Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Paris - what an adventure indeed!

So my trip to Paris started off with a day trip in Edinburgh.  Our flight left from Edinburgh Airport on Friday morning, and in order to get there in time, we had to leave Thursday night, so a friend and I just decided to go Thursday morning and see some more Edinburgh sights.  It was nice walking around and shopping - we still didn't make it to see Edinburgh Castle (even though that was half of the purpose for going there).  As far as missing Thanksgiving goes, I almost feel that it was better that we were out doing stuff because it was easier to forget what day it was - although it was still sad when it would pop into my head.  We went back to Mamma's American Pizza Co for lunch (you may remember that we went there last time we were in Edinburgh).  Still amazing!  And we had Bella Italia for our Thanksgiving Dinner - sort of.  Oh by the way, I don't know if I've mentioned this before but Bella Italia is a chain of Italian restaurants in the UK that have gluten free pizza and pasta.  Yummy! (Tip:  Pollo Picante pizza.  For sure).  Anyway, there are 80 something pictures of Paris that I picked to share, so I'm going to get right into it. 

Day 1:

View out of the apartment window (we rented an apartment instead of getting a hotel or hostel)


The little kitchen

Part of the bathroom

One of the walls in the living room

More of the wall in the living room (one of the beds was in here)

The bedroom

Notre Dame!






Random streets near Notre Dame

Inside the Cathedral (it was really dark so a lot of the pictures didn't come out very well)






Other view of Notre Dame


Random picture of a street but I like the street, and the bird flying in the corner :)

Close up of Notre Dame

Mona Lisa!  I did take pictures of the outside of the Louvre, but we went at night when it was free for students, so it was too dark :(


Day 2:

Walking around Ile St-Louis (a pretty neighborhood near Notre Dame)



Backside of Notre Dame





Ta-da! The Eiffel Tower! (First daytime glimpse, we had kind of seen it the night before but not very well)









And then we couldn't go up because the line was HUGE and only two of us wanted to go up in the daytime - and we had a lot to do, so we left (with the hopes of possibly going back the next day)

Place de la Concorde.  This is where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (among others) lost their heads!

Champs-Elysees (you can't see it, but the Arc de Triomphe is at the end of this street.  Hmm, it might be sliiiightly visible)

More Champs-Elysees.  That place was PACKED, and you can't even tell in these pictures


Arc de Triomphe (where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is).  I know these two pictures are very similar but I like them both.



Inside the arches of the Arc de Triomphe

Looking up

The Arc de Triomphe has a great view of the city.  And we were lucky enough to have gotten there just before sunset - perfect timing! (Although it was an accident)

I really like this picture :)

Champs-Elysees

Sunset over Paris


Not the greatest picture of me but it was one of the only ones I had.  Don't know if you can see but thats the Eiffel Tower in the background there.



Sacre-Coeur (in Montmartre)



No pictures allowed inside so this is all I have.  Very pretty though


Eiffel Tower at night!


I didn't take any pictures from the top (we went all the way to the summit) because it was too foggy/cloudy to even see anything, so there was no point in taking pictures.  And it was sooooo cold that I was not even thinking of taking pictures of anything.


Day 3:

Versailles!










Hall of Mirrors (room where the Treaty of Versailles - 'ending' WWI - was signed in 1919)

Desk where the Treaty of Versailles was signed

Marie Antoinette's bedroom/bed


Painting of Marie Antoinette and her children (this was painted after Marie Antoinette realized that public perception of her was not good and that she needed to do something about it.  Its hard to tell in this picture but she's dressed fairly simply, and doesn't have a necklace on - trying to appease the people, by having a painting done of her and her children.  It didn't work.  Also, its hard to tell but there is a bassinet in the painting that used to have a baby in it.  When the baby died, they had her painted out of the painting.  Weird!)






So thats it for now.  I have more to tell about getting home and everything that happened with that, but its going to be in a different blog post.  Let me know what you think!  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

2 comments:

  1. OMG!!!!!! I LOVE the pictures of the Eiffel Tower and like London, I really didn't know I cared that much about it! The pictures of it lit up at night are simply FABULOUS!!!
    Stop taking pictures (or stop posting pictures) of beautiful ceilings b/c it makes me want to create more work for dad LOL! Marie Antoinette's bedroom/bed?? Don't know if I could sleep like that, all on display. But knowing the stress and drama that ended this trip makes me not really enjoy it as much as the others. But as always, beautiful pictures =)

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  2. I think this is my favorite trip! LOL! The pictures are beautiful as always :) I know it was a stressful trip for you and your poor mom, but I hope you were able to enjoy most of it!!

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