We stayed in an adorable boutique hotel on a quaint street near the Seine. Paris is probably my second favorite city in the world and it lived up to its hype as my loving husband enjoyed it as well. I ran a tight ship when it came to sightseeing, however, as our time was somewhat limited and I wanted to make sure we saw all the highlights.
We strolled along the banks of the Seine the first evening and wandered aimlessly around Ile de St. Louis taking it all in. The next morning I looked at my loving husband and told him to buckle up because we were headed to the Louvre. The line to get into this place was impressive. I am not going to go so far as to say it rivaled the Final Four line (I just gave myself the shivers) but I will say it was pretty long.
Once we finally descended into the pyramid, I grabbed a map and started sprinting to the Denon wing. Loving hubs did an amazing job keeping up, acting interested and serving as my photographer via his iphone as my really cool camera's flash would not turn off. We got lost twice, despite my map in hand. We finally made it to my absolute favorite sculpture in the world, Winged Victory of Samothrace. I think it looks like she is moving. Yet she's just a block of marble sculpted by hand back in 190 BC. Amazing.
My loving husband let me have my moment with her and then I was ready to move on. We stopped by to see Venus de Milo and of course the Mona Lisa and then one of my favorite paintings, The Young Martyr by Delaroche. This one's a little dark...I'll give you that, but I think it is gorgeous.
We spent the majority of day 2 in museums as we headed to the Musee D'Orsay after the Louvre. They don't let you take pictures here, so dear faithful reader, you get to use your imagination. We saw a couple Van Gogh, Renoir and Degas, my all time fave. I love his dancers. I mean, I just do. Yep. Moving on.
Our final morning we walked to Notre Dame and then I tackled the Metro and got us to the Eiffel Tour. Let me back up. The Metro and I about came to blows. I might have cried I was so frustrated. I cannot confirm nor deny these allegations.
First, I couldn't find a station that would allow me to purchase tickets. When I finally did find a station that would, the machine would not take any of our credit cards or Euros. The next stop I found did the same thing. At the crux of my frustration, I stared at my loving husband and told him to go hail a cab for us and his just stared at me blankly and blinked twice, claiming he did not speak French (which is true but at the time that didn't seem to matter to me). I think that's when I burst into tears. I started marching down the street to another Metro stop that thankfully had a live person I could attempt to speak French to and I was able to purchase tickets. Success. I wiped my tears from my eyes, checked the map and stormed down the way to wait for the train.
In New York, there are musicians that play the guitar or drums or you might even get a saxophone every now and then. Not in Paris. As I made my way to the train, I got tripped up when a full 8 piece string ensemble was playing Pachelbel and then I burst into tears again. It was beautiful and it reminded me to slow down and enjoy the little things. And that is pretty much how I remember Paris. A little chaotic at first, but in the end, absolutely beautiful.
After the Eiffel Tower, we took the train back to London that afternoon and then flew out the following morning. And so concluded my European Adventure. I am heading to Arkansas tomorrow....not quite the same as Paris or London or St. Andrews, but oh well. The architecture of downtown Bentonville defintiely rivals Le Champs Elysees. For sure.
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