Merci, Paris!

We walked up from the underground Metro and heard cars whizzing by and were blinded by bright lights. After we got our bearings, we realized we had finally made it to Paris. The train ride wasn’t too long considering we went BELOW the English Channel but it I was so excited to finally get to Paris that it seemed like forever. When we were above ground, I had to take a moment and pinch myself. I was actually here. In Paris. France. It was incredible.

After standing in shock for about 5 seconds, we started walking to our hotel. We turned down our street and realized that the ARC DE TRIOMPHE was right down the street! How lucky am I?

The next morning we planned on seeing the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower. It was a full day of tourist attractions. I was most excited to see the Eiffel Tower when we left the hotel. When we got back to our hotel that evening, I was in love with the LOUVRE! Seriously, in love.

When I took my first steps into the Louvre, I just felt a wave of excitement towards the fact that I was about to see so many famous sculptures and paintings that are older than the United States. It was a weird and surreal experience. We walked in and saw Venus de Milo right off the bat. It was like she was just waiting there for me to finally get there. The light was streaming in on her and she just looked beautiful. It amazes me that God blesses some people with such amazing abilities to sculpt and paint. We continued on towards the Mona Lisa and ran into Winged Victory. She is beautiful despite the fact she has no head. Haha No big deal. We found the Mona Lisa but she was kind of anti-climactic. She is smaller than a poster board but bigger than a sheet of paper. And she has a WHOLE WALL dedicated to her. But across from here, there is a beautiful picture of “The Wedding Feast at Cana” which depicts Christ’s miracle of changing the water to wine. It was breath-taking. We then stumbled into a brand new statuary exhibit. These statues were beautiful. It amazes me that men could carve such a beautiful painting out of a block of marble. I think my favorite painting was “Liberty leading her people” by Delacroix. The painting is MASSIVE. Seriously. I loved it.

Venus De Milo

Winged Victory

Liberty Leading Her People- Delacroix

Could Paris get any better? Yes, yes it can. We were walking in the gardens outside of the Louvre and we noticed that the other people around us had all stopped and were starring at something. It was really strange. When Sarah and I got a better look we saw this beautiful woman, who was probably 6 feet tall in 4 inch heels strutting her stuff down the  walkway with a photographer following her. I thought “WHAT IS THIS? IS SHE A MODEL? WHAT????” In the matter of a few seconds, paparazzi showed up out of nowhere and started taking her picture. They swarmed towards her. And yes, she was doing a shoot of some sort. Only in Paris.

When we found our way to Notre Dame, we stood there, starring at the flying buttresses, mouths agape. When we made it inside, I had to sit down. This building was overwhelming. The stain glass windows were the best I have ever seen. I sat for about 7 minutes just taking it all in. I kept thinking to myself that many years ago, people wanted to have a beautiful dwelling place for their God. And while I know God doesn’t “live” in a church, it was a beautiful place to honor Him. I didn’t find the hunchback though, and trust me, I LOOKED!

When I finally made it to the Eiffel tower, I was pooped. So many beautiful things in one place in 6 hours were a lot to take in. But the Eiffel tower was great. Did I love it as much as the other two places? No. But I did enjoy taking pictures with it. I also bought a crepe there so all in all it was a good day!

The next day we woke up and traveled to Versailles. Okay, this was a great decision on our part. We saw the infamous Hall of Mirrors and the beautiful gardens behind the Palace of Versailles. It would have been prettier if it was in bloom but I loved it all the same. Sarah and I even bravely ventured into the city of Versailles and were able to order from a French menu. Considering I have never taken a French class in my life, I think I did pretty well.

Since Versailles was so great, we stayed a while. This made us kind of late catching the metro to our train station that housed the train that would take us back to London. We made it to the train station about 17 minutes before the train left. But when we were looking at the video screen, we couldn’t figure out what platform our train was on. It just kept saying 1^st floor. We were on the first floor but that could be any of 10 platforms. So we started asking around. Come to find out our train was on the first floor but we had to go through customs first. Crap! We do not have luck with customs (read previous posts). So we literally RAN  there and had to go through security, fill out these forms, and talk to the customs guy, WHO WAS REALLY CHATTY, in about a 7 minute time frame. We bolted towards where they said the train was but when we got to the platform, they closed the gate. WHAT! I AM SUPPOSED TO BE ON THAT TRAIN THAT IS LEAVING! Apparently, we would have made the train but they left 3 minutes early (we shouldn’t have cut it that close). So they didn’t charge us and put us on the next train because it was technically their fault we missed it because they left early. We really lucked out. This did make us miss all of our connecting trains back to the base, but at least we made it back.

I loved this trip but I really loved that it was sunny. I know that seems like a silly thing to be grateful for back in Oklahoma/Texas but I have not seen the sun in England except for maybe 3 days. It is always overcast. And I can tell that it puts me in a sourer mood. Isn’t it crazy how the sun can brighten our day? God really knew what he was doing, didn’t He?

Merci, Paris for such a great vacation!