We woke up quite early to get to the Louvre a little after it opened. It was a quiet morning, especially from me. I don't think I actually talked until 1PM that day. I was a combination of hungover and still asleep. When we got to the Louvre there was a long line already, but it moved pretty quickly.
The Louvre was interesting, but I find modern art much more appealing, so I wasn't as mesmerized as everyone else. We saw the Mona Lisa. Don't hate me, but it was quite anti-climatic and definitely not my favorite. There was a mob of people in front of the painting. You had to wait "in line" to get to the front to see it, where you still were about 10-15 feet away. I don't deal very well in tight spaces like that, especially not with people no more than 2 inches from me on all sides. I had to take deep breaths to prevent myself from freaking out and causing a big scene.
When I finally got to the front, it was hard to get a good picture because 1) it's behind tons of glass 2) it's tiny 3) everyone is jostling you all the time 4) you get bombarded with cameras from Asian tourists wanting you to take a photo of them with the painting. After a couple of minutes at the front, I had enough. And the worst part....it was even harder to get out than it was to get in. No one would move to my "excuse me," "pardon," ".excusez-moi!" or "entschuldigen. I got frustrated enough to where my patience was gone, and I just pushed and shoved my way out. FINALLY, FRESH AIR!!!
I would have to say my favorite parts of the Louvre were the Egyptian wing and Napoleon's apartments. It was amazing seeing the hieroglyphics, artifacts, and the Great Sphinx. It just made me more excited to go to Egypt in December! Napoleon's apartments were breathtaking! I almost liked it better than Versailles. They were so lavish!! Everything was so beautiful! It was amazing to see whole rooms brought into the museum.
After we left the Louvre, we went to see where Bastille used to be. There is a monument there now. While we were there, we saw a Moped accident. Somehow a lady tipped her Moped over and it landed on her. The movies are correct though - tons of people drive Mopeds/scooters around in Paris. From what I can tell, you're not cool unless you do haha.
Later that night, Malia, Trevor, Anna, & I went out for our last dinner in Paris. We went to a nice little restaurant! I have to say that Pairs has a lot of adorable restaurants, albeit pricey. Our main stipulation for tonight's restaurant was to have escargot. Malia and Anna wanted to truly eat French cuisine. I ordered some sort of chicken dish. I wasn't really sure what it was going to be. It turned out to be really amazing actually!! It was grilled chicken in some sort of sauce with some kind of pasta. The sauce was the best I've ever tasted! It was a spin on cream sauce.
Anna ordered escargot for her meal. So brave only getting that! Malia ordered a steak. She tried to tell the waiter that she wanted it cooked, not raw. His response was, "No cook?" Oh gosh, I couldn't do anything but laugh. Malia's steak was a very thick round steak. It was browned, so it looked like he understood....until she cut into it. It turns out, it was only seared on each side. It was horribly raw inside, especially given how thick it was. Thank goodness it was a dark restaurant, I think both her & I would have got sick if we had saw all that blood. She did pretty good though, making an attempt to eat it. Poor Malia!! 2 beef dishes and both were raw. From her experiences and mine, I would advise you not to order beef in France!! That is unless you like it raw.
When Anna got the escargot, I was surprised. I've never seen escargot before so I didn't know what to expect. There was a plate of shells on her plate. Only when I took a picture did I realize that the snails inside were green. We all anxiously watched as she ate the 1st one; her reaction was normal. She even said they were good. Next, Malia tried it. At first her face was composed and then all at once she freaked out. It was quite hilarious, since the snail wasn't in my mouth. They both said the texture is so much different. It's ok until you get to a grain of sand or something in the middle. NO WAY was I eating a snail! Not that brave! A great close to our time in Paris. On to Normandy in the morning.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Es tut mir leid
I have tried and tried to upload pictures but to no avail. Sorry!! I'll try again soon.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Versailles! (9.14.10)
Ugh, I hate that I'm sick while in France. I had what has become my usual breakfast at the hostel: very hard bread, butter, jelly, and cereal with warm milk. I was so looking forward to croissants, but instead they had what I believe to be 10 year old bread. No joke, after eating 2 pieces of it, my teeth hurt from having to work so hard to chew it. Oh and they don't refrigerate milk!! WHAT?! I still can't get over this. Eating cereal with warm milk just doesn't make it seem like cereal.
