Hey, I made it!

Hey Guys! Well I made it to Romania relatively safe and sound. I lost my wallet in Paris, so that has made things a little stressful, but other than that things have been great! It’s been insanely busy though so I’m glad that I finally have a chance to sit down and write the blog that I promised everyone. So lets see, where to start?! I guess at the beginning. I left the states on August 23, 2006. After a very long flight, a nerve-racking bus ride through London, another flight, and an even more nerve-racking train-ride into Paris, I arrived at my hotel in the Montmartre region of Paris. Seriously, I’m not really sure how I got to my hotel, because half the time I had no clue what I was doing. Thank heaven for a good sense of direction. Anyway, I make it to my station on the metro and come out on this street that in my mind totally embodies Paris. I wish I had taken a picture of it. But there was a tiny cobbled street and cream-colored buildings with wrought-iron balconies covered in flowers with cafes on the corners and little patisseries and shops all over. It was great! So anyway, I get to my hotel (this being a very interesting 2 star hotel with communal bathrooms, ghetto elevator and a charming lady at the front desk that had a cat that always followed her around) and checked in. My window on the second floor opened up to the street and I basically just sat and listened to a couple of guys shoot the breeze in French while smoking a cigarette. Eventually Sheri and Marina show up and we head off to the Musee D’Orsay where I saw my first ever Van Goghs Renoirs, Monets… I was so happy I could have cried. I saw a self portrait of Van Gogh and it was just so moving. And the Renoirs; I’ve written papers about Renoir and how he painted light, but until I was standing there looking at it in person, I had no idea that the paintings glowed. That light was actually coming out of the canvas. It was amazing.

The next day we headed to Moulin Rouge to take a picture (there really isn’t a whole lot there… besides a lot of breasts…) Anyway, after that we went to Victor Hugo’s House. That was pretty fun to be there and there were a lot of really cool artwork. The best part was talking to the people at the front desk. They were really nice and asked us where we were from and what we were doing. They told us to learn French for when we came back and we said “weeell, we actually have taken French, we just suck at it” It was funny and they got a kick out of talking to us. The French really aren’t that bad.

Next we went to the Conciergerie. This is where all the prisoners from the French Revolution were held and it is also connected to the Palace of Justice. Marie Antoinette (the one who reportedly said “let them eat cake”) and Robspierre (the one that started the Reign of Terror) were both held here before they were taken to the guillotine. It was pretty impressive and there was a lot to learn and to look at. After that we went to the Notre Dame which is a block away from the Conciergerie. Paris is kinda funny like that. All these huge amazing buildings just unassumingly hanging out around each other. We came out of the subway to go to the Conciergerie and Sheri says “oh look, there’s the Notre Dame” and you look to your left and its just there, chillin on the banks of the Seine. Crazy.

So yeah, the Notre Dame was impressive. You walk in and at first you can’t see much because it’s so dark, but then your eyes adjust, you look up and you see this amazing space covered by the vaulted ceiling leading down to an a magnificent gold alter lit up by a hundred candles. It was beautiful. It was really loud inside though which was kinda sad. It didn’t feel like a church at all. There were so many people shuffling through and taking pictures. But it was very beautiful none-the-less.

After the Notre dame, we went to the Louvre… Hoh my gosh. That’s all I got to say about that. Seriousely though, words really aren’t adequate for that place. And it was so cool how we came into it. You see, we got off at a station that isn’t next to the main entrance so we walk in through this court yard that’s very beautiful and whatnot. (The Louvre used to be a royal palace and still looks like it could house Louis the XVI and his family.) So we walk through the courtyard and look for an entrance and we decide to go through a pair of arches at the end of the courtyard. Well we head over to the arches and there is a glance of the glass pyramids on the other side so we know we’re headed in the right direction. So we walk through these rather magnificent stone archways and then we just freeze. Before us is one of the most incredible sights I’ve seen. The two glass pyramids loomed before us, backlit by the setting sun. Behind the pyramids was the Touleries (royal gardens) stretching down to the Place de la Condord. A cool mist from the fountains added an extra shimmer to the air and everything was enclosed by the magnificent front entrance of the Royal Palace. We just stood there and stared; jaws dropped and hearts full. Finally Marina finally turns to Sheri and I and says “This is Paris” And it was it really was.

So we spent a while taking some pictures and just enjoying the atmosphere, and then we decided to go into the actual museum. Once again, wow. We decided to hit all the major stuff first, so we go see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo which were very impressive. It was really fun to see them in real life. We also saw the crown jewels which were incredible, not to mention the actual architecture that it was all housed in and the glimpses of the grounds as you walked past all the windows. And there were quite a few remarkable paintings that were literally as tall as a one story house. They were beautiful. But the definite highlight for me was seeing my first ever Michelangelo. It was a piece called the dying slave and I have about a half dozen pictures of it in my art journal back home. It’s seriously one of my favorite Michelangelo’s and I was so unbelievable psyched to see it. And it was so beautiful. It was really cool because in pictures it looks so agonizing and tragic, but in real life its so peaceful and graceful. It was beautiful. And there were a lot of really beautiful sculptures in the room that I’d never seen before but immediately fell in love with. It was awesome.

Well we stayed at the museum till close and when we left there were a whole bunch of people out in the courtyard talking and hanging out and I decided that if I lived in Paris, I would TOTALLY hang out in the courtyard of the Louvre because it was a really pretty, really cool, really laid-back environment. We also decided that it would be really cool to be proposed to there (it was actually pretty romantic and there were a lot of couples all over) and that if a guy proposed to you at the Louvre you weren’t allowed to say no, I mean how could you?!

Well, after THAT, we hop on the metro and head to the Arc de Triomphe. Once again, come out of the subway and there’s the Arc, just chillin, all lit up in the night sky with the city whizzing by. At this point I was so happy I couldn’t stop smiling. I mean most of you know what an urban junky I am, and I had just had this great day in Paris and I’m standing on the Champs D’Elysse with lights and cars everywhere and the Arc de Triomphe right in front of me. It was SO COOL! So we head over to the Arc and climb up it(no elevator, lots of stairs, quite a trip) and look out on the city at night. It was really cool. And the best part was that there was this AMAZING traffic jam at one of the entrances of the circle that goes around the Arc that we seriously watched for about a half an hour. It was amazing. I saw cars squeeze through openings that defied the laws of physics. And then there were the buses and vans that were trying to get through, and the random moped that would almost get run over. It was great. Anyway, after taking some pics, we head back home and I drop to sleep exhausted, pretty satisfied with my first full day in Paris.