PARIS

Mom and I (mostly Mom) tried to keep a journal during our trip to Paris. So here are excerpts of that and pictures! We wanted to take advantage of me coming to Europe, and timing worked out better to come before the study abroad program started. So we spent 6 nights in Paris, one in London and then Mom dropped me off at the BYU London Center pretty much in the heart of London. Don't worry, this is probably the most details I'll ever include thanks to Mom's work!

Monday, June 15th

Mom and I took a 9 hour flight from Portland to Amsterdam.

Tuesday June 16th

We arrived in Amsterdam at 6:30 am and took a 9:30 flight to Paris. We’re staying in a Hotel de Cadran in the Le Clur neighborhood not far from the Eiffel Tower.
We had lunch at an outdoor café (they're all over) on a street corner on our way to the Eiffel Tower. It was so exciting to see the tower! It’s amazing. The line to go up on the elevator was soo long.

We met Cassie our bike tour guide with the Fat Tire Bike Company. After walking to their office to get bikes (it took Mom a little bit to adjust to the upright feeling of a California Beach Cruiser). We had a 4 hour tour around Paris. We would stop often and Cassie would point out sights and give historical background. I kept a map in my pocket and followed where we were going to get myself oriented. By the end I left like I could get us anywhere in Paris no problem (turned out to be mostly true :) It was a great way to keep us awake!
On the way home we stopped to look at the Eiffel tower, Mom considered taking a photo but decided against it since it would be right into the sun. She was keeping the camara, it was actually mine, in a waist container. We walked a bit further and she realized she didn’t have the camara. Mom was a little frantic and we tried to figure out when we'd last had it. Had it fallen out? Had someone grabbed it out of her bag? Mom thought it was a goner, and she felt bad because it was my camera (I was just sad about losing the pictures we'd taken). My name and cell # are on it (thanks to Dad!) but its a foreign country and I didn’t have my phone. I suggested walking back to the bike shop to see if we'd left it there. We hadn’t gone far when we heard a man say my name in a foreign accent. He with his friends had Melissa’s camera and had been looking at trying to decide how to get it back to the owner. They saw the photos of me and Angela at the dance recital and they recognized me as we walked by. They had also seen my name engraved on the camara. The man pointed to the name saying the other guy had god eyes to see that and it was the name that made them find me because we had already passed him on the sidewalk and they wouldnt approach someone if they weren't sure if it was me. We were very excited and I’m sure they got a kick at how happy and thrilled we were. We were grateful to know God is watching over us, even in France!
Exhausted tonight - haven't slept much in the past 2 days. But we succesfully stayed up all day and should now we adjusted to the 9 hour time change!

Wednesday June 17th

Our first full day in Paris! We had a typical Pariasn breakfast at our hotel—baguette bread, assorted cheeses, jam and juice.

We took Gram and Grandpa's advice to do the Eiffel Tower the first time we could when the weather was clear! It was a beautiful morning. There was no line to walk up the first 720 steps (400 ft) to the second level (whew!) and then stop to buy another ticket to take the elevator to the top. The Eiffel Tower was built for the World’s Fair in 1889 celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution. The original plan was to take it down, but with its success and Eiffel's great idea to use it as a radio tower - it was there to stay.

We had fun taking lots of pictures on top and on the ground after we came down the whole way in the elevator.

We took our first trip on the Metro to Louvre. Downloaded Rick Steves audio tour online to iTunes and then to my iPod which we shared with two head pones. It was a 50 minute audio of his highlights—it was a great, took about 90 minutes with other browsing a long the way. Supposedly if you spent 1 minute at each piece in the Louvre it would take you 290 days. I liked this way better....

Then went to another wing to see Napoleon’s apartments—very ornate, amazingly large chandelier and the large dining room table with 50 chairs around it.

We took the Metro to Arc de Triumph. Napoleon had this magnificent structure built to commemorate his victory at the battle of Austerlitz. Several instances in Paris history have occurred here. We climbed the stairs (are you seeing a pattern here?) to the top and enjoyed seeing the streets that come into this amazingly large roundabout around the Arc.

We walked down Champs Elysees, the most famous boulevard in Paris, while practicing how to prounouce Champs Elysees (shawn-zay-lee-zay?)

Metro back to Rue Cler, the neighborhood, our hotel is in and shared a gelato.

Tired and ready for a break.

Dinner at Central Café across the street from our hotel

Instead of fighting crowds at the Eiffel Tower to watch the sunset, we went to "the box the Eiffel Tower came in" as the joke goes, but its a nearby skyscraper (Montarmarte) that looks very out of place in an area of Paris which now has height restrictions on their buildings because no one likes this building. Of course they make a business out of it and it cost almost as much as the Eiffel Tower to take the elevator to the top. But then we got to see the sunset AND the Eiffel tower, and also waited patiently ☺ till 11:00 pm to see it sparkle (we had understood that it would sparkle at 10:00 pm). The sunset is at 9:50ish but it really isn’t dark till 10:30 so this time of year we figured out it doesn’t start sparkling on the hour till 11.

