The City of Lights (Tomorrow Is Another Day...)

Before our trip, whenever I would mention that we were planning to go to Paris, I would brace myself for the barrage of negative comments. The food isn't good. The people are rude. It's so overrated. I rarely heard anyone who had actually been there say a nice thing about the city. So while my expectations were incredibly high, I was also expecting to be terribly disappointed. I could not have disagreed more with all of the detractors. I am absolutely mad about Paris. It is a breathtakingly beautiful city. No, the people aren't warm and fuzzy, but absolutely no one made me feel uncomfortable and while I would make an effort to speak French, almost everyone was willing to speak with me in English if they were able. If not, they found someone who could speak English, or we just made do with "pointy-talky". A commenter yesterday leveled the accusation of photoshop on our photos, and the only thing I can say to that is no, Paris is just that beautiful. It is like strolling through a painting.
On Thursday, we got an early start with a quick visit to Notre Dame, before meeting up with a Sandeman's New Europe Paris Walking Tour. We had a great experience with this "free" tour in both Paris and Munich, gaining a wonderful overview of each city with high energy, well-informed young guides. I put free in quotes because while technically there is no charge, the guides are working for tips only, so we gave each guide 20 EUR at the end of each tour. Still, 10 EUR each for 3-4 hour walking tours is still quite a steal! We covered many of the same points as the night bike tour, but this time in the light of day. My favorite was the beautiful Tuileries Gardens behind the Louvre, which led to a horde of lounging Parisians and tourists around a pond facing the gold tipped obelisk on Place de la Concorde.
After our walking tour and a quick lunch, we went to L'Orangerie to see their small but extremely high quality collection of Monet's waterlilies and other impressionist and modern painters including Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Matisse and more. This is also where we bought our Paris Museum Pass, which I would highly recommend if you're planning to go to at least four of the sites covered. We bought a two day pass and from then on were allowed to skip most lines at the other sites (not including security lines, of course), and made for a great time saver. After L'Orangerie, we walked over to Rue Royal for one of my favorite moments of the trip--macarons at Laduree! Each of the pastries was perfectly crispy on the outside and melt in your mouth delicious. It was decadent and classy and just so perfectly Parisian. Checking things off my 30 Before 30 list right and left!

That evening, we went to a Vivaldi concert inside the stunningly beautiful Sainte-Chapelle church. It was certainly the smallest church we saw on our trip, but with the walls of stain glass windows and delicately carved stone, it felt like being inside a jeweled music box. We still had enough energy left in us by the end of the day to head over to the Eiffel Tower for a night time view of the city. We managed to time it perfectly so that when we exited the elevator, the lights had started twinkling. So romantic! Friday, we put on our walking shoes, mustered up our courage and made our way to the Louvre. Everyone from Rick Steves to our tour guides had hammered into our heads the importance of going to the "secret entrance" (that everyone knows about) at the Porte de Lions to avoid the scary line at the Pyramid entrance. So, being intrepid adventurers, we went against the flow of people walking toward the Pyramid and found the lions. Unfortunately, we also found that the Porte de Lions entrance is closed on Fridays. So, consulting Rick once more, we discovered that the second best entrance is from the mall below the Louvre. That gave us a short ten minute security wait, then with Museum Pass in hand, we were officially in! My favorite piece was the impressively placed Winged Victory, and we also got a kick out of the massive crowd of camera-wielding tourists crushing in around poor old Mona.

After about 3 hours of tromping through the Louvre, we gave our feet a break, and took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe, exiting the station right at the massive 12 lane roundabout encircling the arch. This was another of my favorite experiences as the views of the city were beautiful, the sun was shining, and there were plenty of spots to take a seat and relax over Paris! I was also excited to find my mother's maiden name listed as one of the French generals who have a place of honor inside the arch. My people!

And not quite done torturing our buns and thighs, we made our way back over to Notre Dame to make the climb up to the bell tower and play Quasimodo. I loved getting up close and personal with the gargoyles and chimera, and again it was a beautiful aerial view of Paris, though I didn't love that after our hour long wait in line, they limited us to five minutes at the top. After we descended, we had our best meal in Paris at Orangerie (not to be confused with the Monet museum!) on the Ile St. Louis, finishing our day with a delicious stop at Amorino Gelato--Berthillon's biggest competitor for a reason--and a beautiful sunset stroll along the Seine.

Comments

I've always wanted to go to Paris too! And I have heard everything bad about Paris too, mostly because it is dirty. But I wouldn't have listened either! I love your pictures, especially the gargoyle one. Totally my fave.

Posted by: Brittany | September 08, 2011 at 05:24 PM

Gorgeous gorgeous photos! Sainte-Chapelle was one of my favorite things in Paris! And the New Europe tours are my absolute favorite! I do them whenever I can and it is great to see how much they are spreading around Europe. Can't wait to hear about the rest!

Posted by: erin - heart in ireland | September 08, 2011 at 06:27 PM

Seriously great photos! I think Paris is awesome. I tried out my french and they seemed happy enough with it. They aren't the Irish but there you go. It is still a fabulous city. And it looks like you were blessed with the weather too. You guys really soak it all in when you hit a town, don't you?? Thanks for sharing.

Posted by: Anne | September 09, 2011 at 12:35 AM