Oh, yeah, and I'm home now. So... The End. :(
P.S. Thanks Mom and Dad, since Dad said he wanted a thank you in my blog. And thanks Holly!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
I like things that sparkle
Thursday 5/7
On our last day in Paris we took a little trip to see Versailles. I was told that the Palacio Real in Madrid, which I loved, was nothing compared to Versailles. It was definitely bigger -- and more over-the-top -- but I liked them both in different ways.
The palace seems to be just completely covered in gold. The gates, the embellishments, and almost everything inside is just gold.
We had to wait on line for a long time to get tickets, and then again to get in, but it was worth it. When you first get in, there's a little church (or chapel?) in the palace. There's a place to go in from the ground floor, but there's also a balcony thing that you can go on on the second floor. I think, from the signs, that the King went in on top and any little people visiting went in downstairs.
All of the rooms were all decorated with the idea of, "Let's see how much shiny stuff we can't fit in one place." There were a bunch of rooms in a row, each with different colored walls (that were velvet or something, not just painted). Most or many had paintings on the ceiling including one room (below) which had the largest single painting in history.
There were plenty of other pretty rooms with marble walls, artwork, and crazy-detailed embellishments (most of which included gold). A lot of the more lavishly decorated rooms were salons, with functions I can't remember, named after gods and goddesses (Venus, Mars, and Hercules in particular).
There was a long stone hallway with a bunch of statues of rulers, who were all posing ridiculously. I took a picture of one that I particularly liked, because it made me wonder: did this man actually think this pose was attractive? Did he think, "The ladies will see this and think, wow, he's hot"? The hallway also had views of the gardens, which we didn't actually walk around in but it was obvious that they were impressive from the windows.
The Queen's bedchamber was really pretty. It actually wasn't that big area-wise, but what it lacked in size it definitely made up for in grandeur: again, everything was gold, and their was also a floral print on every surface.
My favorite room, though, was the Hall of Mirrors. I think this was used for parties, but it was really just so pretty that I didn't pay attention to what the audio guide was saying.
After Versailles, Holly's friend met us and we walked around some more. We passed by Place de la Concorde, a square from which you can see le Grand Palais. In the square is a large obelisk that was stolen from the Egyptians. We also walked through the Tuileries, a garden I sat in the first time I was in Paris (but this was at the opposite end). From there, we could see the Arc de Triomphe, though it was far away.
Holly and I visited L'orangerie, a museum with some huge Monet paintings, among other artwork. The two rooms I paid attention to were the Monet rooms, which were each oval-shaped and had four long paintings around the sides. I also liked, downstairs, a little model of a room, because it was so cute and exact that you wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't a real room from a picture, unless I put my hand in it, too.
We passed through the Jewish area of the city, where there were a few delis and bakeries (that sold non-bagel-looking bagels but also kosher croissants that are probably much better than American non-kosher croissants). I also saw this on the sidewalk:
Finally, before dinner, we sat for a bit outside La Place Royale Louis VIII, where there's a mini-park (I use "park" the way I would use the term in New York, referring to anything besides Central Park). The weather was really nice, so a lot of people were sitting out on the grass.
We took the Metro from there to Trocadero, which has a nice view of the Eiffel Tower. We ate dinner at one of the cafés there while we waited for it to get dark out. When we left, it was already 9:30 -- and it still wasn't completely dark (though it was getting there, and the lights of the Eiffel Tower had been on for a bit). We took some pictures and walked down to the tower, past a fountain, underneath it, and to the other side (where I was the last time I took pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower). By then it was completely dark, and almost 10pm. Every hour, on the hour, the Eiffel Tower lights up and sparkles for five minutes. We almost didn't wait for this to happen, but I'm glad we did -- it was gorgeous.
The video of it looks like this:
We took the Metro back to the hotel. The Metro signs are really creepy in Paris: they say Metropolitan in a very Gothicy horror story font. It was especially creepy that night, because there was a a full moon out, and it shone directly above the Metro station as we walked toward it. Then, on the ride to the hotel, we were treated to, by far, the most interesting subway performer I've ever seen. Ever.
On our last day in Paris we took a little trip to see Versailles. I was told that the Palacio Real in Madrid, which I loved, was nothing compared to Versailles. It was definitely bigger -- and more over-the-top -- but I liked them both in different ways.
The palace seems to be just completely covered in gold. The gates, the embellishments, and almost everything inside is just gold.
We had to wait on line for a long time to get tickets, and then again to get in, but it was worth it. When you first get in, there's a little church (or chapel?) in the palace. There's a place to go in from the ground floor, but there's also a balcony thing that you can go on on the second floor. I think, from the signs, that the King went in on top and any little people visiting went in downstairs.
