Day 7: Paris

Thursday, May 22, 2008

We were so proud of ourselves for planning our time well enough to be able to go out to Versailles. We got up and out early, packed a lovely little lunch then went to catch the train. STRIKE! Shocking that there would be a strike in Paris of all places (this sentence is dripping with sarcasm if you couldn't tell). Not only were there strikes on some of the train lines but at the palace itself. We were so dissappointed!

But... as fate would have it we found ourselves right in front of the Musee D'Orsay. We hadn't planned on touring it because just the day before we'd tired ourselves out at the Louvre. What a mistake it would have been to miss the Orsay! It was chock full of all the impressionism we wish we would have seen at the Louvre. We absolutely LOVED the Orsay! So many beautiful Monets, Pisarros (my new favorite!), Van Goghs, Cezannes... and the list goes on! Seriously loved it.

Probably the best moment of our entire trip was eating our lunch after finishing with the museum. We sat on the steps and savored our baguette, vache qui rit cheese ("Pourquoi le vache qui rit rit?"), fruit and Petit Prince cookies (my faaaaavorite!). It was a happy throw back to all the times I ate that on the mission. Honestly, food has never tasted so good.

Finally we were able to tour Ste Chappelle- our Everest!! However, after having to wait in line for over 1-1/2 hrs it hardly seemed impressive. The stained glass really is amazing as is the sheer age of the building.

We were a little unsure as to what to do with the rest of our last evening in Paris so we wandered over to the Paris Opera but much to our chagrin it was closed. We were able to enter the foyer and peek in a bit. It was stunning and we were so sad we wasted time waiting to see Ste Chappelle instead of touring the opera house. But... water under the bridge.

Our last Paris evening was fantastic! We trekked up to Sacre Coeur (something I always regretted NOT doing on my last trip to Paris) and were totally unprepared for the awesomeness that would ensue. We spent hours sitting on the steps, people watching and enjoying the performers. With all the buzz out on the steps we were shocked that the basillica itself was the most reverent and peaceful of all the churches we'd toured.

We got hit on by drunk guys, watched 2 guys who could do amazing things with a soccer ball, saw fire performers (I have no idea what to call them... but there was fire involved and it was awesome!) and just soaked in the atmosphere. It was the best way to end our stay in Paris.


PS- we won't even mention (ok maybe I will) how our entire stay in Paris was so frustrating, especially our last night, trying to figure out how to buy train tickets to the airport, taking our chances with the train strike the finally deciding to take a taxi. Oh... and I may have snoozed straight through the alarm and woke up exactly 2 minutes before the taxi arrived to pick us up. Sigh... we were so ready to be done with Paris. Beautiful city though!