Ahh, Paris. I can still hear the crunch of the croissants and the crackle of breaking baguettes in the morning...what I'd give to have a real French bakery to walk to every morning! Paris not only met my expectations, but it exceeded every dream I ever had of the place. It is just as lovely in the day and just as enchanting in the evenings as every film makes it out to be. Sure, there is the occasional smell of urine (or, if you're in the neighborhood where we stayed, it's MUCH MORE than occasional), the public bathrooms are the worst things I've ever seen, and people really are pretty rude (as in, when you ask them a question in English they will blatantly respond in French knowing full well you don't speak French), but the buildings are so pretty and the ambiance just screams romance.
Our arrival was a little disorienting, and it took us a while to find our AirBnB and figure out how to pick up our key. We had to go to a weird laundromat and put in a code to pick it up...it was weird and complicated. We stayed in the artsy neighborhood of Montmartre just below the Sacré-Cœur where many artists of the late 19th century lived: Monet, Renoir, Picasso...it really was so fun imagining what it would be like to actually live in a tiny apartment there in Paris while trying to make it as an artist. It wasn't too hard to imagine because we really did stay in a tiny apartment that was probably around even before those guys were. It sort of smelled like pee and didn't have clean sheets so that was a fiasco. We got a partial refund but...still. Unfortunate.
Anywho, wow! If it's possible to be starstruck by a city, then I was certainly starstruck by Paris (I guess I was city struck:). There is just so much to see there and 3 whole days wasn't enough to cover everything, but we did our best to see what we could. On our first morning, we took Rick Steves's audio tour which began near Notre Dame. Of course, Notre Dame was all fenced up and still under construction after the tragic fire from last year. What we could see of it was quite impressive, though, and I will be back to go inside once it's finished! After stopping at Notre Dame we headed to Sainte Chapelle, which was absolutely jaw-dropping.
I was not prepared for this. LOOK. AT. THIS. STAINED. GLASS. This place is said to have housed the Crown of Thorns which is why is so ridiculously extravagant. It was a small church but so, so beautiful.
After picking our jaws up off the ground after this encounter, we headed next door to the Conciergerie, the royal prison where Marie Antoinette was held before she was executed. It was interesting to learn a little more about the French Revolution and put some of the historical pieces together especially after visiting Versailles...more on that in a minute.
We had made reservations at the Louvre for that afternoon so we headed down the Seine to the most extra museum we'd yet seen. The place is HUGE! And what a dream come true it was to see some of the most famous art in the history of the world. These three were especially noteworthy: The Venus De Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and, of course, our girl Mona Lisa.
I LOVE ART.
As if we hadn't seen enough iconic Paris sites already, we headed to the Eiffel Tower with our kebabs (have I mentioned how many times we ate kebabs in Europe? So cheap, so much food, so yummy). I must say, the Eiffel Tower is much more beautiful from far away than up close, especially with all the scaffolding. I feel like Europe was just like, "Oh, the world is shut down? This is a great time to do construction on all our old buildings!" The whole continent was like one big construction zone. But I digress.
At sunset, we started making our ascent to the middle level of the tower. Of course, we didn't pay the extra money to take the elevator, so we climbed 674 steps...yes, you read that right. And we didn't just leisurely stroll, we FLEW up those steps and were sweating buckets by the time we got there. We had to see that sun go down, and we got there just in time!
I wish our camera could have accurately captured this moment. It was MAGICAL, to say the least. We hung out up there for a while and got to the bottom just in time to see the sparkles go off at 10:00 pm. Look how beautiful this picture that Hayden captured is!
(Side note: while we were sitting here right under the Tower I received a phone call from the Church letting me know I had been chosen for the HR/Communications internship! So, win-win.)
Every morning while we were there, we would walk down the street to the local bakery and pick up a fresh baguette and fresh croissants. Every time I think about those carbohydrate delicacies I get a little emotional and wish with all my heart that somehow, someone in Utah could replicate such amazing creations. I've yet to taste something so perfect here in the States.