All of the rooms were all decorated with the idea of, "Let's see how much shiny stuff we can't fit in one place." There were a bunch of rooms in a row, each with different colored walls (that were velvet or something, not just painted). Most or many had paintings on the ceiling including one room (below) which had the largest single painting in history.
There were plenty of other pretty rooms with marble walls, artwork, and crazy-detailed embellishments (most of which included gold). A lot of the more lavishly decorated rooms were salons, with functions I can't remember, named after gods and goddesses (Venus, Mars, and Hercules in particular).
There was a long stone hallway with a bunch of statues of rulers, who were all posing ridiculously. I took a picture of one that I particularly liked, because it made me wonder: did this man actually think this pose was attractive? Did he think, "The ladies will see this and think, wow, he's hot"? The hallway also had views of the gardens, which we didn't actually walk around in but it was obvious that they were impressive from the windows.
The Queen's bedchamber was really pretty. It actually wasn't that big area-wise, but what it lacked in size it definitely made up for in grandeur: again, everything was gold, and their was also a floral print on every surface.
My favorite room, though, was the Hall of Mirrors. I think this was used for parties, but it was really just so pretty that I didn't pay attention to what the audio guide was saying.
After Versailles, Holly's friend met us and we walked around some more. We passed by Place de la Concorde, a square from which you can see le Grand Palais. In the square is a large obelisk that was stolen from the Egyptians. We also walked through the Tuileries, a garden I sat in the first time I was in Paris (but this was at the opposite end). From there, we could see the Arc de Triomphe, though it was far away.
Holly and I visited L'orangerie, a museum with some huge Monet paintings, among other artwork. The two rooms I paid attention to were the Monet rooms, which were each oval-shaped and had four long paintings around the sides. I also liked, downstairs, a little model of a room, because it was so cute and exact that you wouldn't be able to tell it wasn't a real room from a picture, unless I put my hand in it, too.
We passed through the Jewish area of the city, where there were a few delis and bakeries (that sold non-bagel-looking bagels but also kosher croissants that are probably much better than American non-kosher croissants). I also saw this on the sidewalk:
Finally, before dinner, we sat for a bit outside La Place Royale Louis VIII, where there's a mini-park (I use "park" the way I would use the term in New York, referring to anything besides Central Park). The weather was really nice, so a lot of people were sitting out on the grass.
We took the Metro from there to Trocadero, which has a nice view of the Eiffel Tower. We ate dinner at one of the cafés there while we waited for it to get dark out. When we left, it was already 9:30 -- and it still wasn't completely dark (though it was getting there, and the lights of the Eiffel Tower had been on for a bit). We took some pictures and walked down to the tower, past a fountain, underneath it, and to the other side (where I was the last time I took pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower). By then it was completely dark, and almost 10pm. Every hour, on the hour, the Eiffel Tower lights up and sparkles for five minutes. We almost didn't wait for this to happen, but I'm glad we did -- it was gorgeous.
The video of it looks like this:
We took the Metro back to the hotel. The Metro signs are really creepy in Paris: they say Metropolitan in a very Gothicy horror story font. It was especially creepy that night, because there was a a full moon out, and it shone directly above the Metro station as we walked toward it. Then, on the ride to the hotel, we were treated to, by far, the most interesting subway performer I've ever seen. Ever.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Je t'aime Paris
Wednesday 5/5
On Wednesday morning we flew from Budapest to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. After checking into the hotel, Holly and I walked around the area for a bit in search of dinner. We picked a café at a busy intersection and sat facing the street. I got a Croque Monsieur, a ham and cheese open sandwich that I discovered on my last trip to Paris that I really liked and a crepe (and part of Holly's creme brulee) for dessert. We stopped in front of a park in front of our hotel, the jardin des grands explorateurs, on the way back because there was a pretty fountain.
Thursday 5/6
We had really delicious croissants for breakfast at Holly's friend's apartment down the street, after which her friend took us around the city. We first walked through Luxembourg Gardens and saw Luxembourg Palace. The gardens were pretty, and a few people were milling about, some taking pictures of a random statue of a head. A man was working on some artsy boat thing (below), and we had a view of the Pantheon from one point.
We saw Saint-Sulpice Church (which was under construction/cleaning) and Val-de-Grace Church (which Wikipedia says was built in 1645), but the big climactic church was the Basilica de Sacre Coeur on the top of Montmartre. I didn't go in because everyone said it's nothing special inside, but the outside is pretty and there's a good view of Paris from the top of the hill.