Thursday June 18

Mom woke up before me and called Dad and Michelle as they were going to bed.

We started our day out with Notre Dame, France’s most famous church. After walking through we waited in line to take the 400 stairs up to the bell tower to get a gargoyle’s view of the cathedral, Seine river and city.

The Rick Steves tour book has been invaluable. We’ve carried it with us constantly referring to the information/tidbits he gives on everything we’re seeing. We then followed one of his organized walks through what he referred to as the historical part of Paris seeing Ile St. Louis, Left Bank, St. Severin, and the Latin Quarter. Then toured through Sainte-Chapelle, a beautiful, smaller Gothic church of glass like no others they say. The enormous tall stain glass windows were amazing.

Up to this point I thought I had the Metro fingured out but it was a bit more challenging getting us home this time trying to find the right line, right entrance, right train. I solved our problem by walking to a different less complicated stop and by then we were looking forward to enjoying a gelato at Armino’s Cafe right next to our hotel. The guy helping us remembered me from yesterday and asked if I wanted the same thing. We told him we would be back tomorrow.
We rested for awhile and then took a taxis (so we could get there faster) to the Orsay Museum taking advantage of it being open later on Thursday and to use our 2 day museum pass one last time. The Musee d Orsay (mew-zay-dor-say) houses the best collection of Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas and other Impressionists so Mom knew we were going to enjoy this place and we really did. We listened to Rick Steve’s highlights audio tour which we had downloaded again onto my ipod. While sharing an iPod we were literally "attached at the hip" haha.

Mom was excited to see the real Millet’s, “The Gleaners, Degas’s ballerina painters (she remembered when Jessica and her saw several of these at the Portland Art Museum), Renoir’s, Dance at the Moulin, and I was excited to see Monet’s painting of the women with the umbrella that we have in our downstairs’ bathroom. I have to keep reminding myself these are the real thing. We walked along Seine river and took the metro back.

Friday June 19

Mom was going to let me sleep as long as I could but she woke me up at 9 am. She obviously doesn’t know that I’ve taught my body to sleep on demand whenever it gets the chance so the chances of me getting up on my own…slim. I don’t think Mom has mentioned that I contracted some sort of bug on the way over here (Rick Steves claims he always plans on having a cold after a long flight of recycled air – so who knows), which has definitely slowed me down. But of course slowing me down still leaves more energy than the average traveler ☺ So even though sometimes its me on the bench while Mom looks at a few more things, I’m saving my energy for more important things, like climbing to the top of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, which we did today so why don’t I tell you what I did huh?

We walked to the Rodin museum (best sculptor since Michelangelo) passing the Dome church (real gold on top) where Napoleon is buried. We rented audio guides (without that we wouldn’t even know the title of the pieces, everything is in French) and headed into the Hotel Biron, which was transformed into a museum at the end of Rodin’s lifetime around 1917. We started with some of his earlier works displayed inside of the hotel, then went out to his gardens to see the famous “The Thinker” and “The Gates of Hell” based off of Dante’s book.

Jumped on the Metro nearby and rode it all the way to Montmarte. A butte more in the outskirts of Paris but still filled with tourists. We shared a cheese, ham, egg, and tomatoe crepe. We recognized the word for cheese and tomato, but we took a risk on the rest. Walked up the stairs to the Sacre-Coeur Basilica (Barbara Winkel’s suggestion). We saw a lot of people sitting on the stairs and grassy hill overlooking all of Paris (I can see why this is a “hot spot” to watch the sunset). The church sits at the highest point in Paris (420 feet). Entered the church where the mood changed. The exterior and interior of the church look ancient but it’s only a century old. When the Prussians were in control of Paris in 1870, the people thought it was a punishment for sin so they built they collected funds to build a church to show their devotion (took 44 years to build). Your eye immediately goes to the mosaic high above the alter featuring Christ. On his right hand are biblical figures, on his left are French figures – Joan of Arc is at his feet. We then paid a few Euros to climb a never ending, circular, dark, getting ever-smaller staircase to the top of the dome. Once we were there we got to enjoy an even better view than the masses of tourists on the church’s steps below us.

I got an overpriced chocolate crepe and we followed Rick Steves walking touring around Montmarte. Think San Francisco Paris style. The area is situated on a steep butte, so steep hills, skinny roads, but an awesome view of Paris around every corner. We went to the Montmarte Museum (where Renoir did some of his most famous works), learned about the history of Moulin Rouge, and sat in the garden for a few minutes thinking, “Renior was here!” We passed by Renior’s house, statue of St. Denis (holding his head in his hands), Picasso’s studio, and ended at Moulin Rouge. Rode the Metro home, no gelato ☹

Dinner Cruise! Amazing, where to start? Dressed up, walked to the Seine River, boarded Bateaux Parisiens boat and sat in a table by the window at 8:30 pm. The fancy dinner boat left from the Eiffel Tower went down and back on the river. Near the end of the cruise we danced under the lighted Eiffel Tower to the fun French music—it was soo fun! On our way home we got a call form Jennifer who had just come back from having her ultrasound, and a baby girl looks healthy. We're thrilled! Mom told me how Jennifer and her had stood at midnight outside their hotel in Paris 8 years ago at a phone booth trying to convince a nurse at the Provo hospital to tell her if Jessica and Matthew had had their baby.

