Tip the Eiffel Tower with One Glance

Words cannot describe Paris. Despite this, I'm probably going to spend a decent amount of them in trying to convey how wonderful this weekend was.

Friday morning was a bit hectic, as I really thought we were going to miss our train--Amy and Kate were travelling on their own, but Eric had to stop by school. We boarded the Thalys with about 5 minutes to go. True to its name, Thalys is quite the high speed train; it might not seem like it the whole time, but going from Brussels to Paris in about 80 minutes is amazing. That's shorter than the trip from Fairfield to NYC. True, we certainly paid enough for it, but that's beside the point...

Anyway, finding the hostel was an adventure, but it was ultimately a good place. Right on the canal in a residential area, but very pretty. So new they were still doing construction--they installed two beds in our room while we were out! A nice bar in the downstairs. Eric and I spent the afternoon sightseeing and eating our way through some of the touristy areas. The Louvre is free for students on Friday nights (Europe does student discounts right!), so we spent a few hours there until is closed. We, along with Kate, saw all the "must sees," but maybe the best part was discovering the Louvre is built on a castle, there from as early as the 12th century. So we got to explore that a little bit. Then we trekked to the eiffel tower , which is much further from the Louvre than it looks on the map! We were exhausted, but I was so excited to see it in person--I had to do it my first night. Eventually met up with Amy at the hotel bar, after an encounter with some drunk America fans at a pizza place.

Saturday was a blur. All together, we went to the Arc de Triomphe, and climbed the 300ish stairs to the top, with an amazing view. After that, we wound up at the Pantheon, the "civic temple," which was gorgeous--see photo album. Its where a lot of important french folks are buried, like the Curie's, and Voltaire. Kate, Eric, and I did the tour of Montmarte, the artsy-red light district--Moulin Rouge, Van Goh's old haunts, and Sacre Couer, a breath taking church with gorgeous view. We ran in to two girls from Fairfield who Eric knew from class, and who were in Germany--small world! We did dinner and went out for wine and (for one) escargot. Since we were in the red light district, we did visit this really overwhelming sex shop (the sexodrome) and left upon it getting awkward. After they went home, Eric and I went back to Sacre Couer for wine and the view--the view was breathtaking. The wine was less worth celebrating. Still, an amazing way to see the city. When I watched the movie "Paris" this week (a French blockbuster of sorts), I was so excited to see places I knew, and had found memories of!

Sunday was a tough morning, what with the wine not letting me forget the night before, and the smell of...what, new furniture, permeating the room. After a breakfast of coco krispies at the bar (ah, hostels and their unique use of space), we stashed our luggage, and Eric, Kate, and I went down to Les Invalides. Despite a seemingly horrific name, the Invalids is a military hospital first built well before Napoleon, for French soldiers returning wounded. It's gorgeous, as the then king felt it should be used to honor veterans. So now it's still the hospital. And the French military museum. Oh, and Napoleon is entombed there. Admission was steep, so we didn't get to see his site, but otherwise, a really amazing place. It was maybe 10 minutes from the Eiffel Tower, so we returned for some touristy daytime pictures. Kate foiled a pickpocket, which was pretty much the highlight of her otherwise very odd weekend. We got pretty damn lost for a while, after visiting the OTHER Statue of Liberty--much smaller, and up(?) river from the Eiffel Tower. If you've seen National Treasure 2 (and I have..) you understand.

Upon recovering our bearings, we toured the Paris Sewer Museum, which involves actually walking on a grate path above a fast flowing river of sewage. An interesting visit, to be sure, but one that had to be cut short just because it was so unpleasant down there. After that, we went to a classy museum--Musee d'Orsay, which picks up where the Louvre left off. That means impressionism and onward, with some Van Gogh, some Monet, Manet, Gauguin. Really nice, and worth a visit, but we were a bit short on time. After recovering luggage, we got to the train station with 20 minutes to spare. This is, sadly, not enough time to run across the street and get one last Parisian crepe--I had to get my money back and leave, or else miss my train. So I chose the train.

In all, Paris was wonderful and was worth all the hype for me. I could have gone for another day there, to actually get to relax and have a cup of coffee somewhere overlooking the Siene, but the only thing I didn't actually get to see was the catacombs, because they're closed through March (a return visit, perhaps?).

More stories to tell from this weekend, but I'll do a separate post so this stays neat and organized (haha, yeah, really).