Well readers, this last week has been very exciting and adventurous. It was reading week at Kings, which is essentially a mid-semester break. It's recommended that students take this week to work on classwork and our essays, but where's the fun in that? I took the beginning of the week to go and explore Paris!!! It was such a great trip that ended much too soon!
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| Yup. I went all the way up! |
I arrived in Paris early on a cold and rainy Tuesday morning, checked in to my hostel, and turned on the tourist switch. My first stop... the Eiffel Tower. I got off at the right metro stop and walked in the wrong direction for quite some time, which landed me at Hotel des Invalides. This is the site of Napoleon' s tomb. Unfortunately, it was gated off so I wasn't able to get as close as I wanted to. I was a little bit lost, but all I had to do was turn around and BLAM! there was the peak of the tower sticking out like a sore thumb over the Parisian skyline. I made my way over, joined the queue, and up I went. There are two levels you can go to. I went all the way up! You take the lift to the first floor, which has an observation deck, and several different shops. To get to the top you take another lift from the first floor. The view was incredible! Since it was grey and rainy the clouds would roll over the view, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. My next stop was supposed to be a fashion museum right across the river, but I couldn't find it for the life of me. So instead of wandering around I decided to just keep going. I grabbed some lunch and brought it to the Champs Elysee and just sat and enjoyed the view. The last stop of day one was the catacombs. It was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. You cover about 2 kilometers of underground Paris. It really wasn't as creepy as I thought it was going to be, which I was fine with. You go down, and you walk through the sunken streets before you get to the catacombs. It was kind of amazing how many bones were stacked down there in so many different ways. Then after about 45 minutes being underground, you make the trek back up to the surface and face the harsh daylight. After the tour I was pretty beat, so I went back to my hostel and called it an early night.
Day two in the city of lights, I left to spend with some french aristocracy. I jumped on the train and headed out to Versailles. It was incredible! The estate is so big and beautiful, there was just no way I would be able to see everything in a day. I took a tour of the chateau and spent a lot of time in the hall of mirrors. Everything about the palace was just magnificent. I especially loved the gardens. There was so much ground to wander and explore. I wish I could have been there a few weeks earlier. It was a little too late in the fall. The leaves had changed and most of them had fallen. Most of the fountains and statues were covered up because it was the off season. It was still a beautiful sight to see! At the other end of the estate is the Grand Trianon and Petite Trianon, both were smaller estates made for a retreat for the royal families. It was such an enjoyable day to experience and soak in history first hand. I most definitely want to return someday!
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| The marble courtyard of the palace |
Thursday morning came and I was not ready to leave quite yet. Luckily, I have an evening train out, so I still had the day to play. I headed out to the cathedral of Notre Dame. It was the perfect place to be in the morning. The sun was shining and it really provided for a picturesque experience. After spending time reflecting at the cathedral, I walked over to the Louvre. This was one of things I was most looking forward to. Like every other tourist, my first stop was the Mona Lisa. It was an absolute zoo. For starters, you are about twenty feet away from the painting, but the worst part was the massive crowd. People were literally shoving people out of the way just to get a picture. When did going to an art museum stop being about the art? It seemed like everyone just wanted to get a picture and move one. It was frustrating for me, as an artist, to see the value of priceless works of art be reduced to a photograph. It's just seems so sad that this is what our society has reduced to, but what am I to do except to get my word out. I wasn't about to let the average tourist ruin my trip to the Louvre! So I strolled down and saw the Venus de Milo, and then just wandered around and took in as much as I could. And with that, my trip had sadly come to an end. I returned home and got to back to work.
It was an amazing trip, and I am so glad I had this experience! There will be more to come!
Au Revoir!
