Paris, Lights, and Magic

The Eiffel Tower from the Seine

Immortalized in movies and pictures, Paris is a city that boasts of love, food, and culture. There are countless numbers of movies, songs, books and other paraphernalia that paint a picture of this vast city. Whether they are accurate or not, is up to you to decide. All I know is that Paris is a fascinating albeit exhausting city. My recent vacation has thoroughly convinced me that although I love visiting cities, I'm a country kind of girl. The constant hustle and bustle of cities exhausts and wearies very quickly, leaving me with a desire for quiet and the country.
Schools in France have rather extensive breaks - much longer then American schools. Our two and a half week break ends with the start of classes on Thursday morning. It began with a tour of Paris. We spent Sunday and Monday visiting sites on the way to France's capitol city. On Monday evening we arrived at a quaint little hotel just down the block from a metro stop where we stayed until Thursday.

The Details...

Finding seats on the bus

7:30 Sunday morning rolled around and the dark French countryside was barely stirring as we picked up our bags, rubbed our eyes and loaded up the bus that sat waiting to take us on our journey. The bus was quiet as we trickled on one by one, claiming seats and settling down for the ride ahead. I found a seat across from the stairway of our tour bus - not too far back, but not too far forward. It turned out to be an excellent choice as I found out later. I discovered that I could lay down and rest my feet on the top of the porta-potty-like bathroom which was across the isle. The bus remained quiet for a long while as most of our group slept or looked out the windows, watching the sun come up and the countryside fly by.

A hospital ben at the Hospice

An hour or so later I sleepily sat up and looked around when the bus came to a stop. Breakfast time had come. We all filed off the bus where we were greeted with croissants, pain au chocolate (like a croissant except square and with chocolate inside), juice, and apples. We stood stamping our feet and moving around in an effort to keep warm until we finished eating and could dash for the nearby bathroom or back onto the bus.
Another hour passed and we arrived at the Hospice of Beane. Don't worry, I had never heard of it either. I'm still not entirely clear what its significance is, but it was still an interesting place to visit. What I do know is that it served as a Hospital for the poor, the young, and the elderly in the 1400's. We were given time to explore the place and see the displays that detailed life at the Hospital. We happily wandered through the rooms before making our way back out in bunches and groups and down the street to the bus for a ride to our next location.

The courtyard area at the Hospice

After the teachers handed out our food money for the trip we headed to the Carrefour for lunch. We received 125 euros for food for five days. That's 45 euros a day and 13 euros a meal. I made money off of that since I can eat on much less. In case you can't figure out the conversion, in American Dollars that is $170 which ends up being about $18 a meal. Pretty good if you ask me.
I got pretty good at sleeping in fits and starts on the bus as we drove for a few more hours before arriving at our hotel. We then ventured out into the city to eat and look around before heading back to our ice warm beds.

Chateau de Chambord

Monday morning found us boarding the busses again as we headed for the Chateau de Chambord. The castle was quite impressive indeed. It was one big square that had lots of rooms with little passages which made it easy to get lost if you didn't pay attention to where you were. I came up with a theory about why Women used to wear such big skirts while I was there. I've decided that it would get so cold in the castles that women had to wear lots of layers for insulation.
We had arrived at the castle only about half an hour after the sun came up so we were treated with walls and corners that were illuminated in gorgeous morning sunshine. The light played with the shadows as it edged up the walls and spilled over onto the lawn creating a glorious blanket of golden grass. The dew sparkled in the fresh sunlight adding an even more magical feel to the castle.

Chartres

Unfortunately, our time at Chambord came to an end when we journeyed on towards the Cathedral of Chartres. The cathedral is characterized by two towers that are completely different. Unlike Notre Dame, the most famous cathedral in France, Chartres has one square tower and one pointed tower. The reason being that the cathedral was started in one style of architecture and before the builders got to the second tower the style had changed. Despite this asymmetry It turned out to be a beautiful cathedral.

The Louvre at Night

With Chartres behind us we headed for our final destination - Paris. After checking into our hotel and getting instructions about when to meet in the morning we were set free to move about the country. Ok, it was just the city, but I guess we could have moved about the country if we had found a way to do so within two hours or less. Anyway, I digress. I found a group of people to hang out with and we headed for the metro and the streets of Paris. We found a quaint area by the Seine River where we found a little bakery and got supper before wandering around and seeing what there was to see. After it got dark we headed for the Louvre to see the pyramid at night. Fortunately it was a good time to visit as there weren't crowds of people in our pictures. When we got cold and tired we headed for the hotel and a good night's sleep.

Notre Dame de Paris

 Tuesday can be described as a day of exhaustion. Notre Dame Cathedral, Versailles, and the Champs Elysees made for a day full of sightseeing and crowds. Notre Dame was incredible in its immensity and intricate decorations, Versailles awed us by its sheer size and complexity, and the Champs Elysees was filled with people and stores and constant stimulation. We had a guided tour of Notre Dame which meant that we unfortunately weren't given any time to just wander about and see the little details that make up the Cathedral. Even though we were denied free time in the Cathedral it was still awe-inspiring to stand inside a building with its sheer size. 

Hall of Mirrors at Versailles

L'arc de Triomphe at
the Champs Elysees

Versailles is apparently participating in some program - something about trying to showcase the worlds greatest artists or something like that. This was significant because in most every room there was a statue thing that looked very much like cheap, plastic, asian themed toys. In my opinion they really ruined the whole effect of Versailles but, as they say here in France, c'est la vie. We were given free time in the Champs-Elysees after visiting Versailles to do as we wished. I bought some Haagen-Dasz that cost me way, way, way too much and then we wandered back towards our meeting place for supper in a French restaurant. 

