City of Romance

  Paris, Île-de-France, France
Friday, October 17, 2008

Paris.......*sigh*

By far, Paris was the highlight of my trip for many reasons. The city was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L! I arrived after taking the night train to Paris at 8 am and arrived at my hostel at 9 am. I wasn't able to check in until 2 pm so I had breakfast, and met some wonderful company whom I spent a lot of time with in Paris and also Brugge. I went on the walking tour and learned about the history of Paris including Napoleon and King Louis (many of them). Next, we went to the Eiffel tower, and climbed up to the second story and took the lift to the top. It was beautiful! Apparently only one person died when it was being built because someone dropped a hammer off the top of it. The Eiffel tower was meant to be temporary for a world festival however, it became permanent after it's popularity and was even used as a communication tower during the World Wars. I learned of an interesting story that Paris was supposed to be completely destroyed by the Germans, but the head German in charge had a change of heart and decided to abort the mission and fool Hitler that is was destroyed, when it was not. That night, we came back to see the Eiffel tower at night with wine - illuminated in blue lights with a sparkle light show at every hour. It was beautiful.

tower1

night

The next day, I went to the Louvre and I was really satisfied. I didn't expect too much from this experience because of my lack of art history however, I was really blown away by the beautiful images. Interestingly enough, Mona Lisa was not the best picture in the gallery and was only popular because it was once stolen. She was so small and defiantly over-rated. That night, we went to Moulin Rouge and drank champagne. The show was actually very classy and well done with BEAUTIFUL girls. And I have never seen so many males with sparkles in my life!

mona

louvre

cupid

The third day in Paris involved visiting the War museum and Napoleon's tomb. The museum showed the succession of war uniform, strategies and uniforms. Napoleon's tomb was interesting because it was placed on the floor below, and in order to see it, a person had to lean over the rail in a bowing form. Napoleon wanted this because it was "bowing to the emperor."

napoleons tomb

tomb

The last day in Paris was at Versailles, as we saw the palace and then went for a lovely meal of crepes. My main course of crepes was seafood and then the dessert crepes were even better!

versailles

crepes

The day I left on the train to Brugge, we went to a little restraunt off the beaten path and had l'escargot (snailes) and they were good! There were a combination between fish and chicken. Yummy.

L'escargo

Overall, Paris was AMAZING filled with beauty, history and an wonderful experience. Sorry I haven't written in a while but I was too busy enjoying the beautiful sights!

day Eiffel with Damien

Love,

Mallory