The City of Lights

My Thanksgiving Break was marvelous! Let me tell you about my adventure to the City of Lights-Paris!!! Not having been there before, I really had no idea what to expect. No idea what to wear...now if you GOOGLE dress in Paris, you pretty much get tons of suggestions, especially if you happen to be American...no tennis shoes, no jeans, no big puffy jackets, no work out clothes, no yoga pants...you know, everything that screams you are an American :) What to wear? Black and stylish shoes. This I can do...maybe....

Wednesday morning-have the day off of work to get my stuff together. Unfortunately, Ava is home sick vomiting, which means I can't get anything I need to get done completed before I leave. Oh well. Brian takes me to the airport with J and A in the backseat and they head off to merry Valpo for Thanksgiving break. Me? I board the plane on time, excited to be on my adventure. Until the captain comes on and says that they cannot land in Chicago and our landing time is in 2 1/2 hours. Now, from Indy, the flight to Chicago is 29 minutes...we are already boarded and sitting on the tarmac so pretty much we could be there in a half an hour. My connection is exactly one hour from the time I am scheduled to land in Ohare. 2 1/2 hours puts me way pass missing my connection and with it being a quick jaunt to Paris, no trip...then it hits me that Brian and friends are on the way north, I have no house key...good grief. Luckily for me, the captain negotiated with Houston to get us in the line up earlier and literally, he says, "We are cleared for take off, flight attendants take your seats," and we took off. Never experienced anything like it before...craziness! Anyway, we were late getting into Ohare and I had 13 minutes to get from Terminal C to Terminal E to catch my connection...this requires a shuttle bus ride and a mad dash through the terminal. Not proud to say it but I think I knocked some people over. But I made it...and so did my luggage (how is that for amazing!)...thank you United Airlines! It gets better...I am in a window seat with an empty seat next to me!!! YIPPEEEE!! I slept most of the way, laying down...as far as I was concerned, it could have been first class! Again, thank you United! Oh and one thing that I want to point out was while we were in our line up to land in ORD, it was incredible looking out at the sky. Everywhere I looked, there were literally dozens of lights from other planes. Since it was dark, I could see all of them. It was incredible the amount of air traffic. Anyways, I digress.

Land in Paris at 9 am their time, definitely tired, definitely hungry, definitely needing some coffee. Met some fabulous people at the airport (part of my EF tour group), including two new friends, Cindy and Lindsay, who made the weekend super fun. Anyways, they herd the folks from the red bus tour onto the bus and take us to the hotel, which was the Hotel Mancure out in La Defense (I don't speak French nor do translations very well so enjoy my commentary from here on out). It was a typical American business travelers' hotel. Nice. We get there, our rooms are not ready but we didn't expect them to be since it was early and literally, we changed clothes in the lobby to put on heavier clothes. Nothing screams American like Lobby Nudity :) Then we head out to explore the city. We joined up with the group who already arrived in on the flight in the wee morning hours and awaited the rest of our group to fly in. We converged on the Centre Georges Pompidou, which is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture. This picture is of the Pomidou Center...it was very cool. While visiting this area, we wandered in and out of coffee shops, finding little tidbits to eat. I settled on a muffin that appeared to be mocha but turned out to be a rich bran muffin. It was quite good. Then we went to Starbucks. Yup, Starbucks. Starbucks in Paris is the same as the Starbucks in your neighhborhood. No surprises, which was nice ;) We walked the streeets in Beaubourg and witnessed a women's rights rally/protest. This was interesting merely for the street performance aspect. The people were all dressed in white and then slowly they would fall to the frigid concrete. Then people would come and draw chalk outlines around them. Very creepy but cool.

From here, we began our walk to L’église Saint-Eustache, a huge church in the same arrondissement in Paris. Seeing this enormous church looming before us was incredible...it had flying buttresses in case you were wondering. Absolutely stunning to see. At the base of the church was a statue by Henri de Miller. This is a picture of the statue.

We walked through the many covered sidewalks with the luxury shops. Of course, we didn't stop to look at any of the many amazing shoes I saw. There were some of the most exquisit shoes I have ever seen in those shops. Oh well...Onto the Louvre...if our tour guide were here telling the story, he would say, "Lords, ladles and gentlespoons, let us depart to the Louvre. " The Louvre was spectacular. Ginormous! It apparently used to be a palace where Napoleon resided (I may

be making that part up) and is built in a U-shape. It is massive. Structurally it is beautiful with a courtyard in the center. The courtyard has the glass pyramid that extends below into the building...(Da Vince code, anyone?) From the courtyard we could see the Eiffel Tower...all I kept thinking was how desperately I wanted to be THERE...the one thing I went to see. But I loved to see it from afar from the Louvre. Us ladles and gentlespoons had like 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours to wander through the museum, so off we head to see what? The Mona Lisa, or La Joconde. a 16th-century portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance in Florence. She is listed under the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, or Lisa del Gioncondo, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Her facial expression is frequently described as enigmatic, If you are not already aware, she is about 2.5 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide and the closest you can get to see her is about 7 feet away. She is roped off and covered with what appears to be bullet proof glass. Very cool to see her in person. Then a mad dash to the Venus de Milo, another iconic work of art. She is one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created some time between

130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size at 6 ft 8 in high. We then wandered through Napoleon's apartment...the grandeur of his life, his home....the table where he dined sat 40! It was magnificant. Pure luxury. I would have loved to have spent more time at the Louvre-to really look at the works of art, check out in depth the Egyptian and Chinese antiquities, the other marble statues....maybe I will go back and spend a week at the Louvre!

