City of Musicals

And then there was Paris!

Early on the 26th, Kendal and I boarded a train for the city of love, lights, and baguettes. When I'm heading somewhere, I like to listen to thematic music to pump myself up. Sometimes, I have trouble finding appropriate music, but for Paris, I had trouble picking one play list to stick to. I had Beauty and Beast, Phantom of the Opera, Moulin Rouge... so I just listened to them all.

We rolled into Paris around 11 and found our hotel without problems. Our hotel was one of the most unique I've been, including bunk beds, porter-potty style toilets, and lots of pink.

Heading into the city, the only real plan we had was to find the Eiffel Tower and go up it. When we arrive, we discovered that A) the line for the lifts was long and B) it was signifigantly cheaper to take the stairs. For those that know me (and my mother), you know I'd do just about anything to save some money. So... stairs it was!
It didn't take too long, although it was quite painful. So. Many. Stairs. But it was worth it to get to this view:

Out of all the cities I've visited, Paris is probably the one that lives up to its hype the most. It looks exactly like you imagine Paris would, with frosting colored buildings, iron balconies, bread and cheese everywhere, strange hats... being in Paris is like being in a movie about Paris.

Once we reached our viewing platform on the Tower, we starting seeing other sites we wanted to see. I've decided this is how I'll plan all my vacations from now on: start at the highest place and point to the other things worth seeing.

So, seeing the Arc de Triumph and Statue of Liberty from up high:

 

Led us to seeing them from below, too!


Later that evening, we ended up on Champs-Élysées (fancy-pants-street) to stroll through a HUGE Christmas market.

 
Eating a yummy chocolate treat

 
Decorations at the market

Once night fell, the city totally changed! All the lights were on and it was so lovely!
 
The obelisk marking the site of the French Revolution guillotine 

 
Looking back down fancy-pants-street (I may have been standing in the middle of the road for this)

While we were down at the ferris-wheel site, I happened to look back and see the Eiffel Tower sparkling. There is no way I can convey my excitement when I saw this. Kendal and I decided right away we were going back to the Tower and watch up close. When we got there, though, it wasn't sparkling, but still pretty! 


Then, for five minutes on the hour, it sparkled!



The next day, we hit up the Louvre early in the morning to see some art. After coffee, of course.
The world's foamiest cappuccino?

Walking through the Louvre is overwhelming: there is just SO much art in there that I've studied and seen in books my whole life. We tackled it with a very specific plan and saw the highlights only. You could spend about three days in there without coming up for air.

 
The Glass Pyramid entryway to the museum (Get your tickets before you come here!)

 
Venus statue

 
Mona Lisa!

 
Wedding Feast at Cana

 
Renoir Girls

 
I loved this view from the top floor of the entry and the Eiffel Tower in the back left

Leaving the museum, we heading for Notre Dame, the site of my second-least-favourite book of all time. Fortunately, the church itself is beautiful even if the book isn't. 

 





We left Notre Dame and went to another literary site, the Paris Opera House! I was pretty excited about this one as Phantom of the Opera is one of my favourite books AND movies AND musicals. 
 

After snapping a quick picture outside (you thought I'd pay to go inside?), we  went to Sacre Core, this lovely, huge church up on a hill:


 
You're not allowed to take pictures from the inside, but the outside as the best view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower:

 
After eating a pizza dinner (and making the owner of the restaurant mad for splitting a meal), we indulged in one more site: The Moulin Rouge! We obviously didn't go it, but it was fun to stop outside and snap a picture.

 

The next morning, we were back on a train to Frankfurt. Paris was a whirlwind, but very fun! 















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