From Paris, with Pictures

So this is the second part of the wonderful trip to Luxembourg, Belgium and France. And it is the part you've all been waiting for. PARIS FRANCE baby!

Paris was amazing, I had an awesome time and saw some really really cool stuff. It's amazing that although we arrived on Thursday night and left on Sunday afternoon, I feel like I hardly touched the surface of what Paris has to offer. Part of the reason for this is the sheer size of the city, it's massive, and getting from one sight to the other basically requires getting on the Metro, making 2 transfers and getting off somewhere else. The other is that there is just so much to see, with all the museums, monuments, squares, gardens, sights, cafes, shopping, and everything else in between there is no way that you would be able to see all of it in a week, much less 3 days.

The other important thing to note is that I took a lot, repeat A LOT of pictures. My count for the entire trip is 739, with 458 of those being in Paris (and probably 150+ of those having the Eiffel tower somehow present.). I figure this is the best way to coordinate my thoughts and remember stuff. Hopefully they'll be fun for you to view as well. I am adding a few pictures to this post, however, you can see the whole album on Picasa and select photos on my Facebook.

With all that said - Here is a description of everything I did, in as short a format as I can fit it into:

Thursday Night

We arrived to the hotel around 7:30 and after getting changed and organized struck out into Paris to check out the town and search for some food. We took the metro to downtown and walked down the river bank from near Notre Dame. We stopped at the Louvre and admired the building while it was lit up. the massive pyramid on the plaza stood in stark contrast to the rest of the building. Naturally, I took pictures. 

We continued our tour by walking through the Gardens toward Concorde, which is at the Southeast end of Champs-Elysees. After strolling up the Avenue for a bit toward the Arc de Triomphe some of our party broke off to head back to the hotel. Several more of us continued on and met up with another group heading into town. We walked with them, still in search of dinner. 

We crossed the river and went into a very nice district of town where we found an excellent Sushi place. Now I know sushi is not French, not even close, but by this time it was 11:00PM and everything was closed. Once we had finished dinner we headed back outside with the intention of making it to the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately high winds and bitter cold temeratures stopped us in our tracks and we headed back toward the hotel.

Friday

We were up early this morning to head out to our first meeting in Paris. The meeting was at the EU 'Think-Tank' called the Instutite for Security Studies. We discussed the pros and cons of Nuclear weapons, disarmament, and proliferation with one of their researches and learned some interesting things about the way the EU looks on the nuclear debate as well as threats of nuclear power from other countries, such as Iran and North Korea.

Unfortunately, our second meeting, with the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs was cancelled, and we were left to determine a different schedule for the afternoon. I visited an exhibition on Charles de Gaulle for one of my classes, and learned about the French leader's history from childhood all the way through both world wars, the building of the EU and all about his policies in France. This museum is also the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to visit the old emperor of France, so we went and saw his tomb, a massive 10 foot high coffin made of huge red stones. Funny, since Napoleon was under 5 feet tall.  Afterward a group of us headed out to see the remainder of the city in the daylight. After strolling some of the streets and a local market we came to the Parc du Champs de Mars, better known as the location of the Eiffel Tower. The group I was with proceeded to make very slow progress toward the tower taking lots of pictures and having a really good time. We continued up to the Palais de Chaillot to get some more views of the tower. Sadly, I had taken too many pictures and my camera died. Luckily someone else had one, as a result. there are lots of pictures of me!

Afterward we headed over to Notre Dame to check it out at night and view the area around it. We met up with a few other people in the area and figured out what we wanted to do for dinner.

Some of the folks in my program met up with some friends of theirs in Paris and we all headed out to have dinner in the Latin Quarter. This is an area where there are tons of restaurants, and often the propreitors or staff will haggle you on the street to come inside. The dynamic is very intersting and makes choosing a place to eat almost stressful. We finally settled on a small  typically French restaurant. Here I had my first encounter and taste of escargot. It was quite an enjoyable experience and I can't say that it wasn't rather good. Basically reminded me of every other shellfish I've eaten. I also enjoyed some wonderful lamb chops and chocolate ice cream. After a long dinner and with a belly full of food I was ready for bed. So I headed home to sleep.

Saturday

Another early morning, but not for meetings. We were going to Versailles! The group headed out to the giant palace that was home to French monarchs for generations. The place is simply amazing. I do not know how such a construction project was undertaken and am just amazed at the intricacy, detail, and complexity of the building. Not only is the palace at Versailles amazing, but the gardens are equally beautiful. The scale of the royal power during that time and Versailles in particular, if nothing else, taught me one thing: If your people are starving, don't build a gigantic palace - they'll probably revolt... and fancy that, they did.

