Following the Dream

Christian September 8th, 2008

     We arrived in Paris pretty tired and were happy to have a nice hotel room to relax in.  Our hotel was very well located, had a view of the Eiffel Tower and 2 channels in English.  We showered and went to the grocery store for a snack.  We admired the view of the Tower from our room for a bit.  Once the sun started going down, we decided to walk the 500 meters and get up close and personal with the tower.  It is enormous.  You thing you are closer to it than you think as you are walking up, until you get to the base of it and look up in admiration.  The park that is in front of the tower is the place to be for locals.  Everyone has picnics set up, complete with bottles of wine.  Once it gets dark out the tower sparkles as stragetically placed strobe lights flash for about 10 minutes.  This happen every hour on the hour until 1 am.  Everytime the sparkle show happens, the people in the park cheer.  It is  a great atmosphere.  We even were going to attempt to go to the top, until we saw that the lines were super long and it was already getting late.  Instead, we crossed the river to get a great viewpoint from the Plaza du Trocadero.  One the way there we noticed that there were an overwhelming amount of people trying to sell “bling bling”, little flashing Eiffel towers or keyrings.  Luckily, Casey and I walked with direction while they surrounded the unsuspecting turistas.  The views from the plaza were amazing.  We stayed up there for a while, taking in the view before heading back to the room for an early start the next day.

 
     We woke up later than we had wanted to.  We were hoping to making it to Versailles by opening.  Missing the first train and getting off at the wrong stop on the way to the palace made up even later.  By the time that we had got there, the lines were already like Disney, and we are not talking the fast pass. After about 40 minutes in line we finally had our tickets and headed on our way to pick-up our audio guide. As we started our self guided tour, through the rooms of the palace. It was a bit like being at a candy shop, only you are stuck behind 40 tourists speaking 20 different languages and all trying to take a picture.  The chaos took away from the atmosphere of the palace.  Even with all of the herds of long lens toting tourists, the palace was amazing.  The sculptures, paintings, and craftmanship that make up the intricately detailed rooms are simply amazing.  In Versailles, one of the most famous sights is the hall of mirrors.  This is a long ballroom with seventeen massive mirrors facing an equal number of windows that look out onto the gardens.  The mirrors reflect a ton of light into the room.  We had a second where the hall emptied from being jam packed to only a few people, that was amazing.  After walking through all of the staterooms we headed back to the city to see some more sights.

 
     While our travel in Paris to and from places we discovered that the subway system, although extensive, is not a very pleasent experience.  There always tends to be one or two weird people lurking around.  The cars are jammed packed with deodorant-less people.  The connections to the different lines can be a couple of city blocks away.  One other thing that caught our attention as well is the smell of piss.  This is not just in the subway, but citywide.  I believe there is a gang of phantom pissers.  All over the city, you will notice random puddles with the scent of pee wafting about.
     Back at the hotel room we ate some sandwiches, before going to the train station to reserve our train tickets and find an internet cafe.  We had to go across the city for both of these, but it was nice to book our tickets all the way until Italy and check email.  Our hotel did have wireless internet, but it was at a cost of $18 an hour.  Once back, we were determined to go up the Eiffel Tower.  The lines for the elevators were incredibly long, so we opted for the stairs.  My brother and I climbed the stairs a few years back with our full backpacks, so I knew Casey could hang.  It was 1665 stairs to the second level.  Once at the second floor we took in the view over Paris.  It was amazing.  We paid for the elevator to go to the third level, which is at the very top of the tower.  After waiting in another line for 45 minutes, we were in an elevator with 20 other people on the way to the top.  The elevator has large windows that you can look out.  We kept going higher and higher.  Honestly, it almost felt like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the end of the movie when they go in the elevator that turns into a flying machine.  Once we were on the top level, it was unreal.  The black night sky, the wind blowing against you, and the lights of the city below you make for a great experience.  They sold $15 glasses of champaign that we decided were not needed to enjoy the view.  We stayed up top for a long time.  We then made our way down to the first floor where we grabbed two chairs and a drink and looked out over the city for a bit more.  We made the way back to the hotel and crashed for the night.
     We were able to wake up super early and get to the Louvre before opening.  The Louvre is the world’s largest museum.  There are 35,000 pieces of work on display, with the Mona Lisa being the star attraction.  We went to the subway entrance to get in.  We were there 15 minutes early and a small line had already started forming.  Once the guard came to open the gate it was like a sprint to the entrance gate (which was still closed).  People ducked under the gate that the guard was opening, before it was even up. Animals I tell you.  We were smart and went the correct way to the entrance gate.  By the time the entrance was open, there was a line 40 deep.  We studied the map of the museum while in line and made a sprint to the Mona Lisa.  Luckily we were able to enjoy the painting for 5 minutes before the waves of people came in, pushing to get a front row viewing.  The painting is behind bulletproof glass and there is a wooden barrier 10 feet back from it, so you can’t get super close anyhow.  After that, we wondered the museum for a few hours.  It was unbelieveable how many works of art and artifacts are held in the museum.  We kept to seeing the highlights and a few interesting exhibits.  Once we made it through what we wanted to see, we made our way out of the huge glass pyramid in the square in front of the Louvre.
    On the way back, we stopped (and got slightly lost) looking for the internet cafe.  We managed to find it and to book our plane tickets to Australia.  Yes that is right, we are leaving from Frankfurt on the 26th of September to go to the land down under.  We are super excited and are hoping to catch a break in costs with the US dollar gaining slightly on the Australian dollar.
    Next it was off to take some photos from the Plaza in daylight.  It would have been amazing, but it was cloudy.  There was some sort of concert going on in the plaza, so there were tons of people.  Once we snapped off a few, we went to the hotel to get ready for our big night out. 

We had our hotel reserve us tickets for the Moulin Rouge.  We got there really early and the doors weren’t open yet.  The Moulin Rouge is in the redlight district.  We wanted to grab a drink to pass the time, but all of the cafes were overpriced.  As we walked further down the street, passing quite a few sex shops and strip clubs we found a place that had a good happy hour.  We stayed for a couple of drinks before we could get into the show.  At the entrace, they make you check your camera.  I am so happy that I did not bring mine, I don’t know if I would have trusted it there.  We were sat at our table (which we had to ourselves) and were served a bottle of champagne that was included with the entrance pass.  The show was wild.  It was almost like a Las Vegas show with lip singing.  The girls are for the most part topless during it, and there are random talent acts during the show.  It was very interesting and entertaining.  One of the talents included a man on a unicycle who balanced tea cups on a stick in his mouth while going up and down a small ramp. Overall we really enjoyed the show. When we left the theatre we picked up a ham and cheese crepe to since we had not eaten all night. We would of liked to explore the neighborhood but since the subway closed at midnight we made our way back to the hotel for some sleep. The next morning was spent packing and heading to the train station.
     Overall we really enjoyed the sights Paris had to offer.  The only issue that we ran into was that it was still prime tourist season, which made everything more expensive and the sights crowded.  If we had more time to spend in Paris, at another time of the year (spring maybe) we would have enjoyed it even more.  Eating ham and cheese sandwiched for both lunch and dinner really wasn’t as bad as it sounds. 

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