Bath: Day 29

Day 2 of Paris!

Unfortunately, today started out with pouring rain. Yes, luckily I brought my rain jacket and the hotel had extra umbrellas. It was kind of a bummer to start the day that way and have to walk around in the dreary weather, but it eventually did clear up around lunch time.

Today's agenda was: Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and the Palace of Versailles. Somehow Amanda and I have this ability to wander around and just find the coolest things. So along our way we found a ton of cool statues, monuments, buildings, musuems, etc.

Notre Dame was absolutely stunning (and jam-packed). I lit a candle for my grandmother and for my grandfather Frank since it was the 32nd anniversary of his passing. The stained glass, the portraits, monuments, and the structure itself was so detailed and breathtaking. I kind of half-expected to see Quasimodo or Esmerelda pop out, but no such luck. Disney lied to us as children.

We then walked to the Pantheon which was just right up the road where we found some old ruined church, the National Assembly, and some other neat looking buildings. Zola, Voltaire, Jean Moulin, and Marie Curie are actually buried in the Pantheon (which, of course, Louis XV built as a dedication to Genvieve, the patron saint of Paris in 1744).

Next, we ventured to Versailles. I don't even know how to describe this place other than mammoth wealth. It's pretty far out from the city, but I suppose that isn't too shocking. Marie Antoinette must not have wanted to associate with those she ruled and, not to mention...the size of that palace could never be accomodated in Paris. It seemed like each room was more grand than the next. I was surprised to find out what I thought were royal rooms were in fact just for guests! That should give you some sort of an idea. There are even rooms here dedicated solely for portraits. They really must have run out of ideas on how to fill these rooms. Actually, what I found interesting was the number of marble statues. If I remember right...it was something like 80 hand-made marble statues were there. The foyer was even ridiculous. It literally is a huge room of pure marble. The Hall of Mirrors was my favorite room by far. Unfortunately, my camera died out on me before I could get a picture of it, but if you google image it, you can get an idea. Security here was ridiculous as well. I got in trouble for carrying around my umbrella- despite the fact I had previously walked an ENTIRE wing of the palace with it. They wanted me to walk to the complete opposite side of the place to pay to store it, but I wound up talking my way into leaving it in the gift shop near where I was going to be. And those people working were not nice about telling me to get rid of my umbrella. They wanted to confiscate it originally, but I was like...this is my hotel's. No way. After all of the sight-seeing here we waited 40 minutes (yes, 40) for a cab. It's definitely not like Chicago or NYC.

We got changed and ready for dinner, got great food again, and I tried a crepe for dessert. They do eat them here for breakfact but it's like street food and much more popular as a dessert. They often make them in a couple ways: one is just sugar and butter, one is nutella and sugar, banana, nutella, and whip cream, or chestnut cream, whip cream, and vanilla ice cream. I tried to latter with the ice cream on the side and it was delicious! I had to try it.

Afterward, we figured we should do even more walking and check out the sights at night. So we saw the Eiffel tower all lit up and doing a light display show (it was all twinkly), saw the ferris wheel lit up, the Arc du Triomphe lit up, etc. Paris is insanely busy late at night so we just walked around and hung out. Actually, a funny story: Amanda does not speak a word of French, but she tries. So while on our walk we came across this neat looking building that she wanted a picture of. Well, it was dark and I wasn't paying attention so I neglected to read a particularly important sign. We found out quick no photos were allowed of that building thanks to a security guard. The building Amanda was taking a picture of was the Spanish Embassy and there was a sign in French saying what it was and no pictures. The guard was nice about it and Amanda was super confused cuz he was explaining all this in French to me and I was talking to him in French so she kind of stood by. Good thing I remember a little bit from college language, right?! I was able to navigate us in taxis and order food, and understand a good amount.

We are hitting bed super early tonight because we have to be up at 6:30 am to head out for the airport. We have an early flight (10:05 am) because it takes 2.5 hours to get back to Bath from Heathrow without any delays of any sort and we have a lot of work to do. But I absolutely love Paris. It would be great to come back to visit France. I definitely prefer Paris to London, but Bath to Paris.

Tout a leur!