Paris, PART I

Ahhh, Paris! What an amazing place!

It took us less time to drive to Paris than I imagined, only about 4 hours. The train was out of the question, as it cost upwards of $400 per person, for some reason. But perhaps we were just looking at the wrong trains. We also intelligently waited to the last minute to make our hotel reservations, and almost didn't get a room! We had our eye on a couple hotels right in the inner city, that were nice and cheap, but when we actually went to book them, we found out that they were full up all week. Gulp.

Using some French hotel reservation website, we managed to track down one triple room in a small podunk hotel about 25Km outside of the city, and we desperately made the reservation.

The drive out went smoothly enough, but when we reached the outskirts of Paris, we were met with one of the ugliest thunderstorms I've ever seen. Just our luck! It was so bad I was literally on the watch for Tornados. Thankfully, it passed over us fairly quickly, and we were on our way again. We ended up going to the wrong hotel, because apparently there are two of the same name in Paris, and people get them mixed up all the time. Ours, naturally, was the smaller, crappier, further-away of the two. It was located in a small village outside of Paris called Roissy-en-France, which was actually a wonderfully quaint little place, full of nice walks and cute little restaurants. The hotel room was TINY, but our only criteria were: Beds and Shower. So, good enough!

The Storrrrrrm!

Yeah, those wipers can't go fast enough to help.

Roissy-en-France

After the Storm

This room was ~TINY~

But for some reason, the bathroom was almost as big as the rest of the room...

On our first day in Paris, we decided to drive into the city and park near the Subway and get around via that. Yeah. WRONG. John almost had numerous heart attacks, and swears that never again will he drive in Paris, EVER. And here I thought Boston was full of bad drivers. I don't care how proud Bostonians are of their horrible driving, they don't hold a candle to Paris. Just imagine every single person cutting off everyone they ever have the opportunity to, no matter what the circumstances, while flying down roads exorbitantly fast, all the while with motorcycles and scooters ROCKETING down the aisle between lanes and dodging in and out of traffic like there's no tomorrow.

WARNING: Your car will explode if you drive in Paris. If your patience doesn't first.

Needless to say, we gave up after not having found a parking space for an hour, and John was losing what little hair he has left. So, we retreated to the Hotel, and consulted a Tourist Information center for what the best way would be for us to get into the city from way out in the boonies. As it turns out, there was a shuttle that could take us to the airport, and from there we could take the Paris equivalent of the Commuter Rail into the city. Score!

We knew that the Louvre would demand a solid chunk of time from us, so we decided a good afternoon-trip might be the Centre Pompidou instead, one of Paris' premier modern art museums. So we made our way over, and upon arriving, discovered that it's... closed... on Tuesdays. At this, John insisted on calling it the Center for Pompous Doodoo for the rest of the trip.

Fortunately, we were close to Notre Dame, another stop we were planning on, so we moseyed on over there. Now, I knew that Notre Dame was supposed to be an amazing cathedral. But as usual with such things, my expectations were blown out of the water at the magnitude of the beauty I beheld. I can't even imagine the great lengths people must have gone to to achieve such a monumental undertaking of art and architecture. And I discovered that it is impossible to take a bad photo of the cathedral, which I know as a fact, because if anyone can take a bad photo, it's me. We wandered around the inside and outside of Notre Dame in stunned awe for about an hour, before breaking into a philosophical argument based on John calling it "just a building," and Amber and I vehemently defending it. In quite a miff, we decided to continue on our way, and put the debate out of our minds.

A road in Paris. This city is filled to the brim with amazing people and things to see.

A view overlooking the Seine.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Naturally, Jason must be photographed as The Hunchback.

Unfortunately, the inside of the Cathedral is dark enough that photography without a tripod is a challenge.

Wandering around the side of Notre Dame.

Behind the Cathedral.

Proof that we were actually there!

Aww, no bearhug this time?

By this time, it was late afternoon, and we decided that it might be nice to try and go up the Eiffel Tower. Here again, I had preconceptions about the tower, about how high it was, and how complex. And again, totally blown out of the water. Maybe it's just the awe of finally seeing these things face-to-face, but it was the second time I was utterly humbled in as many hours. John and I were dead-set on taking the stairs up, but we remembered that Amber is not to excert herself, what with recovering from Mono and all, so we got in line for one of the elevators. A couple hours later, we were finally on our way up the South leg of the tower, with our sights set on the very top.

At the top, I was completely humbled, for the third time, when I finally saw how staggeringly large a city Paris really is. I was totally unprepared for the scope of this amazing place. I suppose in some way, I compare all cities to Boston in one way or another, being my only real frame of reference. And... yeah. Sorry Boston! Paris is huge, and also a fairly high city as well, with most buildings across the entire city being like 5-6 storeys at least. I guess this is how a city looks when it's had thousands of years to develop and mature. Absolutely breathtaking.

We were hooked. We stayed at the top of the tower for about four hours, just gaping in awe. We were fortunate enough to be there for sunset, which just added to the splendor. We met a nice British guy while up there, whom I must quote in saying, "You must be Americans, you're too loud to be Canadians."

Even the quiet backstreets and alleys of Paris had me gaping in awe at the beauty and maturity of the architecture. I felt like a character in some fantasy story half the time, as cheesy as that may sound.

The Eiffel Tower!

The Elevators work their way up each of the legs... slowly...

The Ultimate Tourist Trap

Jason lounges in line on the "Second floor."

A Breathtaking view from the top! The Esplanade du Trocadéro is prominent in this view.

The breadth of this city boggles the mind.

A dizzying view down the tower.

Just let 'em try to kick us out! We're up here for good!

"Hehe look, I'm 'stuck!' ...Wait a minute... SHIT!"

Sunset over Paris. Ahhhhhh.

Looking down an exhaust port in the Death Star. Er, I mean, descending the leg in the evening.

Do we have to go?

So, despite the fact that the Centre Pompidou was closed, and driving in the morning was a nightmare, our day was still one of the most memorable of the entire trip. Our eyes were sparkling and we were still somewhat stunned by what we'd seen when we finally got back to the hotel room.

What a city!