Paris

Just got back from our 2-day trip to Paris. It was originally intended to be Normandy, but due to travel complications we decided to postpone that and some more of Paris for next weekend.

We got a good deal of stuff done, hitting most of the big tourist landmarks and taking tons of awesome pictures.

The first day, we saw a palace of some sort on our way to tour Notre Dame. We climbed up several claustrophobically-narrowing spiral staircases way up to the very top and looked out over the city. I thought that was a considerable height from which I could accidentally drop my camera, but that changed after visiting the Eiffel Tower.

We were a tad miffed once we got to the big structure because the line was ridiculous, we were being set upon like carrion by the vulture-like stolen-goods vendors, and because they'd temporarily closed the top for an indefinite amount of time.

After we decided to go up to the second floor anyway, I was excited to see the view. This was THE Eiffel Tower! The probably most-photograped structure in the world, and I was going to walk around inside it. After we'd seen the view for a bit, we noticed they'd actually reopened the top back up. Some of us seized our chance and jumped in line--Eric was right, he's seen this thing 12 times now--if I could, I'd want to see it 11 more times too. I now understand why people get engaged up there--it's corny, but with a view like that, you can't help but feel all romantic and optimistic about life. :P

Paris is a beautiful city. It's not as earthy as Barcelona, and it's not as organized as NYC. It's full of irregular polygon shaped blocks and circles and eternally stretching lines of perfectly groomed trees. Seeing it from the top of the tower was spectacular. Unlike from the second floor, where you had to search hard to find the big landmarks, from the top the Arch, the Louvre, the capital building and the cathedral stuck out like chess pieces on a gigantic board.

Later on, after eating at (hehe) a MacDo's, we found our hotel in a sketchy, still-developing part of town. Eh, it was cheap, yet clean and somewhat better than any hostel we've stayed at.

This morning we ate some breakfast at the hotel and set off early for the Metro to l'arc de triomphe. I didn't know what to expect until we saw it from across the giant traffic circle. When we got right up to it and saw the eternal flame, the feeling of extreme smallness and insignificance finally hit home. I knew it would happen at some point in Europe--it almost got me at the Tower, but it finally steamrolled me as we were deciphering de Gaulle's speech transcribed from one of his radio announcements from London. Even though it was during WWI, it made me think about Granddaddy and what he must've gone through. I'm really looking forward to Normandy.

We made it to La Louvre and got in for free (again, awesome student status), saw Venus, Mona, some more tourist must-sees, and Nap III's apartment. My favorite of all of them was still Venus. She's inspiring for some weird reason. :)

Of course, even though I had just beheld some of the most acclaimed art in the world, I couldn't help freaking out over how cool the floating spiral staircase was under the giant glass pyramid.

We took more tourist pictures and headed down the mall-like park towards the Obelisk, then sat around relaxing a bit before heading back to la gare and waiting for our train. I still can't believe we just got back from PARIS--it was assuredly different than what I expected, but it was a definitely worthwhile place to see. I'm looking forward to seeing a bit more of it next weekend.
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