After our visit there, we headed out to dinner. We ate at a small restaurant. It was yummy! We had salads with a breaded cheese wedge on top. We tried Kir, which is a wine with creme de chassis. I don't recall our main course. I was so tired at this point. This ended our lovely day number one in the City of Lights!

The next morning (day 2) we had a delicious breakfast of croissants, yogurt, fruit, coffee and juice.

This morning we headed off on our bus tour of Paris, which took us down the Champs Elysees. The Champs Elysees runs for 1.25 miles through the 8th arrondissement in northwestern Paris, from the Place de la Concorde in the east, with the Obelisk of Luxor (the Obelisk is 75 ft. tall and originally stood at the entrance to the Luxor Temple in Egypt; it was moved to the Place de la Concorde in 1833, where the guillotine used to stand), to the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, location of the Arc de Triomphe. One of the principal tourist destinations in Paris, the lower part of the Champs-Élysées is bordered by greenery and by Grand Palais. Further to the west, the avenue is lined with cinemas, cafés and restaurants and luxury specialty shops. The Champs-Élysées ends at the Arc de Triomphe built by Napoleon Bonaparte to honour his victories. The Arc was designed by Jean Chalgrain in 1806 and is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Underneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. Women come daily to place flowers on the tomb.

Stopped for coffee (yummy coffee shop) and headed on over to the Eiffel Tower FINALLY!!!! Photo op in front of the tower...it was a blindingly sunny day. Gorgeous! Named for its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair. The tower stands 1,063 ft. The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift, to the first and second levels. The walk to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by elevator.

We then headed the 12 or so miles to Versailles, the hunting lodge of Napoleon (even though he never stayed a night there). It is a royal chateau in Versailles, the Île-de-France region. It was magnificent. Just seeing the sheer splendor that they lived in so many years ago was breathtaking. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. Apparently, we experienced a phenomenon that rarely occurs at Versailles...we walked right in. During other travel seasons, there can be wait times of several hours and then hundreds of people inside while you are trying to see everything. It was still pretty crowded inside but definitely not bad. There is the Hall of Mirrors, the central gallery of the Palace of Versailles and is one of the most famous rooms in the world. As the principal and most remarkable feature of King Louis XIV of France’s third building campaign of the Palace of Versailles (1678–1684), construction of the Hall of Mirrors began in 1678. The principal feature of this famous hall is the seventeen mirror-clad arches that reflect the seventeen arcaded windows that overlook the gardens. Each arch contains twenty-one mirrors with a total complement of 357 used in the decoration of the galerie des glaces.

The gardens seemed to go on forever-as far as the eye could see. There are meticulous manicured lawns, parterres of flowers, and sculptures and the fountains, which are located throughout the garden. Dating from the time of Louis XIV and still using much of the same network of hydraulics as was used during the Ancien Régime, the fountains contribute to making the gardens of Versailles unique. While we were there, we watched as the first winter snow of the year moved in...the looming gray clouds. As we were preparing to leave Versailles, snow began to lightly fall. It was so pretty. By this time, it was early evening and we headed back to the city, which took a bit of time because traffic was snarled due to the first snow. Guess things don't change no matter what country you are in :O

We had a free night in Paris so we all split off in different groups. I headed off with the group (Wayne, June, Lindsay, Mark...)who wanted to see the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe at night. Plus due to the holiday season, there was a market with little shops, where we could shop, eat and just enjoy the atmosphere. It was truly an exciting part of the trip. Everyone was in high spirits. There was this hot chocolate that was to die for...it was like they melted a Hershey's bar into a cup with a little milk-rich and so yummy! The city was magnificent..just so beautiful and magical. I can understand why it is called the city of lights. Everywhere you look it seems as if it is twinkling. Plus on the hour for 5 minutes, the Eiffel Tower really does twinkle. So beautiful! On the Champs Ellysees, they had draped the tree lined streets with blue lights with blue running lights too. It looked as if it was raining. During our evening visit to

this part of the city, we literally walked from one end to the other. So you can see from the pictures that we saw the ferris wheel lit up and the Obelisk of Luxor. Then at the other end of the avenue is the Arc de Triomphe, again lit up at night. We got to ride the elevator to the top of the Arc and looked out. Did you know that there are 284 steps to the top and it is a circular staircase? I took the steps down and it is CRAZY! I got dizzy but it was definitely worth the experience ;-) Looking out from the top of the Arc and seeing the lights of the city and the twinkling Eiffel Tower will be an experience I will never forget!

Day 3 is our last day in Paris. We headed out to Montmarte. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district. The other, older, church on the hill is Saint Pierre de Montmartre, which claims to be the location at which the Jesuit order of priests was founded. Many artists had studios or worked around the community of Montmartre such as Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. We did some serious shopping in this district with its

cute little shops and big art market. This rather disconcerting sculpture commemorates the author Marcel Aymé, who lived in this neighborhood until his death in 1967. One of his best-known stories was about a man who had the ability to pass through walls, until one night he got stuck; his ghost could still be heard crying out from within the wall.

We then headed back to the city for dinner at a "follies" restaurant. Bawdy and ridiculous...we had a terrific time! The food was delicious! We then had a private bus tour to see the city of lights and hit some main attractions we had missed. We did a boat ride down the Seine and saw Notre Dame. We also toured the Eiffel Tower at night. We went up to the first and second levels.

This was a trip of a lifetime, crammed into 3 days. Lots of laughter, a few tears, being overwhelmed....it was awesome! Truly awesome.