We started off with a tour of the interior of the building, seeing the Chapel, Royal bed chambers, studies, and of course the Hall of Mirrors. Fun fact - the queen's bed chamber was also the location of 18 royal births, all of which were public. This was to "legitimize" the birth of the heirs and have witnesses to their royal blood. There were also daily "Royal Rising" ceremonies when the king would wake and begin his day. The connotations and innuendos there are too many to count. The palace also contains some very nice artwork and excellent ceiling frescoes. There are paintings that are literally 56 square feet. Amazing.

After seeing the inside we decided to head outside to check out the gardens. We spent quite a bit of time wandering through the gardens, viewing the palace and enjoying the nice weather (for a change). Though the weather was nice on this particular day, the gardens were not in bloom, and in fact had very little life to speak of. It would have been wonderful to see with all the colors and the fountains filled, but I guess that will have to wait until another time.

After heading back into Paris the group broke up and we headed off to see the Paris Catacombs. The Catacombs are in what used to be an old mine deep beneath the streets of Paris (below the Metro even). They were not used for some time, but in the 1780's the cities growth, and public health forced the Church to relocate several mass graves and cemeteries. They chose the mine as a good location, consecrated it and began moving bodies to it. There are now over an estimated 6 million sets of human remains that are here. The bones are stacked in walls along the original walls of the mine and consist of all parts of the body. Walking through the Catacombs in the darkness is a eerie and almost scary experience; definitely not something for the faint of heart.

After rising back to the surface and breathing fresh air we headed off to Notre Dame, which I hadn't had a chance to go into the night before. We walked around inside and were over awed by the beauty of the church. Despite the beauty of the church, I have one point of contention - here is my rant: Why is Notre Dame so popular? It is not the biggest, highest, oldest, most beautiful, most Gothic, or the church with the best art or stained glass. It's really not remarkable in any way. What on earth makes it so popular, besides it's reputation? Perhaps there were pilgrimages there in ancient times, but i doubt that the millions of people who visit Notre Dame every year are there to see holy relics. I just don't get it.

Anyway, after Notre Dame we walked over to the Louvre again to see it in the daylight. We enjoyed a walk around the plaza, and watching the people. There of course were good times to be had and pictures to be taken.

After that we went over the Arc de Triomphe, built by Napoleon as a gateway he would pass through after conquering all of Europe. It was never finished during his reign, and his grand army never marched through it; Through several other armies have. We spent a few minutes walking around the Arc and looking at the sculpture and sheer size of the construction. The French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier lies under the Arc, and while we were there a ceremony was being conducted around it.

Next we went to the best light show in town, the lighting and hourly flashing of the Eiffel Tower. We spent a bit of time watching the tower and enjoying the views of Paris lit at night before heading off to dinner.

For dinner we went to another French place with quite possibly the worlds worst translated menu. I had: Pig, rib cooks in oven sweet chestnuts & crushed by potato - which was actually: Pork rib, with sweet chestnut sauce & mashed potatoes. Oh the beauty of language. We also enjoyed some wonderful wine and and spent the rest of our evening recollecting the day before going to bed.

(Whew)

Sunday

After getting to sleep in for a bit (finally) I got up and had breakfast before heading to the Sacre Coeur Basilica. The Basilica is located on the highest point in Paris and offers great views of the city. We hiked up the stairs and took plenty of pictures of the Paris skyline. We headed inside the beautiful Basilica and gawked at the huge arches that held up the dome. Sacre Coeur stands in sharp contrast with Notre Dame as it is Romanesque while Notre Dame is Gothic. This was a nice way to end our trip to Paris before we boarded the bus to head home.

On the way back to Freiburg we made a stop at the Lorraine Military Cemetery and Monument. There are over 10,000 American soldiers from WWII buried in this cemetery who served their country honorably. Though this was not the happiest or most exciting ending to our trip, it was nevertheless a chance to think about the role the US has played in Europe and the continuing role it plays in the world.

We arrived back in Freiburg about 9PM, safely and happily after enjoying a wonderful trip to the Luxembourg, Brussels, and Paris. 

In order to not complety bore the readers out of your minds, I'll abstain from any further thoughts or writing. Hope you enjoyed the post!