La Tour Eiffel, Sacre Coeur et Versailles!!

On Tuesday afternoon after class, Wendi, Janna and I went to the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed to the top to get a good view of the city... too bad it started raining after a few minutes at the top. Then we walked around Champs Elysee (sp?) which is a street famous for good shopping. All we could afford were sandwiches though.

That night was a real highlight... we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower! It cost 12 Euros to go all the way up (why would you go part way? I'm not sure...). Most of our group went up at around the same time so we had fun hanging out there until nightfall. The view was so amazing at night! The city lights and the Seine were gorgeous!

Another highlight for me, besides my Nutella crepe from the Latin Quarter, was sitting in the Luxembourg gardens on a sunny afternoon. Of all the parts of the city that I've seen, that was the most pleasant. Palm trees, flowers, grass, statues, and a pond... lovely. After the gardens, we went to Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) which turns out to be really close to our hotel. It's a beautiful basilica on a hill that has a great view of the city. We had a picnic lunch, listened to people play music and then explored the inside of the church. I appreciate that no photography is allowed inside because snapping pictures always takes away from the serenity of such a center of worship.

Today we went to Versailles Palace, home of Louis XIV and Napoleon I. It was not what I expected. Something about it seemed really fake or insincere... I can't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it was the tourists, maybe the plaster replicas of statues. I felt like it was a huge display of French snootiness- similar to the Louvre. The strangest part of the visit was the sculptures in the style of modern art that were placed throughout the palace. There was a massive magenta balloon dog in the middle of room, then an inflatable lobster pool toy hanging in the middle of a drawing room... I completely lost it when I saw a porcelain sculpture of Michael Jackson and a monkey in another room. It was really hard to focus on the palace and learn about history with such distractions. I'm not sure what the purpose of the placement of modern art in Versailles was. I haven't learned to appreciate that style of art- it isn't as appealing to me as Monet's paintings of his garden. I definitely didn't get was I was expecting!

I did learn a couple of interesting facts about Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette. Louis had "going to bed" and "awakening" ceremonies where he was assisted by numerous people. He usually changed shirts in the morning because he would often sweat a lot. The queen gave birth to her children in public so that there would be no question of the legitimacy of the heirs. Marie-Antoinette, following the ideas of the Enlightenment, made several changes to the palace according to her tastes and created a small play town where she could pretend to be a peasant. I guess when you are queen you pretend to be a peasant and when you are peasant you pretend to be queen!

Tomorrow we are going Chartres to visit the cathedral that has two different spires because they were built four centuries apart! There is also a labyrinth in the church so it should a really interesting place to visit. Even more exciting is the fact that the pope is coming to Paris tomorrow and there are special services at Notre Dame in his honor. I will hopefully make it to see him.

If you are reading my blog, please leave me a comment or shoot me an email once in a while to keep me updated. And I'd love the encouragement to keep writing--- hopefully my thoughts aren't lost somewhere in cyberspace...

Love you all! Bonsoir!