Paris

Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2170297&l=9589f&id=15616369
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2170298&l=4ad84&id=15616369

To celebrate our one year anniversary we decided to spend a weekend in Paris (obvious choice).

We arrived late on Friday, checked into the hotel, and walked 20 minutes to see the Eiffel tower. The tower is lit up at night and is quite impressive. There were hundreds of others straggling and meandering beneath its spreading feet.

Saturday morning we got up early to get in line to ascend the Eiffel tower. We bumped into a student from a Canadian university, who seemed a bit too eager for conversation. He found us in line, in the elevator, on the first level, at the top, and in the elevator on the way down. By this time he was giving me his email address and saying he would be looking for a job in a few months. I think he was lonely traveling by himself…

From the top of the tower we noticed a large crowd gathered in a plaza about a mile away. Someone mentioned that the pope was in Paris and had attracted the crowd. We descended to take the metro to the shopping district. Shereen was keen on finding the Louis Vutton store. Exiting the metro we walked through the streets, stopping in some ridiculously pricey jewelry stores. It must have been obvious we couldn’t afford any of this stuff, the salespeople barely said hello before going back to their own chitchat.

Not finding what she was looking for, we walked to the Champs-Elysees, and found a huge Louis Vutton store. I’ve never seen anything like. The place was packed, with customers and salespeople. I have a feeling this one store makes a significant portion of the companies sales. Combining the foot traffic with the price tags would make for some hefty revenue…

Walking a bit further we approached the Arc de Triomphe, which is well protected by a whirling, multiple lane traffic circle fed by 12 streets converging on this one point. Not seeing the underground tunnel until later, we ran like confused puppies through the traffic chaos to reach the Arc. We didn’t stay long, hopping on the metro to visit the city center.

We walked along the river before stopping to the Saint Chappelle church. This is a superb church with a lower level for the peasants and an upper level for the aristocracy so they never have to see one another. We were fortunate to time our visit when an English tour started so we were able to learn the details of the church. The upper level has walls made of stained glass that stretch several stories vertically. The glass displays stories from the Bible and the Middle Ages, starting with Genesis and Exodus and working around until the last panel shows the story of how the relics (crown of thorns, etc.) were found. Quite an impressive sight, especially with the sunlight glowing through. The glass is divided into smaller panels, each panel showing a story, so there are hundreds of individual stories including Cain clubbing Abel, the burning bush, Noah’s ark, and many less well known stories. The glass had been removed and replaced several times to protect during conflicts and there were a few errors in the order it was replaced. An example was one medieval battle scene showed the soldiers fighting on horses, then the king sending them out, then the soldiers riding to battle.

After this we were exhausted so hopped on the Metro back to the hotel. In the mood for Thai, we were turned away at the first place we stopped since we didn’t have a reservation and the few tables were packed with diners shoulder to shoulder. We found an Asian place down the street that wasn’t as busy.

The next day we visited the Louvre. I had been here several weeks ago by myself, on the first Sunday of the month when it is free and packed. Now that I understood the layout better, Shereen and I were able to walk directly to the most interesting items and eliminate traipsing all over this immense museum. The Mona Lisa is a bit of a disappointment, alone on a large wall, behind glass, with a rope perimeter keeping you over 20 feet away, 4 guards nearby, and hordes of people crowding around. The Venus de Milo is impressive, but my favorite statue is the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The large format French paintings are inspiring as well, including Delacroix’s “Liberty leading the people”. Shereen’s favorite was the Napoleon apartments, directed lavishly with rich couches and elaborate chandeliers. The Louvre is monstrous and we spent about 5 hours meandering without seeing everything.