Paris

One of the great things about living in Europe is how accessible travel is and how so many different countries are so close. In the US, you can drive 1000 miles and still end up in the US, and while yes, cultures vary from state to state, you end up seeing the same things, meeting the same kinds of people, and hearing the same language and expressions. Travel in the US is like changing your bedroom wall color from white to pale yellow, whereas travel in Europe is like getting rid of the walls all together. At least, it seemed to be so with my single trip outside Germany.

Last week I took my first trip to a European city outside of Germany and went to Paris, France. Of course I loved it and was wishing pretty hard that I had a cute little apartment overlooking some small Parisian street, but then I kept thinking, what if you lived here and could see the Mona Lisa whenever you wanted and the Eiffel Tower was just a building you saw every day? And let’s face it, my fashion sense is not up to par and my shoes aren’t stylish/high-heeled enough. So, I was happily a tourist and could shamelessly abuse my photo-taking privileges as such. If anyone wants to look at a few dozen pictures just of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night, I have you covered.

Unfortunately I was only there for three days and didn’t manage to fit in everything I wanted to do (namely see Monet’s Water Lillies in the Orangerie, it was closed when I tried to go), but it gives me a good excuse to go back.

Enjoy the pictures!

Sacre Coeur - We went to Paris by bus, drove 17 hours through the night, got off the bus around 7:30 am and began our bus tour of the city. The Sacre Coeur was our first stop. At least the early morning light looks pretty.

 

 

 

A view of Paris from the Sacre Coeur

The famous dome of the Lafayette

The Notre Dame - no Quasimodo sighting. Or talking gargoyles.

Looking a little uncertain here outside of Versailles, but don't be fooled! Versailles absolutely floored me, it was so gorgeous. I also have way too many pictures of the interior that I'm refraining from posting.

The Louvre - I found the exterior alone extremely beautiful and overwhelmingly big.

I thought the Mona Lisa looked very different in person. The face, the background, the posture - everything was strangely unfamiliar. It just goes to show that copies are no replacement for an original.

The Eiffel Tower is honestly a big ugly in the daytime, but when it's lit up at night, it looks like a completely different building.

Wichtige Wörter

• reisen - to travel
• französich - French. I managed to get by with bonjour and merci, which is about the extent of my French.
• Fotos machen - to take pictures. In English we say to take a picture, in German it’s to make a picture.