Vacation Pt 1 – Paris!
Marlyse and I went on a trip of a lifetime! We saw London, we saw France, we saw Scotland’s underpants! Actually, they don’t wear much under that kilt… We flew to Miami, then London, then Paris where we started the trip. After 16 hours of flying, layovers and waiting, Paris saw us for the first time. Our hotel was the first stop where we met up with the rest of the group that was on the tour – 34 people total on the EF Tours trip.
If you have a Facebook account, you can view the first set of photos here.
Right after arrival, we took the metro (subway) to have dinner at the Kronenbourg Brasserie where we found out what incredible quiche tastes like! Then we jumped on our personal motorcoach to tour Paris. Adrenaline alone is the only thing keeping us from passing out cold. In about an hour, we saw the Luxor Obelisk in Place de la Concorde, Notre Dame, Louvre Museum, Pantheon, Arc de Triomphe, Opera Garnier, Les Invalides, Seine River and of course the Eiffel Tower. There are so many historic buildings in Paris that I was snappin’ photos left and right. If you enjoy architecture that dates anything in the US, this would be a great place to check out. We found that the sun doesn’t fully go down until around 10pm, seriously!
Day two, the sun comes UP at 5am… It was a rainy day where we visited the Palace of Versailles and had a guided tour. Then we had a few minutes to walk through the gardens of Versailles. After that, we went up in the Eiffel Tower and then took a night boat tour on the Seine River of Paris.
Day three was a tour of Notre Dame Cathedral and then we walked to the Louvre Museum. Before we walked through only a small part of the largest museum in the world, Marlyse and I tried some authentic foods that most people wouldn’t care to try. We had some escargot and beef tartar. This translates to snails and raw beef and was actually delicious! After our little food adventure, we walked through the same hallways that the Da Vinci Code movie began in. Also, we were surrounded by numerous Roman and Greek statues and famous paintings. I got up close to the Mona Lisa and, as small and simple as the painting is I saw why it took the world by a whirlwind. The manner by which Da Vinci uses light to highlight his subject was simply short of a Disney light show!
If you have a Facebook account, you can view the second set of photos here.
Dinner this night was French Pizza! We walked down what seemed to be an old dungeon that was below the restaurant. The pizza they brought us was very thin and had untraditional toppings. One was topped with onions and ham, the other with mushrooms and ham. It was all you can eat and an awesome chocolate covered dessert pizza came at the end. After that, we visited the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart Cathedral) that’s up on the hilltop of Montmartre, it was quite a hike. Then, Marlyse and I went exploring to see all of the different places where the movie Amelie took place. In route to all of the locations, we passed by Moulin Rouge but didn’t go inside.
Day four started with a two hour and a half bus trip to the Cathedral of Chartres which was the first gothic cathedral in France. Pictures don’t come close to explaining the magnitude of the architectural wonder. We saw how history has taken a toll on the cathedral and how different generations added their personal style to the towers. It was like looking at a collage of centuries. Then, we jumped on the bus for another hour ride to visit the Chateau de Chenonceau which is a castle built in the 16th century. This was considered a very “small castle” as it actually belonged to a tax collector but was then taken away by the king at the time because his wife liked it. After visiting both of these, we took a three and a half bus ride back into Paris which concluded this day. The next morning, we got on a bullet train known as the Eurostar that went through the Chunnel, a tunnel that passes underwater through the English Channel, headed for London.
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