Ohhhhh my goodness okay I'm back. So the next morning after our divine breakfast, we headed over to the Paris Catacombs to walk through the massive piles of bones buried underneath the city. This place was NUTS. I guess back in the 18th century the cemeteries in the city were overflowing. In an effort to clear them out, they took the remains of over 6 million bodies and piled them up in the underground stone quarry. The result is this mile-long tunnel lined with walls of bones that extend back about 8 feet on either side...incredible.
Never forget Hayden's Smeagle/Hunchback impersonation.
We did some more exploring that day, including visiting the Luxembourg Gardens and the Orsay Gallery where we saw Van Gogh's Self Portrait, Monet's Water Lillies, Manet's Luncheon on the Grass, and so many other masterpieces. We also loved listening to the Parisian live jazz bands playing on the streets.
Speaking of masterpieces...THESE. I had these flaky, creamy, delicious little treats while on my mission in St. Martin so I knew how good they were when we picked them up at a bakery on a famous market street. Once again, the taste of food elicited from me an emotional response. Never has there ever been made something with a more perfect balance of flakiness and cream.
In the evening, we headed over to the Champs-Élysées, humming as we strolled down the lovely street. We saw the Arc de Triomphe and climbed up just in time to take some serious award-winners.
The Arc is really cool. It's huge! And situated at the center of a ginormous roundabout the splits off into 12 different avenues. I guess I never thought about Paris having skyscrapers...I was surprised to see that opposite the Eiffel Tower is a huge modern city. I think I like the 5-story classic buildings and palaces of the old town better.
That night we strolled around the area near our apartment in Montmartre up on the hill where the Sacré-Cœur is. It was a MAGICAL evening full of music, lights, and the most quintessential Paris atmosphere you can even imagine. We watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle again at 10 pm on the hour as we listened to an accordion player serenade us with La Vie En Rose. Is there a more romantic scene anywhere in the world?!
The next day was all about Versailles! Ever since I took English 202 I had dreamed about visiting this, the third of the three great palaces of Europe that we saw. The palace was magnificent and, of course, more over-the-top than almost anything in the whole USA. Unfortunately, a lot of it was under construction and being renovated, but we saw the most important stuff.
Of course, the Hall of Mirrors was more extravagant than I had even imagined. It's sickening to think of the royalty living out here, miles away from the city, while their own people were working and starving to death in the slums of Paris. But, it does make for a pretty amazing place to visit.
After walking all over the grounds (and I mean ALL OVER) we got some life-changing ice cream and watched the fountains go off as the speakers blared with classical music.
On the train ride back into the city, we met an American family living in Germany. Talking to them really made me want to move back to Europe with my kids someday. Yes, it sounds like a logistical nightmare, and being that far from home would be tough, but I'm so in love with Europe I think it would be worth it!
That evening we had our final and fanciest dinner of our month-long adventure. We ordered the classics from a super cool waiter: escargot and French onion soup. The soup was, not surprisingly, TO DIE FOR, and the escargot was a whole lot better than the stuff we ate on our honeymoon cruise ship.
Here's Hayden practicing the proper escargot-eating technique.
After dinner, we walked along the Seine all the way back to the Eiffel Tower for one last up-close view of the 10 pm sparkles. Ahh, the Seine. What a beautiful place for an evening stroll. Here's our one last peek of Notre Dame as the sun was setting.
This evening we watched from across the river at the Trocadéro. I couldn't think of a better way to end our month of travels than right here, watching one of the world's most recognizable landmarks inspire the world with its light.
Even just writing about it, I'm falling in love with Paris all over again. One of the best parts of it all was how much money we saved! We were prepared to pay some serious cash to see all that we wanted to see, but nearly everything in Paris was either free or heavily discounted for us because we were students and temporary EU residents. In fact, that was true of nearly everywhere we visited! Traveling like we did was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I'm so glad we didn't pass up just because BYU told us to come home way back in March.
Aaaaand that was it for the craziest trip of our lives! The next morning we caught a ride to the airport far north of the city and flew back to Madrid where we were greeted by our friend Fran from the ward. As tired of traveling as we were and as much as we would have loved to just settle down, our adventures weren't over yet! We still had so much more of Spain to see!