Joyeux Noel

Currently, I'm battling my final exams and papers. What better way to combat the end-of-term woes by recounting my killer trip to Paris?

As soon as classes ended at the beginning of the month, my friends and I were scheduled to fly to Paris for the week. At the same time, the fury of the gods rained down on Western Europe in the form of snow. To make matters worse, Ireland shuts down at the very sign of snow (if you think US roads are bad in snow, you no longer have room to complain). Needless to say, our flight was canceled. Trying to keep our cool and our hope afloat (i.e. not frozen), we booked an outbound for 6 the next morning. Luckily, the snow temporarily stopped and we were able to take off from the icy runway.

By the time we got to our hostel in Les Gobelins (after landing in Beauvais and bussing the two hours to center city Paris), it was about 12. We dropped off our stuff and immediately hit up a cafe to begin our delicious food marathon. I think at some point someone must have realized we hadn't seen anything yet, so we took the metro to Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame. You know that feeling you get when you enter a cathedral, thinking "seen one church, seen 'em all"? I frequently experience that, so this will speak volumes. I walked into Notre Dame and thought "WHAT IS THIS?" It was undeniably cool. The gargoyles, flying buttresses, intricate stained glass windows, mammoth pipe organ, and fact that it took 3 centuries to complete the church made it a standout in my mind.

10 points to whoever sees the hunchback

After thinking we spotted Quasimodo ringing the bells and Victor Hugo below taking notes, we walked along the Seine in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. The cold temperature was pretty unreasonable as we passed by the Latin Quarter, Pont Neuf, the Musee D'Orsay, University of Paris, and Les Invalides so we had to duck into a cafe for some hot Chocolat (think Johnny Depp). We covered a lot of ground during that walk and got acquainted to the massive scale of the city. Eventually, we lost sight of the Eiffel Tower to the buildings in front of us and thought we lost the way. But with a couple of more impromptu turns down sidestreets, the Eiffel Tower emerged like a mechanical monster casting enormous shadows over awe-struck bystanders. WOW. So cool. Nightfall just descended as we got our tickets and hopped on the elevator to the top, with the city lighting up and the strobe lights of the Tower beginning to flash uncontrollably. We stopped off on the first observation deck with an incredible view of the City of Lights, pointing out all the major landmarks as we made a 360 along the railing. Then it was time to take the small elevator to the very top. When we got off, we were intimidated by a number of things: the freezing temperatures, the vertigo-inducing feeling of standing on metal rods at the skyscrapingly high elevation, and the beauty of the city below us. It was incredible. But after the suggestion of hypothermia, we were ready to head back to the hostel to warm up followed by a mouth-waterng three course meal accompanied by vin.

And people didn't like this when it was first built

On day two of our trip we decided to conquer The Louvre. Actually. We ambitiously covered most of the hallowed halls of the palace and all the art within it over the course of the whole day.

So the Egyptians were here?

Some really unbelievable stuff in there- Venus, The Coronation of Napoleon, Delacroix's works (Chopin included), the Wedding Feast at Cana, and of course the Mona Lisa. Mona wouldn't stop looking at me even though I told her I wasn't interested (her smile was weird). After failing to find the Holy Grail under the glass pyramid (thanks for the bad tip, Robert Langdon), we got on the metro to Champs de Elysee. Humming the familiar tune to ourselves, we strolled around the shopping district lined with Christmas-decorated trees until we arrived at L'arc de Triomphe. When we got under the Napoleonic arch, there was some sort of WWII ceremony going on between French and US military members. The monument is a lot bigger than I thought it would be (and I thought it would be pretty big). Anyway, that night we celebrated Jeff's 21st with a really good dinner in Place d'Italie with some authentic Bordeaux vin.

On Sunday, we said goodbye to Jeff and Aodhan as they made the journey back to Dublin. This was our really chill day. We leisurely explored the city, starting off with the Hotel de Ville, Centre Pompidou and the Marais. It's the home to film premieres and high profile concerts as well as an array of bizarre modern art.

Centre Pompidou looks like it was designed with pipes and a crayola box

Anyway, we then checked out Mariage Freres which is considered to be one of the best tea shops/rooms in the world. They have a collection of thousands of teas with spices from all over the globe. It smelled really good in there. Then we went to the Jardin des Tuileries to check out the frozen-over flowers and fauna. We tried to picture what it would look like in Spring. Next, we walked over to Musee d'Orsay but weren't able to get in since the line wait was over two hours long. Who knew? Instead, we went to the Conciergerie which was one of the main prisons at the time of the Reign of Terror. Inside was an exhibit on portrayals of French monuments in film (an added bonus). We also saw Marie Antoinette's holding cell before her beheading. Continuing the day's chill theme, we strolled through the Latin Quarter. We grabbed a bite to eat in the Left Bank. There, Kelsey and Angela gave escargots a try, but I had to pass. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped in a piano bar to listen to some music and sip on some vin.

When Monday came around, we decided to check out some less mainstream sites. First we saw all the Christmas decorations Galleries Lafayette and their musical themed windows at the department stores. Across the street was the Academie Nationale de Musique, or more commonly the Palais Garnier. This enormous building serves as the inspiration for the Phantom of the Opera (including the fallen chandelier) and was the model for the movie adaptation. Now, it houses the majority of ballet productions in Paris as well as some opera. The intricate architecture was really overwhelming.

No masked menace singing his heart out when we were there

Next, we walked towards Place de la Concorde that once was the home for the guillotine. Unexpectedly, we saw some headless people. On a monument/obelisk depicting the horrors during the Revolution, that is. It's also now the home to the ministry of Justice (too funny). The square is the largest in France and one of the bigger ones in Europe. All around it are the most expensive jewelry stores in Paris decorated with snowflakes and Chrstmas-y things.

We then hopped on the metro towards uptown where we saw Sacre Coure in Montmartre. The large basilica rests on top the highest point in Paris, overlooking the whole city. It was just a spectacular view outside as it was inside with all the religious frescos. I couldn't stop thinking of Amelie while we were there.

anyone see the traveling gnome or Amelie?

Then we took a train to the east part of the city to check out Chateau de Vincennes. The fortress was once a medieval Castle equipped with a moat. When we got there, the tours stopped running, so we just explored at our own pace- checking out the church, castle, and courtyard.

Kelsey used to live near here. I wonder if this was her place?

That night we had our final French dinner at a popular place by our hostel which inevitably ended in a food coma.

On Tuesday, we had to wake up pretty early to go over to Versailles. And by "had to," I mean extremely willingly. We couldn't wait to see the palace with our all-access passes. Walking up to the palace was an extremely humbling experience. The gates of gold, ornately decorated stone, and brilliant statues made the White House look like a joke.

Man, I wish I were a Louis

Inside is some of the most impressive architecture you'll ever come across. Not only that, but the scale was INSANE! At the time of our visit, there was a Takashi Murakami exhibit that decorated the hallowed halls. It was really cool to see the contrast between Japanese pop art/superflat with the neo-Baroque/superclassical of the surroundings. Really amazing.

In the Hall of Mirrors

Then we walked in the blizzard through the gardens to the guest house. Very cool, but very cold.



After spending the day on the grounds of Versailles, it was time to catch our flight back to Dublin to get started on finals. But not without one last stop for some delicious food.

Better get back to studying. I have two more finals- one Friday and one Saturday, then it's home free. It's really scary to think I have less than a week left in Dublin at this point, but I'm definitely ready to see everyone for Christmas. Probably have a couple more posts in me before it's time to say goodbye to the old country.