Day 6: We took a few hour train to Paris. We got there in the evening, but still made a day of it.
We took the metro, saw the Siene River and went to see the Musee d'Orsay. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography
The museum itself is a work of art. Such an incredibly beautiful building.
One of my favorite artists is actually a contemporary artist from America.
Kehinde Wiley is an American portrait painter based in New York City, who is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of Black people, frequently referencing the work of Old Master paintings. His painted was larger than life and so beautiful. The sculptures were stunning too. Recently in book club we read a book that talked about an art piece by Toulouse-Lautrec so it was cool to see some of his art pieces in person.
Growing up my parents had an art book and my favorite paintings were always the impressionists like Degas, Monet, and Degas. I also always really liked Van Gogh. These are still my favorites and seeing them in person was so surreal.
Steve looked out the window on the upper floor and caught this cool view of the Eiffel tower. This was our first good view of the Eiffel tower and it was amazing.
We loved this museum. It was an amazing way to start our Paris journey.
Day 7: Jamen came along with us to do some sight seeing. We saw the kind of sad remnants of the Notre Dame. I did get a sense of how beautiful it used to be.
Next we went to Sainte-Chapelle church (and learned it's best to buy tickets ahead of time; we waited forever in line, but it was worth the wait). This church was small but packed a punch. It was absolutely stunning!
We stopped and got some hot chocolate and savory crepes.
It wasn't too cold luckily but we did get a little drizzle as we headed over to the Louvre Museum. Similar to the other museum we saw, this building itself was a work of art. The palace the museum is located in so vast and beautifully built.
The last time Jamen came to Paris you could just walk in and purchase tickets. But since Covid you aren't allowed in without pre bought timed tickets. All of us had terrible service though so it took forever and lot of waiting in line with a lot of umbrella clad people to finally purchase tickets and get it (again, lesson learned. But again, worth the wait).
Again, Steve could have spent all day with the old things. We spent a long time in the ancient Egyption section. Our goal was to find the oldest things possible and the winner were some flint tools dating from 200,000-4,000 BC).
I was obsessed with all the rooms. The master artistry in all the big to small details was absolutely amazing. I especially loved the large tapestries on the wall. I can't imagine the amount of time and talent they took.
We did the obligatory viewing of the Mona Lisa, but didn't care enough to wait in line (shrug, there were way more intersting things to see). You could literally spend weeks in the Louvre and still not see or appreciate it all.
Day 8: Steve and I ventured out on our own again today. We reserved (thankfully) tickets to The Arc de Triomphe to walk up to the viewing deck on top. It was larger than life and one of the main things I was excited to see in Paris.
There was a spiral staircase you had to walk all the way to the top. I'm in decent shape but I was struggling hard. I was panting and dying by the end. We got almost the top and there was a frenchman behind us that chuckled and asked if I was going to be ok. When we did finally make it there was a small museum at the top with cool statues.
The viewing deck had an amazing 360 view of the city included the Eiffel tower.
I was loving it; Steve not so much. But he was brave enough to come closer to the edge to take a picture.
Under the arch was just as amazing as the top. Again, the beauty and detail just astounds me.
After this we planned to just walk around and see where the day took us. We found a cute little section of town to walk around with shops. We found a little corner cafe with outdoor seating. All the outdoor seating was taken so we decided to just take our food to go. But while we were waiting in line a table opened up so we went out to take it. As we were making our way out we overheard a group of other American's on a girls trip by the look of it, that had just walked up to the cafe asking a waiter if they had to wait to be seated or if they could take a table. He told them they can just sit. The women stood to the side deciding if they should eat there or not. We had been there longer than them and we knew for sure we wanted to eat there so we walked around them and took the table. The girls talked for another minute and then decided to stay and turned to take the table only to see us there. We pretended not to notice how upset they were as we were very interested in our menu's. The leader of the girls kept saying, "I"m so sorry girls". But luckily for them as they were deciding what to do next another table opened up so it all worked out. :)
The one thing I regret about Paris is we didn't take the time to seek out good restaurants so none of the food we had was amazing. This place was good though and I had an orange and chocolate macaron that was probably the best thing I had while in Paris.
While we were eating a cute older couple came and sat in the table right next to use (The tables were set up in 2 round small tables right next to each other that could be used as a table for 4 or two tables with 2 each). They lived in the states but the wife was originally from England. I overheard them talking about Père Lachaise Cemetery and we had thought about going there so I introduced ourselves and asked them about it. We ended up chatting with them the rest of our meal and running into them a little later in the day.
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Paris and was so beautiful and old. I loved walking the peaceful lanes with Steve. There were a lot famous people burred in the cemetery. Probably the most famous is Jim Morrison.
Spencer asked from a rock from Germany and France so Steve snagged one out of this wall from an area of town that was one of the oldest in Paris.
And the main event for most Paris visitors- The Eiffel Tower.
It really was pretty amazing seeing it in person. There were no public bathrooms and there was a lot of construction around it, but still amazing.
This sunset was unreal though.
I truly was grateful to have Steve by my side through this adventure. My favorite travel companion and life partner.
Train ride home back to Germany.
We spent one more night in Germany and then Jamen drove us to the airport the next day to fly home. They drove us over to a new home they had purchased and the view reminded me yet again how much I love Germany.
Jet lag was brutal on the way home, my sleep was messed up for days, but this trip was the trip of a lifetime. I could not be more grateful and will have fond memories for a life time.
