Our first stop was the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, which amber had heard is definitely worth checking out. We took the subway over, and discovered that it's in a fairly seedy area of town, full of chintzy shops catering to the masses of tourists that flock to Paris. We looked around for a while before giving up, knowing that these shops weren't going to satisfy us. The Basilica was beautiful, and the view was quite nice. Though truthfully, any views after the Eiffel Tower all sort of pale in comparison. Maybe we should have saved that for last...?
The Basilica of the Sacré Cœur
On the steps of the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur.
Quite a nice view from up at the Basilica!
From Sacré Cœur, we made our way over the The Arc de Triomphe, which really fascinated me. The thing is HUGE, far grander than I had imagined (surprise, surprise). The first challenge upon getting there is actually crossing the street to see it, being that it's surrounded by an eight lane rotary. No no, you didn't quite get that. EIGHT LANE ROTARY. John told us about some friends of his family who once got stuck in that rotary for over three hours once, because it was rush hour, and they somehow wound up in the innermost lane, with no way of getting out. Talk about a driving nightmare. Fortunately for pedestrians, there's a tunnel underneath that automotive hell. We took a million pictures of the Arc, and again marvelled at the sculptures and craftsmanship of it. I wouldn't have thought this monument would be terribly amazing, but now it's one of my favorites in all of Europe.
The Arc de Triomphe
The Rotary from HELL.
The pictures I'd seen of The Arc de Triomphe made me say, "Yeah, pretty cool." Actually seeing it made me say, "WHOA!"
The intricacy of the sculptures lining the Arc was exquisite.
Each one seemed to tell an epic story.
I could have spent a fair amount of time just staring at these sculptures, trying to imagine the stories and imagination behind them.
From The Arc, we made our way directly down Champs-Élysées, which is basically the most posh shopping district in Paris, or so we were told. Most of the stores on this road were so ritzy my wallet almost leapt out of my pocket as soon as I got within arm's reach of the front doors. But it was definitely an experience. I did a lot of sitting (Waiting for Amber), and had a wonderful time just watching the people on this street. I really like visiting Newbury Street in Boston, if only to watch people as they try so hard to impress one another, and this was like that, only a hundred fold.
John eventually got frustrated with waiting, and wandered off to try and find some 'Heelys' shoes (We'd been seeing kids flying around on Heelys all around Paris, and John finally said, "Damnit, I want to do that too!"). And so, Amber and I got some shopping done before eventually working our way back to the subway.
We were going to try and see another church near Notre Dame, but it was closed for renovations, so we headed back to Roissy-en-France for dinner.
We ate at "The Place," a fancy futuristic restaurant. The service was mind-numbingly slow, Amber's "lasagna" didn't have noodles, or cheese, or tomato sauce, and John found a shard of glass in his dessert. Yeah, didn't leave much of a tip.
But all shards of glass and lasagna aside, Paris has been an amazing experience! You definitely need a lot more time to really get into the city though; I'd like to maybe move here for a few months sometime, and really take in the culture. But, I have an excuse to pay a visit back soon; to bring Kat along and show her the city!
Yep, definitely on Champs-Élysées. *cough sputter*
There was an awesome Toyota concept car showroom on Champs-Élysées. Here we see a Toyota SmartCar wannabe.
Given the opportunity, I would have bought this car on the spot. Not only was it straight out of some fanboy nerd fantasy, but it looks like a Storm Trooper, and it's a highly efficient hybrid as well. I believe I can summarize with: *DROOL*
A crazy two-wheeled motorcycle we saw... it only has one wheel in the back, though. Bizarre!
On the train ride back out to Roissy-en-France, we noticed that almost every available surface was covered with graffiti. Some of it, quite amazing!
Graffiti covers every inch of reachable wall space out here.
Amber looks back towards Paris longingly.
Jason looks towards Transformers the Movie longingly.
A local resident of Roissy-en-France. These guys are EVERYHWERE. No wonder someone at one point just said, "You know, let's just eat them, already."
2 comments:
Well there's a lot, there's a lot of culture here...
want that car. the shiny white one.
...all it needs is a knight rider red light at the front ^_~
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