Waiting for the Metro

After eating supper at the restaurant - compliments of the college - a group of us decided to wander through Paris some more and proceeded to do just that. We walked down the street in the direction of the Louvre and the metro until we were tired and cold. We then hoped onto the metro and headed for the hotel.

Paris Metro

Morning dawned once again. Wednesday had come. We were given the grand majority of the day to do with as we wished. Myself, Jazzi, Megan, Thomas, and Hilary ate breakfast and headed for the grand adventures that awaited us. Our adventures started at the Musay d'Orsay after a quick stop by the Louvre. We walked through the courtyard of the Louvre long enough to decide that the line was way to long for us to join. We found out later that we had made a very fortunate choice as the Louvre didn't open. I suppose I must fill you in on the political situation in France right now. The government recently raised the retirement age from 60 to 62, and as many people don't want to work longer, they have gone on strike. Now, that may sound strange but it's the way of life here in France. It's not really a unionized thing to go on strike, but it is a popular thing. In reality only 7% of the population in France is unionized. Striking is just a way of life in France and usually includes the students as they love to go on strike. I guess it is one way to get out of school. Anyway, the reason for this brief political lesson is that the Louvre was closed because of the strikes. I'm not really sure why since it's mostly the transportation systems that are being affected. While we were actually in Paris we didn't really notice any problems with the public transportation but that could be because we aren't used to the way it usually operates. We had no problem getting around the city so it was just interesting to see the strikers and the way people were reacting to the problem.

Musee du Louvre

Anyway, back to my actual topic - the Musay d'Orsay. While I am an Art minor and call myself an artist, I'm not really a fan of art museums - which is the definition of the Orsay. It wasn't all that bad though. We only stayed until we were tired of looking at the different paintings. I saw some interesting painting and laughed at some of the absurd ones. Jazzi and I amused ourselves by making up timelines for when the artists painted each painting.
When we got tired there we decided to head for the streets we had visited on the first night. We found delicious food and browsed some of the stores before deciding what to do next.

The French Lady Liberty

We finally decided to head out in search of the Lady Liberty. In case you're confused, it's not the one in New York. The American Statue of Liberty was actually given to the U.S. by the French. There's a mini Lady Liberty in Paris. It's actually in a really random back-streets place. It's down the way from the Eiffel tower but I doubt many tourists head that way. I could be wrong though. Anyway, so we took the metro and found the Lady Liberty. After taking pictures of it, we wandered up towards the Eiffel Tower to take pictures in the daylight.
Having satisfied our picture taking needs we then headed back for the Metro and a nap at the hotel. I took a woefully short nap before being rudely awaked by a shrill noise which actually turned out to be my alarm clock. We planned to go grab a bite to eat before joining the group at the Eiffel Tower, but unfortunately we were all pretty sleepy and got a late start which left no time for food. We jumped onto the metro and willed it to arrive at the Eiffel Tower stop as quickly as possible. When it finally stopped at our stop, we dashed out of the Metro station and took off at a jogging like run for the Tower. We arrived minutes later sweating and out of breath. Daniella, the ACA director, greeted us with our tickets and sent us in the direction of the entrance. We finally stopped huffing and puffing after eating a couple of granola bars and getting in the elevator that goes up the Eiffel Tower.

Ellis, Jazzi, and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower

That elevator doesn't go all the way to the top. Instead you take it to the second floor and then get on the one that takes you to the observation deck at the top. The area where the elevator spits you out is inclosed in glass and you can look out over Paris. You can then take a short staircase to one which is only enclosed by wire exposing you to whatever the weather might be. That night it was really cold but we were all bundled up nice and warm so it was actually rather fun. Jazzi and I decided to use the bathroom that we found just so we could say we've used the bathroom at the top of the Eiffel Tower. We decided they should sell t-shirts that say just that. I think it would be a big hit.
After seeing Paris from above, Jazzi and I headed back down. We checked out the gift store on the second floor and then headed for the second elevator. The elevator stopped at the first floor so we hopped off to see what we could see. It wasn't much different from the second floor except that it was less crowded and we could see way better. It was actually rather fun. You could also see down to the ground in the middle since the platform ran around the inside edge of the tower's legs. We saw what there was to see there and then headed down to the ground where we dodged the street vendors selling all kinds of trinkets and headed across the street to see the tower from a new angle.

Le Tour Eiffel from the Seine

Random Fountain

Finally, everyone had had a look around the Eiffel Tower, and we headed off for another grand adventure. This next adventure was a night cruise on the Seine. The Seine is the river that winds through Paris. At one point it semi-surrounded Paris, but then the city grew and spread out along both of the banks of the river and now it runs right through the middle. Some of us chose to sit at the back of the boat which wasn't in the closed in, heated area. Yes, we froze but I think we definitely got the better view. We had 360 degrees of view all along the river. It was cool to see the various sights all lit up at night. Unfortunately I didn't get many good pictures but it was still a great adventure.

Thursday morning rolled around, and with it a decision. Those of us who were staying in Paris after the end of the tour were given the choice to go to Fontainebleau or not. Since we would have to take a train back from the castle and it wasn't guarantied that the trains would run on time, or even if they would run at all, we were allowed to stay back at the hotel so that we wouldn't be stuck at Fontainebleau without a way to get back for our flights. Regretfully, I made the safer choice to stay at the hotel for the morning. I believe it was a good choice because I had time to sleep some more before the traveling and stress that was to come... but that's another story.

more to come...

-E