Andy Gapin

I’ll do Paris the same way that I did London, a brief rundown of stuff and then pictures at the end.

The city itself – Paris is an insanely beautiful city, but that’s probably obvious. It feels very old, yet it’s very friendly and welcoming. The people are incredibly nice and if you can’t speak the language, are more than willing to try to communicate in English as much as they can. I found that at most places, communicating wasn’t a problem. All of the touristy places were very easy to get by at as most of the signs are in both French and English and the people that work there can speak English. Once you leave these areas, everything is in French only and finding people that speak English can be hit or miss. It’s not too bad though. This was the first time that I’ve ever been somewhere that I couldn’t speak the language and that was always one of my biggest fears, but the most difficult part of it was just getting around on the Metro which I was able to figure it out without too much trouble.

It’s crazy how many people in Paris travel by bike. They even have a system set up so that you can basically rent a bike to get from one point to another. There are tons of them so you can just return it when you get to where you need to go. And there are also a lot of people that ride motorcycles and scooters.

It’s also very mom and pop in almost all the places that we saw with the exception of Champs-Elysées.

Eiffel Tower – I guess I should start with this. I guess it’s a bit cliché to say this, but the Eiffel Tower was definitely my favorite part of Paris. It’s stunning to look at from the ground, both during the day and at night. And the view from the top is incredible. I spent about an hour up there just looking around and I didn’t want to go down. It actually wasn’t even all that crowded when I was there. I wish that I had gone a little later when it was completely dark out, but I sort of misjudged when that was going to be. I got on the elevator at about 8:30 figuring that by the time I got up there, if I hung out for a bit, it would be dark and I’d see the whole city lit up. My plan failed.

Notre-Dame – Holy crap, there were a lot of steps to get up to the top. It was doable, but it definitely takes a bit out of you if you don’t take your time. An older woman actually feel behind us on the way down and nearly took out a younger girl. The top also provided a great view of the city, but the gargoyles were the best part, some of them are pretty crazy. Inside, it was huge and very pretty, but not quite as spectacular as Westminster Abbey was.

Louvre – The Louvre is just way too damn big. It’s completely overwhelming, actually. Even just from the outside, it’s stunningly big, but once you go inside and get a map, you realize that you would literally need a full day just to walk through every room. That doesn’t even give you any time to really sit and appreciate things. I spent three hours there and breezed through less than half of it…and got lost a couple times.

The only thing that I really spent a lot of time on was the Mona Lisa. I never got the big deal about it before, no class in school ever really sold me on it much. I just didn’t see the big deal. However, seeing it in person really changed that. The prints don’t do it justice at all. Everything that you ever hear about it is instantly obvious and very apparent to you when you’re standing in front of it.

I was surprised that they allowed pictures to be taken in the museum, even of the Mona Lisa. I wasn’t expecting that all, but I snapped about 200 shots while I was in there.

Musée d’Orsay – I almost didn’t end up going here, but I was really glad that I did. I had never really been much of a fan of Impressionism before, but I think this museum really tuned me on to it. There are tons of works by Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Munch, Degas, Cézanne, Pissarro, and more, but this museum is a reasonable size. You can see the whole thing in two to three hours. I think I enjoyed this much better than the Louvre, actually. Not that I didn’t like the Louvre, it was awesome, but Musée d’Orsay was just a bit less overwhelming and most of the artwork tended to be more interesting to me.

Les Catacombes – This was crazy! You spend about 45 minutes walking through an underground mine of actual human bones. There are skulls and femurs stacked four or five high lining the sides of the place. It was something that is really interesting to me, but I can see how many people would find it to be a bit much.

Champs-Elysées – I walked down this, but a street that’s nothing but stores lining either side isn’t really that interesting to me. I’m not much for shopping so I didn’t go in any of them. It was kind of cool walking up to the Arc de Triomphe though.

Arc de Triomphe – I had no idea how big this thing was going to be until I saw it. It’s so much bigger than you’d expect from pictures and such. The top of it gives yet another great view of the city.

Sainte-Chapelle – I feel like this would have been a little cooler if I were religious and knew about what all of the pictures in the stained glass meant. It was still very impressive though. The stained glass work is unbelievable. There’s so much of it!

Other stuff – I tried escargot for the first time and it was awesome!