Ahhh Paris...

So this past weekend I got to visit Paris, France. It was awesome to finally get to see the different landmark sites that I’ve studied and read about over there years. The La Tour Eiffel was more impressive than I expected, and getting to see it at night when it lights up and begins to “twinkle” from the other lights going…. Beautiful.

It was fun walking around Paris and seeing the sites. Notre Dame was just as impressive, if not more. The sheer size of the chapel was impressive. But the first church we went to in town was The Sainte-Chapelle… The first room you walk in is impressive with some stained glass windows and the remarkable colors of the hand painted designs on the ceilings. You have to walk up a narrow spiral stoned staircase to reach the main chapel… When you reach the top and stop looking down at your feet to make sure you don’t stumble…. Your breath is taken away by not only the size but of the beauty of the 15 very high stained glass windows. Pictures in books and that you take cannot capture an inkling of the beauty. I could of easily spent an hour or more in there just looking up and trying to take it all in.
 

I even got over to Versailles. I did not realize how massive the grounds were. I’ve studied Versailles in school and did reports on it in high school but seeing it all in person… I finally can grasp why in the factious historical stories (like “The Other Boleyn Girl”) that they say… they went to the gardens. They say that b/c the gardens are so expansive that you could hide easily even in a huge noisy dress. I spent the day there walking around Marie Antoinette’s digs and the main château. The hall of mirrors in the main château also took my breath away. But during the whole time I was there I kept thinking about all of the history of the place over the centuries it has been around. The palace has seen many courts, balls, and riots, to even the signing of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I (or as it was known then as The Great War). It was amazing to me all the history that a single place has seen and been apart of.

Now the food in Paris… not bad at all. For lunch when I arrived, I ended up going to the café right outside my hotel. I ordered the beef Carpaccio… It was better than what I’ve had before. I tried to offer some to my travel buddies but they were a little squeamish. I guess is understandable but they were definitely missing out!  Grabbed dinner at this restaurant and had their duck confit with mashed potatoes… delicious. Then breakfast I grabbed and a pan aux chocolat a crème… Simply a puff pastry with chocolate and pastry cream, it was, of course, tasty. This up coming weekend the plans are to go to a port town called Cassis. It is a small town just outside Marseilles… Should be fun!