Paris, France...C'est Magnifique!

I have three words to say about this weekend: Paris...is...huge. OK, I have a whole

bunch more to say about the last couple of days, but that sums up my first impression of the City of Light. Holy smokes. It's HUGE. Not only that, but this is one whopping big city. We the opportunity to take part in an overnight bus trip to Paris through our lovely little Kleine Brogel, and we jumped on it. After a 5 hour ride through the quiet countryside of Belgium and France, we were dropped off right in the heart of the city...at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. How cool is that? (Did I mention how large Paris is?) Anyhoo, were were now standing in the middle of Paris, France, more than a little overwhelmed, and trying to decide where on earth to start. We had a basic itinerary in mind before we arrived, but when you are standing at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, that all kind of goes out of the window. There is just so much to take in. Finally, the brains kicked in and were were able to focus once more. The lines to go up in the Eiffel tower were extremely long, so we decided to see more of the city first. We had booked tickets on the Les Cars Rouge. That's a bus tour called The Red Bus. Easy to find. Easy to remember. My kind of tour. The buses stop at 9 main tourist attractions throughout Paris, but they drive by many, many more. There is a recorded guide book, and you just plug in the provided earphones, chose your language, and roll through the streets of the city of Paris while learning all sorts of interesting facts and tidbits about the area. You can get off at any of the assigned stops, and the buses run every 10 minutes, so you can get back on whenever you wish. If you ever find yourself in France, I highly recommend this tour. (Book it online and you'll save some cash!) This is the Eglise du Dome of Invalides. It was built between 1671 and 1676. Napoleon's Ashes are buried in a crypt inside of this building. This is the Place de la Concorde, the largest square in Paris. It was laid out between 1754 and 1763. There was a statute of Louis XV on a horse in this square, but it was removed in 1790 (there was a revolution). This obelisk from the temple of Luxor was erected in the square in 1836. I was given to King Louis-Philippe in 1831 by the Viceroy of Egypt. It was beautiful, and the sunlight reflected off of the gilded decorations as we drove around it. If you look in the background on the left side, you can see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. The Arc De Triomphe is in the center of a huge round about that has 11 main streets coming out of it like spokes on a tire. One of those streets is the one that we drove down...the Champs Elysees. The Champs Elysees is the more famous of all Parisian streets, with 628 shops lining the sides. The museum Petit Palais had quite the crowd starting to line up in front of it as we passed. As you travel around the streets and over the bridges of Paris, you get the occasional glimpse of the Eiffel tower. This is the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. The tall structure in the middle is the belfry. It was built in the 12th to 16th centuries, and restored in the 19th century. The Opera house was another beautiful building that we visited. It was officially opened in 1875. Did you ever have the feeling that someone was watching you? This is the National Assembly. It's the lower house of Parliament in France. Inspired by Greek Temples, the Madeline was built in the 1400's, and dedicated in 1492 by King Charles VIII. It's absolutely enormous in person.After touring the city, we decided to head back to the Eiffel Tower and brave the lines to get to the top. After a quick stop for some delicious, warm crepes, we were soon on our way. It was definitely worth the 2 1/2 hours that we stood there, patiently waiting. This is the view of the Palais de Chaillot from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. This is also where you get off of the first elevator and line up for the second one. At least this line wasn't too bad. It went pretty quickly. And the view was great. This is the Palais de Chaillot as seen from the top of the Eiffel Tower. The tower is 320.74 meters high. It was built by Gustave Eiffel as an exhibit for the 1889 World's Fair. It was meant to be disassembled after the fair was over, but it was saved by radiotelegraphy and it's military applications. The Eiffel Tower was used to intercept coded messages during the Great War, which led to the arrest of the spy Mata-Hari. (Gustaf Eiffel also designed the structural framework for the Statue of Liberty.) Now do you see why I said that Paris is a HUGE city? It just never seems to end. The view from the top of the tower was amazing, but it was getting late in the day, so we wanted to check out a couple of other spots before it got too dark. This is one of the main things I wanted to see (after the Eiffel Tower, of course.) It's the Louvre Museum. It houses the largest museum collections in the world. Another part of the Louvre. This is another of my favorite stops here. It's the Notre Dame Cathedral. It's long and skinny, so from this angle, it doesn't look very big at all, but it is. The detail work is amazing, though. It's a beautiful cathedral, and was completed in 1330. After it was damaged in the Revolution, it was restored between 1841 and 1864. This is one of the sides of the cathedral. There were tons of creepy faces and creatures coming out of the sides of the Notre Dame Cathedral. There were gargoyles everywhere. We had a very late dinner at a little restaurant right beside the Notre Dame. I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I was pretty tired at that point and didn't even think about it. The waiter was so nice, and joked around a lot with us. The food was delicious!

After dinner, we decided that since it was around 10 pm, we might want to figure out how to get back to our hotel. We were staying outside of the city near the CDG airport, so that meant we needed to take the Metro (or the RER). I'd done a little research earlier on, and knew that there was a Metro station near Notre Dame. This map of the metro system makes it look pretty simple, doesn't it? No problem. (Well, factor in that we'd been up since about 3 am, and it was now around 10pm, and it starts to get a little fuzzy.) Thanks to some help from some very kind metro employees, we were soon on our way.

Of all the things we did, this was probably Brandon's favorite. He's always wanted to ride the subway. It must be a boy thing. Flying through dark tunnels doesn't hold much appeal to me, but who am I to keep him from his adventures? In all, our Saturday in Paris was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful city, full of history and gorgeous architecture. We'd heard that the French can be very rude, but that was not the case at all. In fact, they were some of the nicest people that I've met in Europe. Everyone was very kind and quick to help us when we asked. It was a fantastic day, but we were pooped.

We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. You might not have heard this, but Paris is HUGE!