Today we went to Versailles and saw the castle of King Louis XIV. We got there early, so we had some time to walk around the area. It was very much like Chartres to me. There was a huge farmer's market/art market going on. It was a quiet, quaint, adorable little area.
Versailles was quite crowded. We each had an audioguide. After the first 20 minutes of being in the castle, I didn't see a FU-BEST student again until I finished the tour. It is such a large castle!! And so lush! It was quite amazing. So much gold!! So many paintings, that I probably should have known - but I'm art ignorant.
In the rooms, they had these exhibitions from Takashi Murakami, an artist that is very popular in Japan. His exhibits, statues mostly, were interesting, but I thought they cheapened the effect of an amazing castle. I thought they looked tacky in an extravagant room from over 325 years ago. I'll let you see what you think though. The whole tour took me a few hours. Afterwards you could tour the gardens. "The gardens" span 977 acres!! After walking around in there for about 3 hours, my legs were so exhausted! The gardens were quite beautiful. I walked to a part that had Marie Antionette's apartments. Though, my favorite part was the canal. It was open to the public, and since it was a nice day there were tons of people laying in the sun reading or picnicking. Also there was a rowing team and tons of little row boats that people rented. It was a gorgeous view to sit by the water and enjoy my Formaggio (cheese) sandwich while looking at the gardens and the castle. Note: I have eaten so much bread! Even more than Berlin, surprising I know. Sadly, bread is the only thing reasonably priced.
That night we decided to do a repeat of last night's picnic, expect with all 7 of us. We had bread, several kinds of cheese, apples, Haribo, and wine again. We decided to have our picnic at Sacre Coeur Basilica. When we got to the area, there were all these Africans with bracelets. They would tie it on your wrist and not let you go until you paid them 10€. Luckily Malia told us about this ahead of time, so I kept my hands busy carrying things. These people were quite pushy. You really had to be mean to get away. When we finally got to the base of Sacre Coeur, we stared up at flight after flight of stairs. There were sooo many! You could pay to take the elevator, but being college students we walked. It was quite a long, tedious walk to the top, filled with a couple of stops for huffing and puffing. When we got to the top, there were 2 idiots attempting to ride down the stairs on bikes! Craziness!
It was definitely worth the climb (for some reason Miley Cyrus song comes to mind here - even though I don't like that song). It was gorgeous!! Definitely tops my list of amazing sights! Sacre Coeur is a church, but it is on a giant hill, thus the steps. It overlooks the Paris skyline. When we got there it was dark already. I can't even describe how beautiful it was. I wish my camera could have captured exactly what I was seeing.
It was another fun night, having our picnic overlooking Paris. The walk home was even better since the trains had stopped running for the night. Especially since none of us, except Chris, were in a condition to map out a route back to the hostel. Without Chris, we probably would have wandered for hours.
Today we went to Versailles and saw the castle of King Louis XIV. We got there early, so we had some time to walk around the area. It was very much like Chartres to me. There was a huge farmer's market/art market going on. It was a quiet, quaint, adorable little area.
Versailles was quite crowded. We each had an audioguide. After the first 20 minutes of being in the castle, I didn't see a FU-BEST student again until I finished the tour. It is such a large castle!! And so lush! It was quite amazing. So much gold!! So many paintings, that I probably should have known - but I'm art ignorant.
In the rooms, they had these exhibitions from Takashi Murakami, an artist that is very popular in Japan. His exhibits, statues mostly, were interesting, but I thought they cheapened the effect of an amazing castle. I thought they looked tacky in an extravagant room from over 325 years ago. I'll let you see what you think though. The whole tour took me a few hours. Afterwards you could tour the gardens. "The gardens" span 977 acres!! After walking around in there for about 3 hours, my legs were so exhausted! The gardens were quite beautiful. I walked to a part that had Marie Antionette's apartments. Though, my favorite part was the canal. It was open to the public, and since it was a nice day there were tons of people laying in the sun reading or picnicking. Also there was a rowing team and tons of little row boats that people rented. It was a gorgeous view to sit by the water and enjoy my Formaggio (cheese) sandwich while looking at the gardens and the castle. Note: I have eaten so much bread! Even more than Berlin, surprising I know. Sadly, bread is the only thing reasonably priced.
