Tuesday, May 26, 2009

I love Paris in the Springtime

We only had the day of May 6th (Sharon's Bday) to explore Paris. For only havin gone day, we were able to see a lot!

The first thing we did after having breakfast, was go to Notre Dame. I didn't take very many pictures, since I had seen it on our last visit. We didn't go inside, but we walked around so Sharon could see it.

From there, we walked to Saint Chapelle, which is a church with incredible stained glass windows. I really didn't know anything about the church prior to going in, and I'm glad I hadn't looked it up beforehand. It was such an experience to walk in and realize that the walls were all made out of stained glass and beautiful columns. The main room was quite small, but the decorations made up for it. I was very impressed with the tiles, the columns with medieval castles on them, and, of course, the tall windows of bright colors and images.


Our next stop was a small park that had a tomb inside. We couldn't go very close to the monument, but were able to get some pictures around it.

For lunch, we stopped off at a nearby cafe. It was very nice, and the food was delicious.

After lunch, we walked down the Siene and looked at the sidewalk stands filled with old books, posters, and paintings. Chris found a book on the legends and mysteries of Provence, so I bought it for him as an early bday present.

We walked around the outside of the Louvre, and then into the tuileries garden. We enjoyed looking at all the statutes. For a snack, we bought some ice cream and sat down to watch the ducks playing in the water.

Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower. On our last visit, we did not go to the top, so this time, Chris, David, Carolyn and I decided we needed to do the elevator up. Sharon decided that it would be best if she waited below. The elevator to the top was a little strange, and it took me a few minutes at the top to feel grounded enough to walk around and look. Not sure why it bothered me, considering I have been to the top of the Empire State Building and the Sears Tower, but the openness of the Eiffel Tower was different. The views from the top were incredible!

The only thing I did not like about the Eiffel Tower, was all the men standing around the bottom trying to sell you key chains and other junk, plus the women asking "Do you speak English?" then proceding to beg for money. We did our best to ignore all of them, but there were SO many! The police were doing their best to scare them away, but they would just come back and harrass more people.

We were very tired from walking around and decided it was time to head back, have some dinner, and then relax for the rest of the evening back at the Best Western. We found a cafe near our hotel to have dinner, and I enjoyed a plate of salmon carpaccio (raw salmon).

Pictures are at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25029&id=1012407145&l=f2924af654

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