Welcome to the second part of my European Tour!
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As our tourism of London came to an end, we started our journey to Paris. Of course, to get there, we had to cross a sizable body of water known as the Strait of Dover (English Channel). If you can make the obvious guess, yes, we saw the White Cliffs of Dover and they were beautiful. It saddened me that we couldn't stay longer for more pictures but we had to stick to a schedule and make sure that we were on time for our ferryboat. Although I did manage to snap a picture of the Cliffs as we pulled away from the docks. It doesn't capture their beauty entirely, but there's still beauty shown.
When we arrived in Paris, we visited one of the classic landmarks, a Roman Catholic Church. The Basilique du Sacre'-Coeur, or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris (if you want to know the English, less complicated translation). Before we climbed the endless amount of stairs that separated the town from the Cathedral, our tour guides gave us a challenge: as we climbed the stairs, we had to keep track of each stair step, counting all the way up; only when we all reached the top was when they would tell us how many there were. In case you don't know, there's TOO FREAKING MANY. As you can imagine, everyone lost count one-third or about half-way up, and we all got discouraged. To add on to the discouragement, I don't remember the obscene number that they told us.
We continued our journey with a bus tour throughout Paris, showing us all the landmarks that we had only imagined seeing. This included the newly constructed opera house, The Opera Bastille that retired the older opera house, Palais Garnier, which housed a legend that I'm sure a lot may be familiar with but might not have recognized: The Phantom of the Opera. Because of this legend, not to mention its breathtaking architecture, it is still one of the most famous landmarks in Paris.
Eventually we made our way to the renown Eiffel Tower. Seeing it in pictures is nothing compared to being able to look at the real thing. It's breathtaking. During this little visit at the Eiffel Tower, our chaperones gave us about an hour and a half to do whatever we wanted, whether that be climbing all the way to the top of the Tower, walking around the little plaza, or taking advantage of lunch time. We wanted to climb to the top but everyone else had that idea, so we decided to add a little bit of elegant simplicity. We decided to have lunch in the lawn of the Tower, where if we looked up, we would see nothing else aside from the shade-giving tree branches, clouds, and the Tower. There were four of us in the group, two girls and two guys, so to any outsiders, it would look like a double-date (which I'll admit, it was kinda cute).
After our pseudo-double-date and after everyone's time ran out, we got back on our assigned buses and we went to visit the Arc de Triomphe and took many photo-ops. Eventually leaving once again, making our way to the Louvre, one of the most famous landmarks in Paris and one of the most renown museums in the world. Just like the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, it takes more than a day, or two hours for that matter, to see everything in the museum and really soak it in. But as far as this museum was concerned, I really only cared about seeing one thing; the Mona Lisa.
The group that I was walking around with were taking pictures as we walked by everything, to be fair I was too but they didn't turn out that great. I thought it was really clever and convenient that the Louvre had signs put up all around the building guiding guests to see her. It was really fun because it kind of turned into a game of "where is the next sign" because they weren't exactly EVERYWHERE, just in one spot in each room...and there were a lot of rooms..and they were huge. We kept going and going until we found the room; we found her.
All around the room, there were tourists from many other countries. Upon seeing the obnoxious amount of people, my group of friends decided to settle and get their pictures of her from afar, but not me. I couldn't do that. There was a multi-cultural sea separating me from her, and I was determined to fight and swim to the front row so I could say that I got within 10 feet of the Mona Lisa. Though the room was large, it was probably the hottest room of the building because the majority of the Louvre's guests were gathered in that room waiting to meet her.
A large mass of people + a heated room = a sizable pool of sweat.
But I didn't care. I pushed and pushed until I got everyone out of my way; a clear path to her. I stood in awe at the velvet rope that separated her from her fans. Sitting comfortable in her glass case with her infamous half-smirk that everyone questions as a smile. I snapped as many pictures of her as I could, wanting to look through my camera gallery later on to find the best shot. Many blurry and deleted pictures later, I finally found one of her that captures her beautiful simplicity. Thank you for the opportunity, da Vinci.
We visited one last place in Paris that certainly isn't the least; the Notre Dame Cathedral. Granted, I don't consider myself a religious person, but standing at the steps of this cathedral made me feel something that I hadn't felt before. I felt something literally pulling me in (mostly because my friend was super excited and wanted to go inside). The steps were one thing, but actually stepping inside the cathedral was something else. I felt weightless, pure. Staring at the infamous stain-glass windows puts you in a trance; their beauty, the stories that are painted in each piece of glass. This religious structure got one of the most religion-skeptical people to feel the holy spirit surrounding her. The feeling was honestly unreal. Describing every little detail is almost impossible.
Paris was an amazing experience all around because of the sights and the opportunities that we had. The only complaint that I really had/have about it is the pick-pockets and the people trying to sell you stuff all the time. Granted, I did give in eventually and got a mini Eiffel Tower that I've always had on my desk to this day.
Sit tight though! Because this European Tour isn't over. We've still got a few countries to go!
