Trip to Paris! Day 2

Recap of Day 2

On Sunday morning we headed to the Arc de Triomphe.  This monument is one of the most famous in Paris.  It honors the soldiers that died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.  Underground it housed the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.  The architect, Jean Chalgrin, created the Arc de Triomphe after the ancient Roman style of astylar.  Astylar means that there are no columns or pilasters used in the decorations. 

There are four statues, two on each side of the Arc; Le Départ de 1792, Le Triomphe de 1810, La Résistance de 1814 and La Paix de 1815.  I only photographed two.  On the right is The Departure 1792 and on the left is the Triumph 1810.  I guess this is a reason to go back and capture the other two! 

 

There are also six relief sculptures on the exterior of the Arc.  Of these I only captured two; the funeral of General Marceau Sept. 20, 1796 (right) and the battle of Aboukir July 25, 1799 (left).  I’m adding the other four to my list right now!

One of the Aloha team members was nice enough to go through the line and get me a ticket.  You see only European students get in free.  All I have so far is my US drivers license and passport so there was no way to prove I’m actually studying here.  Hopefully I’ll get my student card from ESCEM soon.  But anyway my new best friend, Orianne, ran up the long spiral stair case to the middle section of the Arc.  From here we saw this statue on display along with the video footage of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a small gift shop.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier can be seen from inside the Arc by way of a video camera that is projected on a screen that lays on the floor.  You have to look down on it just like if you were actually looking down on it from the top of the Arc.  The tomb also has an eternal flame that burns in memory of everyone that had died but was never identified in both world wars. 

Then Orianne and I took the last remaining stairs to the top of the Arc.  Here are some views from the top.  I got my first glimpse of the Eiffel tower here!

  

  

 Then we headed off walking again… again… again… I think we were training to be marathon walkers.  So now I know why French ladies are so skinny.  They don’t drive anywhere, they walk.  On our walk (destination unknown) we passed by a Disney store!  I can remember way back when the Disney store use to be in the Haywood mall.  Oh the days.  Now you can only find it in the Atlanta mall.  Was just one of those happy moments.  We also passed by a theater and I found that elusive poster I’ve been searching for in Poitiers.  I saw it once, told my sister about it but when I went back to take a picture of it to send to her it had disappeared from town!  Well I found it in Paris. 

One metro ride and another long walk later we arrived at the famous Eiffel tower.  Orianne told us that the French often personify the Eiffel as a real lady (the iron lady) and that every time she goes to Paris this is one place she’s got to go visit.  Originally the Eiffel was built as the entrance arch for the World’s Fair.  Most of the people in Paris hated the Eiffel calling it an eye sore.  It was to be demolished in 1909 but the government kept it standing because it was a great place to send radio signals for troops.  

Wiki states that only one person died during construction however Orianne, a true French, told us that many people died in constructing the tower.  She said that for the base they had to dig down deep into the earth.  When they did this a lot of people got hurt and died. 

 Europe is also in conservation of resources mode.  So for now the Eiffel only lights up for 15 minutes each hour. 

Every seven years the tower gets a new coat of paint.  That’s 50 to 60 tons of paint every seven years!

At the top of the Eiffel you can feel the tower sway.  It will move about 2-3 inches in the wind.  I would have loved to have gone to the top but couldn’t this time.  Our group leaders decided we didn’t have time and the line was too long to enter.  Our group decided that they didn’t want to take the stairs, some were afraid of heights, the price (35 euros) was too high and the view would have been bad because it was cloudy.  Party poopers.  Another one on my bucket list!

Then we got lost.  We had been looking for the metro but couldn’t find it.  So we walk… and walked… and walked some more.  There were many little fun things to look at.  For example a gas station in the middle of the road and in the middle of town!  Just sitting there!  Made Kata-ka and me laugh and of course snap pictures. 




We also saw school kids outside sitting in a circle.  I asked Orianne what they were doing and she said it was the military boy scouts.  We were right by the military school.

On the right of the military school was this monument.  Orianne let us know that it was the French bill of rights for all people.  Each column has a different language on it describing the rights for all people that come to France.  To see what I’m talking about click on the picture.  I left this one really big so you can see the writing on the columns.

The group passed by this massive building that Kata-ka and I could have sworn to be another church.  Orianne told us that it wasn’t a church but the hospital of the Invalides or our equivalent to the veteran’s hospital.  She also told us that King Louis XIV built it in the 1670’s as a home for older soldiers and that it had originally be ran by nuns.

We were only walking through on the way to the metro.  But Kata-ka, me and a few other girls held up the group.  We were going to take pictures.  Ask us if we cared when we got fussed at.  Nope.  I was able to take a picture of this seagull (why is there a seagull here?) on top of some cannon balls as well as the courtyard.  The horses are one of the many statues hanging out in the corner.

  

  













As we left the building there was this sculpture of a soldier that bid us farewell.  I also snapped a picture of the grand exit.  I was quite pissed to learn later that we were just feet from visiting the tombs of Napoleon Bonaparte, his son, his older brother Joseph and his younger brother Jérôme!  My next visit list just keeps getting longer and longer!

