Spring Break Part I: Adventures in Paris
First, I just want to say how truly blessed my life is. Who would have thought, even a year ago, that I would spend my spring break in France and Greece?! I definitely would not have. I would have laughed in your face.
That was my spring break though. Adventures in Paris, Athens, and Santorini.
Part I: Paris
I didn't think it was possible to love another city as I love Rome. Paris proved me wrong real fast. I knew I was in love as soon as I stepped into the Louvre. Let me tell you, that museum is chalk full of art. Chalk full. I could easily spend a week in there. I mean, I did spend four hours there without even realizing it.
Those are only two of the jaw-dropping pieces. And yes, I did see the Mona Lisa. And yes, of course I got a selfie!
Once my friend and I looked at our watches, our stomachs woke up. We hurried out of the Louvre to find us from French food. Taking my mother's advice, I ordered the Croque Monsieur (ham and cheese sandwhich) without a second thought. Sounds plain, right? Well, ham and cheese have never tasted so good. Besides the Escargo, the Croque Monsieur was my favorite meal. If you don't know what Escargo is, it's snails. Yep, I also had frog legs. And rabbit. Sitting here I still can't believe I tried FROG LEGS. I mean, I used to not even eat oranges for goodness sake. The frog legs weren't bad, though, and really just tasted like chicken. The snails were so delectable. Just positively scrumptious.
Oh, and let me tell you about the croissants. Flaky goodness given to mankind from the gods. If only there was a place where I could get French croissants with Italian coffee, though, because French coffee doesn't even compare to Italian coffee.
But enough about food, though most of my pictures I took were of food. The others sites I saw were Musee de Orsay, Eiffel (of course), Versailles, Notre Dame, La Sainte-Chapelle, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Bastille. These were the ones we deliberately visited; however, many of my pictures include gorgeous buildings and squares that we just casually walked on by.
Now, in order to keep this as short and sweet as I can, I'm going to jump from place to place to give you a snippet of each:
Let me just get this off my chest: I am in love with Van Gogh. Plain and simple. At the Musee de Orsay, there was a Van Gogh exhibit, where I easily spent more than an hour, experiencing his paintings. I say "experiencing" because his brushstrokes, his emotions embedded in the painting are tangible.
Climbing to the top of Eiffel was unreal (yes, we took the stairs). We were so blessed to have beautiful weather, which made for a more beautiful view. At the top, I could see all of Paris, and I felt could see all of France too (though obviously not). Eiffel was so beautiful, but if you think she is beautiful during the day, she is breath-takingly gorgeous at night. Especially when she sparkles.
I definitely stepped into the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame, if only for a second, when I laid my eyes on the cathedral. But I didn't just look at it, oh no. I attended Mass there. All in French, of course, but Mass. In Notre Dame.
At Versailles, walking from one lavishly furnished room to the next, I felt like I had walked back in time. Then, I saw the gardens. Everyone has heard of the splendor of Versailles, but you can't really wrap your head around it until you spend hours wandering along the paths, beside the canal, and through the trees. Yes, historical shindigs went down here, but really, I just loved soaking in all the beauty.
Now, as a Catholic, Rome has been such a delight with church after church, cathedral after cathedral just sitting around, waiting for me to wander in. But never have I seen stained glass windows as the ones at La Sainte-Chapelle.
The Arc de Triomphe was definitely a big arch. Besides the historical significance, I was fascinated by how all the streets around it branched out from the Arch itself. This meant that getting to the actual Arch meant finding the underground secret passageway (not really secret, but obscure enough that it took us a couple tries to find it). Of course at the top was a beautiful view with Eiffel casually in the backdrop.
And the Bastille was neat. That's about all I have to say about it. I'm not into history, so I'll leave that for you to Google or something (like you actually would).
And that's Paris. Of course, I had to leave out quite a bunch, like all of the food pictures, the St. Louis relics, the love lock bridge, the eclairs. Otherwise this blog post would turn into a blog book. I'm serious. I feel like I have never written so much in my journal (every morning I journalled as I munched on my morning croissant).
You'll just have to hunt me down in person to hear the extra morsels I have left over from the magical city of Paris!!