That night we decided to do a repeat of last night's picnic, expect with all 7 of us. We had bread, several kinds of cheese, apples, Haribo, and wine again. We decided to have our picnic at Sacre Coeur Basilica. When we got to the area, there were all these Africans with bracelets. They would tie it on your wrist and not let you go until you paid them 10€. Luckily Malia told us about this ahead of time, so I kept my hands busy carrying things. These people were quite pushy. You really had to be mean to get away. When we finally got to the base of Sacre Coeur, we stared up at flight after flight of stairs. There were sooo many! You could pay to take the elevator, but being college students we walked. It was quite a long, tedious walk to the top, filled with a couple of stops for huffing and puffing. When we got to the top, there were 2 idiots attempting to ride down the stairs on bikes! Craziness!
It was definitely worth the climb (for some reason Miley Cyrus song comes to mind here - even though I don't like that song). It was gorgeous!! Definitely tops my list of amazing sights! Sacre Coeur is a church, but it is on a giant hill, thus the steps. It overlooks the Paris skyline. When we got there it was dark already. I can't even describe how beautiful it was. I wish my camera could have captured exactly what I was seeing.
It was another fun night, having our picnic overlooking Paris. The walk home was even better since the trains had stopped running for the night. Especially since none of us, except Chris, were in a condition to map out a route back to the hostel. Without Chris, we probably would have wandered for hours.
Another Beautiful Day in Paris (9.13.10)
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| Chartres Cathedral |
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| Chartres Old Town |
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| The stained glass was AMAZING! |
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| So colorful and detailed! |
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| Cloth that belonged to Mary |
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| They were so beautiful when the sun shined. |
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| Side view |
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| Each arch had many statues like this. |
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| My steak. Looks quite good - from the outside. |
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| And here you are allowed to hold your child's hand! |
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| Buttresses |
Friday, October 1, 2010
Another Beautiful Day in Paris (9.13.10)
Today we had a tour of the Chartres Cathedral scheduled. The cathedral was really nice. Their stained glass was amazing!! So beautiful & so much of it! The lady who did our tour really knew a lot of the church's history and each statue's significance. She was very informative, only if I could remember more of what she said. There was a case with what is believed to be a cloth of Mary's!! I couldn't even grasp how old that is!! I was really glad Dirk (our program leader) scheduled that tour for us.
We wandered around the town for awhile. It was an old town. To me everything looked amazing! The church was the center of town. When driving to the Cathedral, it rose above all else in the town. Dirk commented that's how all towns used to be. Eventually we stopped at a restaurant, because I wanted something hot to eat and drink to hopefully help my throat.
The restaurant was cozy. The hostess spoke English when he told us about the specials. He talked of steak in a wine sauce. Since the menu was in French, I chose to go with the steak. The waitress came and didn't speak a lick of English. She asked me a ton of questions to which I stared blankly or ventured a yes. I tried to tell her that I wanted my steak medium well. I also got a hot chocolate, which tasted amazing! It was made with real cream. I know what you're thinking...hot chocolate and steak...not the best combo.
When the food came, it looked so good. There was some sort of vegetable cakes on my plate, a green and orange one each. They tasted fairly good, but were unidentifiable as to what they were made out of. Now, the steak was a whole other story. I cut into it, and it was quite red with blood coming out. I took a bite...yep it was quite raw still. EWW!! It was bad enough having to look at it much less feel how chewy it was. It seems they only seared the outside of the steak. When I got to the middle, it was unbearable bloody. I couldn't bring myself to eat it. I learned my lesson, no more beef in France - with Malia's raw meat & my steak.