Then we waited outside of the hospital for a long while waiting on Aloha to figure out where the metro was.  We found the metro and went to our next destination; the Louvre!  When we got to the Louvre we were told to go eat and visit the museum but after we ate we only had about an hour to see the Louvre!  An hour for this massive two story museum?  Needless to say I didn’t have time to go in (it cost 10 euros and I wouldn’t have seen nearly as much as I had hoped too).  So I just walked around looking at the shops. 

I found a semi-precious gem shop!  Jaspers, Labordorite and Tiger eyes OH MY!  I love gemstones.  I could have spent hours in there but there was still more to see so I hesitantly left.  My next stop was a book store.  There I found some French translated Japanese mangas.  I was able to get two of them; Death Note and GTO for my little sister. 

At our meeting time, I started to look for the ‘pyramid’.  There are many pyramids here.  This one was the one I waited by.  Can you guess that this one isn’t the right one?  Yea….. So I headed outside to find even more pyramids.  I took pictures here also.  This is where everyone met.  Again I got fussed at for ‘holding up’ the group.  This time it wasn’t my fault!  Really!

The one I waited by (up)  and the one everyone else waited by (down).

Afterwards we got ready to head back to Poitiers.  First stop the hostile to get our bags.  Then you guessed it… another long walk to the bus stop.  Here I was able to grab some last minute pictures.  Paris watch out!  I’ll be back!

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Trip to Paris

Recap of Day 1 part 2

Our next destination was though the red light district of town.  I felt guilty just looking around!  We didn’t go into any of the shops but we could see that we were in the ‘wrong’ side of Paris.  Welcome to the ally of sex.  On one side was the Sexodrone, a huge sex shop as big as the other buildings around it.  On the other side was a place called Fantasy, Sex, Porno shop and an adult video store.  There was even a nude cinema right by the McDonalds!  Why are we on this street?  Well… the Moulin Rouge is here of course! 

We didn’t go inside the Moulin Rouge but just sat on the corner took pictures and watched this band play a bit. 

Then we headed back to the metro and started another long walk.  We saw some neat buildings and a green statue of a horse.  It reminded me of the color of the statue of liberty.  Then we walked down a really wide street to the Notre Dame! 

This building is pretty detailed.  If you’ve been keeping up with the blog the three arches with story like scenes should look familiar.  They look a lot like the three arches on the Cathedral of St. Peter in Poitiers! 

Orianne (O-Re-Anne), my history buff buddy, told me that the architect that built the Notre Dame was obsessed with gargoyles and put tons of the around the cathedrals top.  The same guy had a mother-in-law that he hated.  So if you get to the top of the building and look down the east side you can see gargoyle, gargoyle, gargoyle, old lady with a hat, gargoyle, gargoyle….. I really wanted to see it but our group leaders were against it.  This is one of the things I’ll have to come back to Paris for.

What I was able to see was the long line of saints on the front side of the church as well as two battle scenes.

As with most French churches, I don’t think I was supposed to take pictures inside.  However I no speaky the Frenchy so I did.  Here are some views of the inside.  Sorry they aren’t great.  I wasn’t going to risk putting the flash on.  The statue with the children was when the little kids wanted to be with Jesus and his disciples told the kids to go away.  Jesus got upset and let the kids stay with him. 

Our next stop was casa de Hostile.  A Hostile is a really cheap room that you stay for a night or two.  It’s mostly used for students our people traveling.  There isn’t a TV or internet hook ups.  There isn’t a privet bathroom or those little green mints on the pillow but there isn’t the ridiculous price tag attached for the night either.  Kata-ka and I shared this room.  We had 2 hours to eat and get ready for the party.  So we went down to the little pizza shop and split a pizza.  I was really surprised when the chef brought out the pizza with a raw egg cracked in the center of it.  It was nasty looking.  When we got back we had a little under and hour to get dressed.  Kata-ka had been sick all trip so she decided to stay behind.  I got dressed and headed out.

On our way to the boat party we crossed a cute little bridge.  The gate on this bridge had locks on it.  We were told that the locks symbolized lovers.  The small ones where one-night stands and the bigger ones where from long term relationships.  It was something you would expect from a city nick named the “city of love”.

Then we got to the boat.  It was pretty much a disco/techno party.  That I was ok with at first.  But by 1am I was getting tired, about 800 people were packed in a sardine can (and still more being let in, I was having a panic attack), I was hot, almost everyone was drunk and I wanted out.  I’m just not in to the whole slush puppy deal.  Getting drunk every night or just wasted for a night isn’t exciting to me as the neat little carvings on the side of a building.  At about 1:30am I had decided to call a cab.  (the kids in charge forbid me to go back alone… right), but then a friend wanted to go back too so we just walked back together.  I don’t think I’ll go ‘parting’ without my own means home again.  Lesson learned.  We got to the hostile and went to bed.  That was the extent of Day 1!

 

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