Oh, La, La, Paris!

Not to disappoint, but my travels to Paris weren’t so much “oh, la, la!” as “oh, it is FREEZING! And this crazy weather! Look at that pretty painting! OH! There’s my favorite! Ah, let’s try to speak French to this Parisian… Where do we go now? It’s FORTY-FIVE minutes in the SLEET to our train station and it’s LATE?!” But! It was all a tremendous, fun, awesome success, in my opinion.

Notre Dame!

Our early day started at 9:17 in the morning when we boarded our train to Paris, which is about a 50-minute train ride, so not that bad at all! We then walked the forty-five minutes or so to the Seine, under some rain, some sun, some wind. Once we finally saw the river though, it’s amazing. The river wasn’t actually that pretty Saturday, but once you actually get to the river, you can see so many beautiful things that make up Paris. From our spot near Boulevard de Strasbourg, we could see the top of Notre Dame, the top of the Eiffel Tower, and the beautiful bridges and buildings that run alongside the river.

The not-so-pretty Seine

We then walked some more to get to the Musée d’Orsay – our goal for the day! Along the way we stopped at a bridge that was sporting several different locks. I’m not sure how many of you have heard of this little phenomenon, but basically lovers write their initials on padlocks, lock them onto the bridges, and then throw the locks in the river, thus, everlasting love. Here’s an article to check out if you want to know where I got the information from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/lovelocks-return-to-the-bridges-of-paris-2293506.html. Despite the controversy these bridges across the world have brought up, I found it to be a gorgeous spot for some photography, and also a place to be heckled out of 20 euro for a charity (I hope).

Lover's Locks Bridge

Once we arrived at the museum (free for us French university students!), we finally got to explore the art that Grace and I absolutely adore, the Impressionists. We decided to not leave any painting unseen, and so we started on the first floor and made our way up to the very high up 5^th floor to see as much art as we could bear. And, just a side note here, besides the fact that this is a museum filled with gorgeous works of art, the museum itself is a history lesson and a piece of art. It used to be a central train station in Paris, that instead of being bulldozed down to make room for some more development (like we love to do in the States), it was renovated into a modern art museum, and I found it absolutely gorgeous.

One of my favorite parts of the museum, you can kind of see the Louvre by the peoples' heads.

 Some highlights from the days art exploration: Grace was able to see her favorite paintings ever, Manet’s Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass (Déjeuner sur l’herbe), Phoebe reveled in Degas’s dancers, and I got to see my favorite Van Gogh Painting, Stars over the Rhone. All in all, a very successful endeavor at the Musée d’Orsay!

The beginning of the benediction ceremony

Lunch came next, at a little café next to the museum where we all got to enjoy some nourishment to make up for all of our walking and exploring so far in the day. It was very good, I had a tomato and mozerella salad with bread and pressed lemon juice!

We then decided to head over to the Île de la Cité to see Notre Dame and any other sites that were in between the museum and the church. Once we arrived there, after experiencing more rain, sun, and wind, we realized that it is the 850-year anniversary of the cathedral’s birth, and there was a band inside playing and a benediction ceremony starting at 5 p.m., so it was extremely crowded. 

The inside of Notre Dame

The bell Jean-Marie

Notre Dame

We pushed through the crowds inside so Phoebe could see the church for the first time ever, and it was worth it to see the display of the church’s bells and the inside of the awe-inspiring, timeless Notre Dame.

More Seine

The back of Notre Dame, with another Lock Bridge

The Hotel de Ville

Street-made crepes were our next goal, and we succeeded and finding some right outside the cathedral. We then walked around the back and enjoyed the view of Notre Dame from the river, as well as a rainbow that celebrated the day’s crazy weather, and some sleet.

L'Arc du Ciel!

We decided then to start to make our way back to the train station, as it was at least a 45-minute walk away and we had a very loose idea of where we were going. On the way though we stopped to admire the Hotel de Ville and then continued on our way while it began to get dark and sleet pretty consistently. Finally, we found the train station where we huddled in the cold to await our delayed train back to Arras.

In addition to our Paris-filled day, it also happened to be the night of my roommate Nerea’s birthday party, which also celebrated Carnival, so of course it was a costume party. I decided to go as a pirate! But the party also featured a karate master, a cowboy, a cop, and Roman!

I bet you didn’t realize that the Spanish LMFAO was in Arras last night, huh?