Paris, part 2

Today I'm doing homework, and I can't imagine that anyone would want to read my thoughts on that, so I'll finish my weekend in Paris. The view from the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre was incredible. Our guide told us that the church has been open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nearly since it was completed. That is pretty impressive. Notre Dame has the most gorgeous stained glass windows I've ever seen, and the rose windows are incredible. A book I bought about the stained glass says the west rose window is the smallest; it's only 10 meters across. Only 10 meters? Now, I know that I am innumerate, but I do know that my meter stick and my yard stick are nearly the same length, so that is sort of like 30 feet across. ONLY? Of course it doesn't seem so big, when you're standing at the bottom looking up at it. I really wanted to see some of the gargoyles on the corners, but we could never figure out how to get up there.

After we left Notre Dame on the bus, the guide and driver took us to the Opera House. This is a fantastic looking building, with gold figures and massive steps. We were given more free time and the bus was picking us up again at 6. Katherine and I were tired and hot and I was getting a bit irritable, which I know is hard to imagine. We asked our guide how to get back to our hotel, and we left. We took the metro, right by ourselves, except for the lady from Taiwan and her two little boys, who followed us. We only made one wrong turn, we went the wrong way when we came out of the metro and walked about three blocks away from our hotel instead of towards it, but we figured it out. Actually Katherine figured out most of it, I just followed her. When we got back to our nice cool hotel room, I took a long, cool bath and read a book. I thoroughly enjoyed the bathtub at our hotel. Katherine read a book, and then I took a nap. We woke up about 7:15, I think. We braved the Metro again, and went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. Why the Hard Rock? One big reason is that they have free refills – Yay!!!! After the Hard Rock, which took about 2 ½ hours (and we weren't waiting in line) we went to the Eiffel Tower.

Now, up to this point, I was really not so thrilled with Paris, and was sort of regretting the trip. I know that part of this was the ineptness of our guide and driver and not the city of Paris itself, but regardless, I was not impressed. But when we came out of the metro station and saw the Eiffel Tower through the trees, all lit up in blue, it made up for everything.

The Eiffel Tower is such an iconic image – everybody knows what it is and where it is. It dominates that part of the skyline. I just couldn't keep myself from taking pictures of it, even if I could only see one little teeny tiny part. On Friday afternoon, I took about 20 pictures of it in the daylight and I think I took more than that when we saw it on Saturday night. I was amazed how something so big, and so massive, can still manage to look so delicate and almost lacy. That sounds really stupid, but when I look at it, that's what I think. Katherine and I waited in line, the top level was closed, and we could only go to the second level. I was a little worried about the little elevator (we did NOT climb the steps) but it was OK. While we were waiting in line, for about 15 minutes, there were flashing lights that just exploded all over. It was incredible, and the collective gasp of "OOOOO" and "AHHHHH" was quite impressive.

When we stepped out in the 2^nd level, there are hardly any words to explain how beautiful Paris looked. I made a video for my family, while going from side to side. You really can't see anything, except lights, but it's beautiful. While we were up there, there were fireworks somewhere in the distance. While we were on the first floor of the second level, we heard some serious cheering and congratulating from the second floor, and I wondered if someone proposed to someone else. I don't know why I thought that, but it would be awesome if it were true!

We left the Eiffel Tower and grabbed a cab back to our hotel. It was nearly one o'clock when we got back to our hotel. The next morning, we went to the Louvre. We had a little issue with traffic as the Tour de France was ending in the city in the afternoon, and they were already beginning to close streets. We spent the morning in the Louvre; we saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Again, I was just amazed at all the people snapping pictures and this time, there was no sign to say not too, so I snapped right along with them. We did hear that near the Mona Lisa, there is a sign that says "No Flash photography" but we didn't see it and it didn't stop anybody at all. We left the Louvre, avoided the Tour de France barricades and headed back "home" to London.

On the ferry from Calais to Dover, Katherine and I stayed outside the whole time. This ferry was MUCH smaller than our first ferry and actually had an open deck. The "White Cliffs of Dover" were fantastic, and I was so glad to see them. I wondered how much more I would feel if this were actually my country, and I had been away for a long time, how it would feel to see those white cliffs. I thought about airmen during World War II who were flying missions and not knowing if they would make it home, and seeing the cliffs. I can't imagine how it would feel.