean, how can you top the 3 Wise Men??
We attempted to walk from Notre Dame to the Arc de Triomphe, but we broke down a few blocks down and used the Metro. By then the "horrible Paris metro system" was getting better. Just give me a map and I'm golden. We had some adventures running across the Champs-Elysees a couple of times, trying to snap good pictures of the Arc and the famous street. Turns out there's a good view from a sidewalk directly across from the Arc and all the running in front of cars was unnecessary. Who knew.
The Eiffel Tower was probably my favorite place in all of Paris. I feel like a huge tourist when I say that, but I don't care. We eventually made it all the way up to the top and tried to watch the sunset. Too bad it was raining and the sunset wasn't too pretty. The views of the city were amazing though, but with no zoom my pictures show what could be any city. My favorite view was from the ground, looking up at the Tower. Especially when it was all lit up and sparkling. Hanging out in the grass under the Eiffel Tower on Sunday night was relaxing, beautiful and fun.
Sunday morning we were up and in line at the Louvre before it opened, so we beat most of the crowd to the famous works like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. As a result we got cool pictures with no heads blocking the view. In the 2 hours we spent in the Louvre we saw everything we especially wanted to see, plus so much more. I love the painted and decorated ceilings!
We almost keeled over climbing the steps of Montmatre up to Sacre Cour, but we did it and it was beautiful. Almost got in a fight with the vendors with the string on the way down, but we avoided it and didn't get anything stolen.
Waiting at Champs-Elysees for the end of the Tour de France was an experience. Despite the crowds we could see fairly well. Ashley got on Josh's shoulders to take still pictures, and I used my long arms to try to go over heads to get video of it. Somehow peoples heads and arms still got in the way though, but I'm hoping the video isn't too bad. We stayed for the first 3 laps around, but left before the official end and victory lap. It would have been really cool to say we saw Lance's last victory lap, but I was ok with it being cool to watch him bike in his last Tour de France. Besides, the crowds got pushy and worse every time the bikers circled around, and I had already gotten groped by a random, dirty, sleazy French man while waiting for the bikers to make it to the Champs-Elysees. Gross.
So Paris was an experience that was totally cool once, but I don't really want to repeat any time soon. We saw everything that I cared to see and all had fun together. That's what made Paris for me.
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