We did some more walking and ended up at Fauchon, a candy store (I think one of the two stores, which are next to each other, has food and dessert, and the other is just candy). It's all pink, including the windows, and the packaging for most of the chocolate is pink. So, obviously, we got some.
I had seen pictures of L'Opera in friends' albums on Facebook, so we stopped there next. We couldn't actually go in and see the giant Chagall painting on the ceiling, but the outside was pretty.
As we were leaving, I stopped to watch some guys performing outside the steps -- and oh, am I glad I did. Of all the street performances I've seen, none have looked anything like this.
Across from L'Opera is a major department store: the Galleries Lafayette. We stopped in to check it out because it's supposed to be seriously impressive, and it was. I've never seen a Macy's -- or even a Neiman Marcus, for that matter -- with a stained-glass dome ceiling.
Nearby was Printemps, another department store that supposedly has the biggest beauty department in the world. I was underwhelmed. Maybe the idea of the biggest beauty department in the world was idealized so much in my mind that I was imagining coming home to a mecca of make-up, but it wasn't quite as big as I was picturing. On the top floor, though, there is a café with nice views of the city. And a bunch of red bunnies, for some reason.
We stopped in Place Vendôme where there are a bunch of designer stores, as well as the Ritz hotel. Oh yeah, and the Ministre de la Justice. There's also a big green column, the Place Vendôme Column, that was erected by Napoleon.
Our final activity of the day was a snack stop at Angelina, a tea room famous for their hot chocolate. It. Was. De. Lish. But it filled me up so much (it was so thick and rich and yummy) that I wasn't hungry for dinner at all, so I just grabbed a petit baguette and went back to the room while Holly went out to dinner with her friend.
On Wednesday morning we flew from Budapest to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. After checking into the hotel, Holly and I walked around the area for a bit in search of dinner. We picked a café at a busy intersection and sat facing the street. I got a Croque Monsieur, a ham and cheese open sandwich that I discovered on my last trip to Paris that I really liked and a crepe (and part of Holly's creme brulee) for dessert. We stopped in front of a park in front of our hotel, the jardin des grands explorateurs, on the way back because there was a pretty fountain.
Thursday 5/6We had really delicious croissants for breakfast at Holly's friend's apartment down the street, after which her friend took us around the city. We first walked through Luxembourg Gardens and saw Luxembourg Palace. The gardens were pretty, and a few people were milling about, some taking pictures of a random statue of a head. A man was working on some artsy boat thing (below), and we had a view of the Pantheon from one point.
We saw Saint-Sulpice Church (which was under construction/cleaning) and Val-de-Grace Church (which Wikipedia says was built in 1645), but the big climactic church was the Basilica de Sacre Coeur on the top of Montmartre. I didn't go in because everyone said it's nothing special inside, but the outside is pretty and there's a good view of Paris from the top of the hill.
We did some more walking and ended up at Fauchon, a candy store (I think one of the two stores, which are next to each other, has food and dessert, and the other is just candy). It's all pink, including the windows, and the packaging for most of the chocolate is pink. So, obviously, we got some.
I had seen pictures of L'Opera in friends' albums on Facebook, so we stopped there next. We couldn't actually go in and see the giant Chagall painting on the ceiling, but the outside was pretty.
As we were leaving, I stopped to watch some guys performing outside the steps -- and oh, am I glad I did. Of all the street performances I've seen, none have looked anything like this.
Across from L'Opera is a major department store: the Galleries Lafayette. We stopped in to check it out because it's supposed to be seriously impressive, and it was. I've never seen a Macy's -- or even a Neiman Marcus, for that matter -- with a stained-glass dome ceiling.
Nearby was Printemps, another department store that supposedly has the biggest beauty department in the world. I was underwhelmed. Maybe the idea of the biggest beauty department in the world was idealized so much in my mind that I was imagining coming home to a mecca of make-up, but it wasn't quite as big as I was picturing. On the top floor, though, there is a café with nice views of the city. And a bunch of red bunnies, for some reason.
We stopped in Place Vendôme where there are a bunch of designer stores, as well as the Ritz hotel. Oh yeah, and the Ministre de la Justice. There's also a big green column, the Place Vendôme Column, that was erected by Napoleon.
Our final activity of the day was a snack stop at Angelina, a tea room famous for their hot chocolate. It. Was. De. Lish. But it filled me up so much (it was so thick and rich and yummy) that I wasn't hungry for dinner at all, so I just grabbed a petit baguette and went back to the room while Holly went out to dinner with her friend.
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