Sup yo y'all. So just got back from Paris, no big deal. Since Fridays are yet another day that I have off, I decided to take a little day trip to Paris! The high speed trains go from Colmar to Paris in 2 1/2 hours, so I woke up at 6 this morning and I was in Paris by 9:30. Seriously, how is this the first time I have done this so far?
First of all let me just say that I was soo lucky with the weather. It was 50's and nothing but blue skies all day. The misery that is winter has finally ceased. When I arrived I headed straight for the area where Notre Dame cathedral and the Sainte Chappelle are. I have been to Notre Dame before, but it is something that never gets old. The stained glass in there is so beautiful! Then I saw Sainte Chappelle for the first time ever. This is a chapel that was built during the 13th century, it's purpose was to hold important relics, including the crown of thorns. This thing was built in SIX years. Just for a comparison, I think the Notre Dame took over 200 years to build. Sainte Chappelle is mainly stained glass, and I seriously cannot imagine how it was built in that short of a time period. But anyways, there was a group of school children getting a guided tour, so I kinda eavesdropped and learned about all the stories from the bible that the stained glass tell, and how the glass was made, etc. Since he was explaining it to a group of 5th graders it was right at my comprehension level. So here's what it looks like inside:
And here is some of the stained glass from Notre Dame: 
Next I walked down to the Luxembourg Gardens, but not until after I found a LEGIT AMERICAN DINER called "Happy Days." Oh, happy day is right. So for the past 3 weeks, about 5 times a day, all I say to my friends is "I want a milkshake." I don't know why, I just really wanted a damn milkshake, and France doesn't have them. Except for McDonald's, which doesn't count. So I got myself a genuine Oreo milkshake and I was on my way. I walked around these gardens which were packed. It was a beautiful day and all of the french university students were out! This is something that I unfortunately don't see in Colmar, which is seriously lacking the student scene.
Next stop.. my favorite of the day. I went to le Musée de l'Orangerie. I was just saying to my mom when she was here how I knew that there was a museum somewhere that had 2 rooms full of Monet's water lilies. Well I was reading through my book on Paris, and came across this. You walk into the oval shaped rooms, and each wall is covered with HUGE canvases of water lilies, and each one is different. I sat in the rooms for over an hour just staring at these paintings. I wasn't quite awake yet when I left my apt this morning so I forgot my camera, but below is a picture of just one of the canvases (ya and I stole the rest of the pics off the net too). Each room had 4 of them total that cover almost all of the wall space. You can't even really tell from the picture how big the painting actually is! It was definitely my favorite stop of the day.
Now finally the last stop of the day, you can't go to Paris without doing a little bit of shopping. Well, actually you can. I went to Galeries Lafayette, which is a 10 story apartment store. There were so many people there I was seriously overwhelmed. I think it was better off that way, because most of this store is extremely overpriced. Here's a pic of the inside of the store.. and in the U.S. we think that Saks is fancy.. this place makes Saks look like the Family Dollar.
yep, thats the inside of a department store..
No comments:
Post a Comment