Paris
Jillian and I started the day with breakfast at the boulangerie down the street. I had a croissant and a strawberry tart (absolutely full of butter, delicious). We decided that to eat we would walk to see Victor Hugo’s house and the park that was nearby. We got a little turned around, saw a few cute churches along the way, and then sat down to eat on a park bench. The sun was shining and birds were singing. We watched the fountains in the park glitter. Preparations for an event were underway at the center of the park, so we were unable to see the statue of king Louis XIII. We wandered across the street and found Hugo’s house. It was very nondescript, just a simple brick building with nothing but a small plaque to indicate that he had been there. Sadly, the building was under construction and we were unable to take a short tour.
Next stop: the Arc de Triomphe. On our way to the landmark, we stopped at the Hôtel Sully. We saw a beautiful garden surrounded by a quaint but beautiful castle. The Arc was simple to find using the Metro line 1. We first stopped outside the traffic circle to pose for pictures and take in the view. Then, we followed the crowd underground so we could cross the traffic and stand next to the monument. We saw the memorial to the unknown soldier where a flame is relit each night, we saw plaques devoted to the Republique de France, and plaques that denoted important French conquests. The carvings in the walls were much bigger than I had realized.
We traveled onward to the Eiffel Tower. Though I had been to Paris before, I had never had the chance to see the iconic landmark. The area was surrounded by men selling small trinkets like miniature towers and hats. Jillian and I stepped in line, had our bags searched, and walked under the tower. It was incredible. I was amazed by the complexity and beauty of the structure. Though we had originally planned to go to the summit, we decided it would be better to wait as lines for the elevator were over and hour long.
Instead of summiting the tower, we decided to move up our visit to the Louvre. We took photos in the square outside and headed in through the glass pyramid. At this moment, I was particularly happy that we had purchased museum passes in advance. We were able to skip huge lines here and at each of the other museums we visited without a problem. On our first trip inside we saw the top floor of the building which was filled with paintings from Europe in the 16th century. I hoped to find some paintings that suggested prevalent gender norms at the time that I could use in my thesis. Thankfully, I did! I was also thrilled to see portrait series that queen Marie de Medici had commissioned. They spanned the entire length of a room from floor to ceiling. They depicted important events in the queen’s life and propped up her reign for the public. We searched for famous portraits of kings, but discovered after asking a guard that they were out for renovation work.
We left the museum and made our way into the Jardins Tuilières for lunch. We grabbed a small table near a pond filled with white statues. Though our waiter seemed stressed and entirely irritated with American tourists, we enjoyed our first opportunity to sample savory crepes. For dessert we tried ice cream from a nearby stand. We both ordered entirely in French as the woman behind the counter had become irritated with an American woman who refused to try to speak French as she ordered.
We decided we should return to the Louvre to take it off of our list of sights to see. I made sure that Jillian got to see the Mona Lisa. The room it was housed in was under construction, all the other works had been removed and the painting sat alone amid a crowd of smelly tourists. It was almost muggy inside the building because of the summer heat and swarms of people. We followed the crowd out of the room and down the hall to discover a long room filled with oil paintings. I saw many works that had been featured in my “France in Modernity” course. To finish our day in the museum we made our way through the rest of the rooms on the floor seeing objects from Egypt, Greece, and the Versailles palace.
After escaping the crowds at the Louvre we made our way back to the Eiffel tower. It was worth going after 5pm because the crowds had certainly thinned. We waited about 30 minutes in line for the elevator before going up. It was a tight squeeze in the box, but we made it. I thought the height of the summit was absolutely terrifying. There is a small deck below the final summit where we took pictures. It was strange knowing were were 281 meters in the air. The very top floored is glassed in. We could see storm clouds below us, progressing through the city and knew they would on us momentarily. Sure enough, within minutes of arriving at the top of the tower we were encased in clouds. Rain pounded against the windows. Jillian and I decided it was time to return to the ground, but found that the elevators were not allowed to run during the storm. We waited it out for a few minutes before finally being allowed to descend. In the elevator we could see a rainbow shining over Paris. It was gorgeous.
Mary-Est-En-France 