the long climb to the top

Ah yes, the Eiffel Tower. On Monday, after the Louvre, we had a delicious group picnic in the park below the tower (apparently we will never get tired of baguettes, meat and cheese). Then it was finally time to ascend the tower. I was all for taking the elevator (hey, broken back over here!), but the line was 10x as long as the line for the stairs. Plus the stairs option was about half the price, and we're all extremely thin on cash. Even though I was already exhausted, and even though I had a WWII paper due that night that I needed energy for, and even though I really really didn't want to... I agreed, nay I was convinced (coerced), to make the climb. 728 steps later, we were on the second level. From there, we had to take the elevator up to the very top. IT WAS SO WORTH IT! The view was probably the greatest view I have ever seen of any city. We were climbing up around sunset, and we got to the top just after the sun had passed below the horizon (aka, the best time possible to take pictures). We stayed up until 9pm when there is a light show on the tower for 5 minutes on every hour. Ian Clark fake proposed to Laura Shank and convinced a bunch of people around us that he was serious, so funny. After we climbed down, we found some savory crepes and went to town. All in all, best night in Paris thus far. (and yes, I did finish my paper... eventually)

view out the top of the elevator

view going up the elevator

breathtaking

Arch de Triumph

looking up from the first level, on the way down

Le Musée du Louvre

I could spend days and days in the Louvre, but we only had 6 hours (so I made the best of it). 

Mona Lisa = legit. We got to the Louvre right when it opened, and we basically went straight to the Mona Lisa. Usually there's a huge line with pushing and solving just to see a glimpse of her, but I got to walk right up and see her. I was told over and over again of people being kind of disappointed by it, mainly because it was so small. I think I showed up with decent expectations of it, and it surpassed all of them! It was more beautiful than I even imagined.

Coronation of Napoleon

What a BABE

Da Vinci's 'Virgin of the Rocks'

View of the courtyard from inside the Louvre

"What's the point of seeing nipples if you don't understand them?" - Laura Shank

Black baby riding a snail...?

birthday in Paris

There may not be a better place and time in the world to turn 20 than a Friday night in Paris.

I spent the morning in class at our hotel, but we had a very eventful afternoon. Gabriel led us on a walking tour of Paris, basically spending three hours bashing the French at ever chance. It boils down to him calling them a bunch of "cheese eating surrender monkeys". We walked to the Arch de Triumph and climbed to the top. We had a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower and of Paris. After our long walking tour, I went out to dinner with a bunch of people, then continued to a pub and spent a few hours there. All in all, a fantastic birthday! 

Arriving in Paris

Thursday was probably the most fun day of the trip so far. We left Bayeux (after seeing the awesome tapestry there) and made our way to Paris. We stopped by Monet’s gardens that he planed with the sole intention of painting them. We were extremely pushed for time, so our intent was to go through the gardens fairly fast and get to Paris. Unfortunately, Aaron got lost when he went off on his own (…) and we were delayed almost an hour. To make up time, James (our Scottish bus driver), booked it to Paris ridiculously fast. Somehow, we still made our dinner reservations right on the dot (with way too many almost accidents). 

We had an amazing french dinner, and the best créme brûlée I have ever had! Our restaurant was right across the street from the tunnel that Princess Diana was killed in. The then boarded a river cruise around Paris. Gabriel timed it just right for a perfect evening. There was a beautiful sunset half way through the cruise, and even a rainbow thanks to the slight drizzle. It was so picturesque, a perfect night in Paris. Towards the end of the sunset, we made our way around the river to the Eiffel Tower. We hit it at the perfect time, it was all lit up, but it was still light out enough to take pictures. It was a perfect night with friends in such a beautiful city. This was the point of the night where it really hit me that I’m in Europe! Having been to the UK multiple times, it wasn’t the same as seeing Paris for the first time! I’m no fan of the French, but they sure do know how to build an awesome city.

During the night, I decided to only take black and white pictures while in Paris. I’m only using black and white film, and even digital pictures I’m only going to edit in black and white. I feel like this is the only city that this can work for. I’m here for eight days so we’ll see if I can stick to it.