When we got back to the hostel, Lisa, Keith, Chris, & I decided to buy food and have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower, while watching the lights show. Once it is dark, the Eiffel Tower is lit up and the 1st 10 minutes of every hour there is a lights show. We went to a grocery store and bought 3 loaves of bread, 2 wheels of cheese, apples, Haribo, and 2 bottles of wine. It was amazing....all that was around 10€ for 4 people. My favorite thing about France was the cheap wines! Each bottles was around 2€. Wine literally was cheaper than water at restaurants. We even found a pack of knives and wine glasses at a store on the way. Saved us from being super classy, passing the bottle around haha.
When we got to the Eiffel Tower dusk was approaching. It looked so PRETTY all lit up!!! I think I like it better at dusk than at night. We started our picnic. We were in true French fashion with our bread, cheese, and wine dinner. We couldn't have a better sight to enjoy it to. It was such a fun night!! Initially we were worried about drinking in the park, but it became apparent everyone drinks in public.
Even though France's public transportation was dirty, smelled like pee, and seemed much more sketch, I still loved having the ease of getting back to the hostel. I'm really going to miss Europe's fantastic transportation system when I get back to the US.
We wandered around the town for awhile. It was an old town. To me everything looked amazing! The church was the center of town. When driving to the Cathedral, it rose above all else in the town. Dirk commented that's how all towns used to be. Eventually we stopped at a restaurant, because I wanted something hot to eat and drink to hopefully help my throat.
The restaurant was cozy. The hostess spoke English when he told us about the specials. He talked of steak in a wine sauce. Since the menu was in French, I chose to go with the steak. The waitress came and didn't speak a lick of English. She asked me a ton of questions to which I stared blankly or ventured a yes. I tried to tell her that I wanted my steak medium well. I also got a hot chocolate, which tasted amazing! It was made with real cream. I know what you're thinking...hot chocolate and steak...not the best combo.
When the food came, it looked so good. There was some sort of vegetable cakes on my plate, a green and orange one each. They tasted fairly good, but were unidentifiable as to what they were made out of. Now, the steak was a whole other story. I cut into it, and it was quite red with blood coming out. I took a bite...yep it was quite raw still. EWW!! It was bad enough having to look at it much less feel how chewy it was. It seems they only seared the outside of the steak. When I got to the middle, it was unbearable bloody. I couldn't bring myself to eat it. I learned my lesson, no more beef in France - with Malia's raw meat & my steak.
When we got back to the hostel, Lisa, Keith, Chris, & I decided to buy food and have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower, while watching the lights show. Once it is dark, the Eiffel Tower is lit up and the 1st 10 minutes of every hour there is a lights show. We went to a grocery store and bought 3 loaves of bread, 2 wheels of cheese, apples, Haribo, and 2 bottles of wine. It was amazing....all that was around 10€ for 4 people. My favorite thing about France was the cheap wines! Each bottles was around 2€. Wine literally was cheaper than water at restaurants. We even found a pack of knives and wine glasses at a store on the way. Saved us from being super classy, passing the bottle around haha.
When we got to the Eiffel Tower dusk was approaching. It looked so PRETTY all lit up!!! I think I like it better at dusk than at night. We started our picnic. We were in true French fashion with our bread, cheese, and wine dinner. We couldn't have a better sight to enjoy it to. It was such a fun night!! Initially we were worried about drinking in the park, but it became apparent everyone drinks in public.
Even though France's public transportation was dirty, smelled like pee, and seemed much more sketch, I still loved having the ease of getting back to the hostel. I'm really going to miss Europe's fantastic transportation system when I get back to the US.
Notre Dame....not the college....the Cathedral Pictures (9.12.10)
I noticed how much more text there is than pictures. I'll try to fix this :) |
| Notre Dame Cathedral |
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| Inside Notre Dame |
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| A model of the church...since it was rather difficult to get the entire church in a photo |
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| The stained glass in there is AMAZING!! It was really difficult to get good pictures of it though. So you'll just have to take my word for it :) |
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| Again, inside. |
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| Malia & I at The Crêperie. As you can imagine - I loved this name :) |
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| Sugar crêpe |
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| Chocolate crêpe |
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| Street in Paris |
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| Do NOT hold your child's hand?? |
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| American Breakfast Diner......notice the LONG line. Apparently we don't like to step outside our comfort zone haha. |
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| "Love Lock Bridge" |
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| Malia & I declared our love! |
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| Sweethearts put a lock on the bridge. |
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| Notre Dame from afar |
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| Parisian "Art" |
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| Paris subway, but this one is unusually clean compared to the rest. |
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| Malia, |
Notre Dame....not the college....the Cathedral (9.12.10)
I woke up feeling worse than when I went to bed, but I sucked it up. Today we were going to mass at Notre Dame Cathedral for their Gregorian Chant. The church was really amazing!! The mass was was very nice to see, even though we didn't understand anything. The procession of mass was very similar to home. During church I just kept thinking how much my Granny would love to see Notre Dame.