Bike Tour to Versaille: We rode our bikes a few miles to the train station. We rode the train for about 20 minutes to Versailles and carried own bikes up the escalator, kind of tricky. It was fun riding our bikes through the quaint town of Versailles and then stopping at the market area. Adam (energetic tour guide) gave us recommendations on where to buy the best baguettes, cheeses and wine (that one we ignored ☺). Melissa was excited to purchase a stylish watch for 7 Euros (about $10).

Versailles is the royal place, which king Louis XIV transformed from his father’s former hunting lodge, with vast gardens. Before actually getting there we rode our bikes by Marie Annotteine’s peasant houses (where she “played” peasant) and Adam told us her story beside lots of other French history and the Louis Kings (14, 15 & 16). There are miles of beautiful grounds that surround the palace, kind of like a public park. We rode our bikes along the canal (a mile each way in a cross), an extensive water lake that extends out the back of the palace. It was delightful just riding and riding. We stopped with a view of the palace and ate our delicious lunch that we had we had bought at the market.

Then we rode back to the palace area, heard more history from Adam and then entered the palace. We followed the audio tour with the highlight being the Hall of Mirrors—amazing! Once back to their office we walked back to our hotel stopping at Gusto Italia, a tiny café that our tour guide, Cassie, earlier in the week had recommended—cool, a place the locals would eat and the main waiter seemed to know the customers. The tables are right next together, the tables are literally only an inch or two apart so you don’t feel like you’re really sitting by yourself, very cozy, it was interesting.

June 21, Sunday

We’ve been very pleased with our hotel, Hotel de Cadran. It’s nice, quite newly remodeled small hotel. Our room is very small which is what you would expect in Paris but it is a queen bed and the space is used very well esp. the bathroom with lots of places to put stuff. It’s located in a traditional Parisian neighborhood, called Rue Cler. The main street which our hotel is in frong of is cobblestone without much traffic. There are several markets for fresh produce, bakeries with baguette and pastries, other groceries, cheeses, flowers, etc. It’s been so fun to walk through all this as we have left and come back to our hotel each day.

We had breakfast at Café du Marche, right next to our hotel. It’s a very popular place in the area and there’s a wait in evenings for dinner. We sat outside and had an omlette. Since the first day we haven’t had much problems in ordering, we’ve figured out the important words or motions to use in ordering and for the most part those who have waited on us speak some English.

We took the metro on a couple lines to find 10 Rue Merrie, where the closest ward is located for Church. After going through these large doors that if were both open would allow a small car through into a small courtyard in front of the connecting building where there were several tiny cars parked. The church owns the first and second levels. The church, institute, and study abroad classes use this building.

We met quite a few Americans here finishing BYU study abroads, starting internships, or one gal who married a Frenchman. She’s the one who actually spoke quietly in a microphone translating the service where we could hear on wireless headsets. We quickly felt very comfortable there.
It is was awesome to see a sacrament meeting run the same way as we do, but in another part of the world.

We had wanted to see the Opera Granier where Phantom of the Opera is based. I decided to take on the challenge of making some transfers on the metro to get us there and conquered the station that had thrown me off before :) They had closed early because of a Sunday matinee performance so we didn’t get to go inside but the outside of the massive, elaborateness of the building was still worth it to see.

After changing our clothes we went to a concert at Notre Dame—it was a children’s choir and an organ recital. As you can imagine the acoustics the choir sounded so beautiful and the majestic organ sounded amazing. Just outside of Notre Dame Melissa called dad to wish him a Happy Father’s day.

We then decided to spend our early evening back walking around Concorde Square, Tuilleries Garden and the outside of the Louvre. The Louvre is enormous! We got some cool pictures of the sun going down through the clouds shining on the Louvre’s glass pyramid.

The police siren is like the one you hear in Bourne Identify films (which we had just recently watched), probably typical for most European countries. Every time we heard it we’d wonder, “Watch out Bourne, they're coming for you!”

Before we came we were s a little worried that this might be too much time in one place but it has been great to have lots of time, no hurry and with our Rick Steves books giving us a wealth of options of things to do we still didn’t do everything we would have liked to, mostly because we just didn’t have the energy to do more (my cold never went away!). Our appreciation for Paris, it’s beauty and culture has increased. It’s been a memorable experience with Mom, exploring Paris together!