Museums, Museums, and Church

Wednesday in Paris began super early. We were out the door of the hotel before 7:00. The first stop of the day was the beautiful Notre Dame! Due to some miscommunication problems we were early-like really early. Turns out Notre Dame wasn't open to go to the top until 10:00. So, we went to the bridge and watched the sunrise over the city. It was beautiful. After that we explored inside the cathedral. It was kind of eerie, it being so early and all. The only other people there were the one there to say their daily prayers. It was so cool though, to see the daily worship of people in this amazing place.

 We made our way outside soon, and began to wait. Approximately one hour later we were on our way up the stairs to the best daytime view spot of Paris. The gargoyles are amazing, and yes I did really want to watch Hunch Back of Notre Dame after going up there. My favorite thing up there were not the gargoyles however, but the bell. It was so large, and powerful. And while we were up there the bells rang. It was perfect.

After Notre Dame we headed over to Saint Chapell to see the stained glass. You walk up to the second floor and the entire walls are beautiful stained glass. It was exquisite as the sun peaked in painting the room in a red tint. Sadly some of it was under renovation and closed off but the rest of it was truly beautiful.

Next up-lunch. Wonderful paninis and luckily for Jessica, unluckily for me.. Pepsi. Eh-you take what you can get when you're across the globe. Also-a delicious chocolate tart, because it's impossible in Paris to eat any meal without dessert after!
I know you may not really care about what food I ate, however, it was one of the best parts of the day any time we ate. Sooo good. Seriously, France is the place to eat pastries. And eat pastries I did!

Next it was back to the Metro and across the town to visit the Musee de l'Orangerie. This museum is kind of small but one of my very favorites that we visited. It has some of the huge water lilies painted by Monet. I love Monet's work, he is one of my favorites so this gallery quickly became a favorite.

Our next stop on the marathon of museum visits was the Musee d'Orsay museum. It was also pretty neat. I saw lots of cool things there but one of my favorites is the model they have of the Opera house. From the model you can see all the tunnels and extra rooms that exist in it. It was so cool. I also loved the Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh I saw there.

After this we met up with some more girls and headed straight to the museum of all museums. The Louvre. The plan was to spend the rest of the day there, wandering the galleries, and crossing things off the huge check list for Humanities. As soon as we walked in we were looking at the map and guess who we ran into-our American friends from the Eiffel tower! And being as friendly as they are they suggested we all go find the lady together. And don't pretend that you don't know who I am talking about... we passed Winged Victory on our way to her, and I've never been more struck with a sculpture in my life. It was absolutely stunning. Then we weaved our way around people and through a crowd and I saw her:

Now, let me tell you-everyone who has ever told me about being at the Louvre themselves must have been lying to me. They told me how the Mona Lisa was so disappointing in person, so little, so dark, so overrated. I completely disagree, perhaps because everyone had my expectations sitting pretty low. She was beautiful. She glowed. The brightness in the painting shone threw. And more than that she looks so content, so blissfully peaceful in person. It is truly one of the greatest pieces of art I've ever seen. She is stunning.

But if you haven't been let me tell you some outrageous lie about how horrible she looks so that you'll love it as much as me when you see it. :)

The next hours were spent wandering the halls finding Ruben's, David's, Delacroix's and then wandering the statue gardens. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the entire place. It is absolutely stunning.

And it was about 8:00 PM when I realized that I could no longer walk another step. It's bad to realized this across town from your hotel however! So we went out and walked around awhile to get a good view of the Arc de Triomphe, and then caught the metro back to our hotel. Once there we found this great little pasta bar restaurant. It was their first day open and the cute little owner tried to help us understand the menu. He even tried to tell us that their sauce was "homegrown". Pretty sure he meant homemade. It was great.

The night ended in a bliss of pasta and girl talk. Sitting of course, because my feet couldn't stand any longer.