After church Malia & I wanted to have authentic French cuisine, crêpes. We each had one. I had a sugar one, Malia a chocolate one. That was my first experience with crêpes, I would agree with everyone else's equation to a thin pancake, but really thin!! It didn't have a whole lot of taste to me. Definitely only a mid-afternoon snack.
After our snack, Chris, Malia, & I walked around checking out the non-tourist part of Paris. I have fallen in love with how the streets look. It reminds me so much of the movies. I love the cute, little alleys, the architecture, pretty much everything but the people and the dirt. The stereotype of rude Parisians is completely accurate, at least with my experience. People often bump into you, and hard, without a glance in your direction or even an apology. One thing I've noticed about both Berlin & Paris, when you're walking on the sidewalk people walk 3 or 4 wide and don't make any effort to make room for you to pass them (in the opposite direction). At least in the US, we fall in rank or swerve so oncoming people can pass by, but not here. It's a really small thing, but after a while it gets annoying. That's my rant for today haha. Oh, and the Parisians expect you to speak French. It seemed every restaurant we went to didn't know any English, or didn't want to. Which only is a problem when you don't know any French food words, as you will see later.
We came to a "Wanna Juice," perhaps a Jamba Juice knock off. Since Malia works at Jamba Juice, we couldn't resist the temptation to compare. It was rather hard to know what fruit you were getting, but I figured there wouldn't be bad combinations listed on the board. I have no idea what mine was, but it tasted good.
After several hours of walking around, we met everyone else at the hostel and we all, Lisa, Keith, Anna, Malia, Chris, Trevor, & I, went out for dinner. We settled on a pizza place. The food was fairly decently priced, for France anyway. It was pretty good pizza. Overall, we had a fun night out. Needless to say we were the loudest ones in the restaurant.
After church Malia & I wanted to have authentic French cuisine, crêpes. We each had one. I had a sugar one, Malia a chocolate one. That was my first experience with crêpes, I would agree with everyone else's equation to a thin pancake, but really thin!! It didn't have a whole lot of taste to me. Definitely only a mid-afternoon snack.
After our snack, Chris, Malia, & I walked around checking out the non-tourist part of Paris. I have fallen in love with how the streets look. It reminds me so much of the movies. I love the cute, little alleys, the architecture, pretty much everything but the people and the dirt. The stereotype of rude Parisians is completely accurate, at least with my experience. People often bump into you, and hard, without a glance in your direction or even an apology. One thing I've noticed about both Berlin & Paris, when you're walking on the sidewalk people walk 3 or 4 wide and don't make any effort to make room for you to pass them (in the opposite direction). At least in the US, we fall in rank or swerve so oncoming people can pass by, but not here. It's a really small thing, but after a while it gets annoying. That's my rant for today haha. Oh, and the Parisians expect you to speak French. It seemed every restaurant we went to didn't know any English, or didn't want to. Which only is a problem when you don't know any French food words, as you will see later.
We came to a "Wanna Juice," perhaps a Jamba Juice knock off. Since Malia works at Jamba Juice, we couldn't resist the temptation to compare. It was rather hard to know what fruit you were getting, but I figured there wouldn't be bad combinations listed on the board. I have no idea what mine was, but it tasted good.
After several hours of walking around, we met everyone else at the hostel and we all, Lisa, Keith, Anna, Malia, Chris, Trevor, & I, went out for dinner. We settled on a pizza place. The food was fairly decently priced, for France anyway. It was pretty good pizza. Overall, we had a fun night out. Needless to say we were the loudest ones in the restaurant.
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