That was my spring break though. Adventures in Paris, Athens, and Santorini.
Part I: Paris
I didn't think it was possible to love another city as I love Rome. Paris proved me wrong real fast. I knew I was in love as soon as I stepped into the Louvre. Let me tell you, that museum is chalk full of art. Chalk full. I could easily spend a week in there. I mean, I did spend four hours there without even realizing it.
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| La Vierge à l'Enfant, sainte Elisabeth et saint Jean enfant dans un paysage Attribtued to Giulio Romano in the Workshop of Raphael |
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Psyché ranimée par le baiser de l’Amour by Antonio Canova
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Once my friend and I looked at our watches, our stomachs woke up. We hurried out of the Louvre to find us from French food. Taking my mother's advice, I ordered the Croque Monsieur (ham and cheese sandwhich) without a second thought. Sounds plain, right? Well, ham and cheese have never tasted so good. Besides the Escargo, the Croque Monsieur was my favorite meal. If you don't know what Escargo is, it's snails. Yep, I also had frog legs. And rabbit. Sitting here I still can't believe I tried FROG LEGS. I mean, I used to not even eat oranges for goodness sake. The frog legs weren't bad, though, and really just tasted like chicken. The snails were so delectable. Just positively scrumptious.
Oh, and let me tell you about the croissants. Flaky goodness given to mankind from the gods. If only there was a place where I could get French croissants with Italian coffee, though, because French coffee doesn't even compare to Italian coffee.
But enough about food, though most of my pictures I took were of food. The others sites I saw were Musee de Orsay, Eiffel (of course), Versailles, Notre Dame, La Sainte-Chapelle, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Bastille. These were the ones we deliberately visited; however, many of my pictures include gorgeous buildings and squares that we just casually walked on by.
Now, in order to keep this as short and sweet as I can, I'm going to jump from place to place to give you a snippet of each:
Let me just get this off my chest: I am in love with Van Gogh. Plain and simple. At the Musee de Orsay, there was a Van Gogh exhibit, where I easily spent more than an hour, experiencing his paintings. I say "experiencing" because his brushstrokes, his emotions embedded in the painting are tangible.
Climbing to the top of Eiffel was unreal (yes, we took the stairs). We were so blessed to have beautiful weather, which made for a more beautiful view. At the top, I could see all of Paris, and I felt could see all of France too (though obviously not). Eiffel was so beautiful, but if you think she is beautiful during the day, she is breath-takingly gorgeous at night. Especially when she sparkles.
I definitely stepped into the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame, if only for a second, when I laid my eyes on the cathedral. But I didn't just look at it, oh no. I attended Mass there. All in French, of course, but Mass. In Notre Dame.
At Versailles, walking from one lavishly furnished room to the next, I felt like I had walked back in time. Then, I saw the gardens. Everyone has heard of the splendor of Versailles, but you can't really wrap your head around it until you spend hours wandering along the paths, beside the canal, and through the trees. Yes, historical shindigs went down here, but really, I just loved soaking in all the beauty.
Now, as a Catholic, Rome has been such a delight with church after church, cathedral after cathedral just sitting around, waiting for me to wander in. But never have I seen stained glass windows as the ones at La Sainte-Chapelle.
The Arc de Triomphe was definitely a big arch. Besides the historical significance, I was fascinated by how all the streets around it branched out from the Arch itself. This meant that getting to the actual Arch meant finding the underground secret passageway (not really secret, but obscure enough that it took us a couple tries to find it). Of course at the top was a beautiful view with Eiffel casually in the backdrop.
And the Bastille was neat. That's about all I have to say about it. I'm not into history, so I'll leave that for you to Google or something (like you actually would).
And that's Paris. Of course, I had to leave out quite a bunch, like all of the food pictures, the St. Louis relics, the love lock bridge, the eclairs. Otherwise this blog post would turn into a blog book. I'm serious. I feel like I have never written so much in my journal (every morning I journalled as I munched on my morning croissant).
You'll just have to hunt me down in person to hear the extra morsels I have left over from the magical city of Paris!!
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