Au Revoir, Paris

We are on the road today, left Paris, touring through southern France and then off to stay at a pilgrimage for the night. I’m probably going to make this entry short, just cause I already wrote about most of yesterday and today is pretty fresh, so not much to talk about.

So last night I saw Paris after dark and took a lot of pictures. It was pretty fun to see and the pictures came out really well, I think. At 11:00 pm, I just so happened to be taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower when all of a sudden it started sparkling. I can’t describe it very well, not even to other people on the trip, so I’m not even going to try to explain it to you via typing. But take a look at the photos... when I get them up... and maybe you can see the sparkles. Anyway, the sparkles lasted for about 5 minutes and then stopped. It was great!

Anyway, the city was awesome, and it was even better in the dark. But enough said, it is something you’ll need to experience yourself to understand!

Good morning in the States!

Ps. The picture above is my signature on the Eiffel Tower. Many people signed the billboards on the stairway to the top, so I joined in.

Fraaaance

So yesterday was a pretty good day, the weather was good for the most part, the building we saw were amazing, and the small community we stayed at was the exact opposite of every other place we have been since arriving in Europe.

Yesterday started by visiting Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoya, pictured above. I’ve seen this building many times during my studies at WIT, but to actually be there was incredible. It is one of those buildings you just never want to leave. It is hard to believe this house, like the Shroder house, was built in the 20’s.

Next was the Versailles Garden, which is by far the largest garden I have ever seen! You should probably Google it. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperative during my visit, but it was still nice to wonder the gardens. The gardens are over 1,900 acres and were built by the order of Louis XIII. Like I said, find a map on Google and check it out, it’s HUGE and pretty amazing. I wish the weather would have been nicer and we had more time, a bunch of us were going to rent segways!

After the gardens was another beautiful house called Maison Carre’ by Alvar Aalto. This another building that is studied a lot in school, but again, it is nothing that you ever imagined when you finally visit it. This space was amazing, even with the vegetation overgrown to block what use to be views for miles. Though this building was built in the mid to late 50’s, it still looks pretty modern for todays time.

Anyway, after all that, it only got better. Last night the group went to this very little village in the mountains of southern France. I believe it was a place called Vézelay, though I am not 100% sure at this point. But in this village, way at the top of the hillside, was a beautiful cathedral. We just so happened to get to the cathedral just in time for mass and I sat through my first Catholic mass. Though I had no idea what they were saying because it was in French, their voices and singing carried through the 12th century building so clearly and beautifully.

After mass, a few of us went out to get dinner and stumbled upon this relatively fancy restaurant. I was served a 3 course meal for 19 euros, which contained a little bit of chicken, pork ribs, duck, potato vegetable soup, and raspberry mousse. Ya, that’s right, I ate duck and it was pretty good. I thought it was a cross between steak and chicken, not sure if I’d ever order it as a meal, but I’d definitely eat it if it was readily available.

So overall it was a pretty good day, a lot of fun and adventure. Also a lot of driving on the bus! This trip is almost over and Berlin is only a few days away. Soon I’ll start chatting more about my experiences in Europe and how they differ from US, but I’m just letting them build up right now so I can post an entire blog about them. I will say it is almost 100% different, that is my opinion.

But that concludes another night. Just past 11 pm here. Sorry for the lack of posts. Internet in Paris and France in general was weak if existing at all. Hope all these post make up for it. Take care all!

Bonjour, Paris

Tonight will be my last night in Paris, it has been great here. The people are nice, the buildings are fantastic, and the weather is... ok. There are a ton of things to climb, the picture above is at the top of Notre Dame, but I also climbed the Eiffel Tower this afternoon. I thought Notre Dame was a lot of climbing after spinning around a spiral staircase which seemed to lead no where, then I climbed the Eiffel Tower. Both climbs were well worth it in the end and now I can say I actually climbed the Eiffel Tower, not just took the elevator.

Anyway, Paris is a great city to see many different kinds of architecture, it is almost like an onion. The center of town, the area where it all began, is the historic area. There are buildings wall-to-wall, parks built by kings, cobblestone, and very old buildings. As you get further out of town, the buildings get more and more modern until you finally reach the tall skyscrapers. The coolest thing about this is that the city is split directly down the middle by a river, so if you take a river tour you can see all these layers and most of the important buildings can be seen from the river anyway.

One thing that took my by surprise were the rats. At night time, these things are everywhere! You usually only seem them near the bushes and grass areas, but I saw one dart through the plaza like it was trying to set a new land-speed record or something. After investigating where it came from, I found what appeared to be a colony.

Well I guess that will be it for tonight, still not a strong internet connect, so again I can’t upload this. I think I may be switching to google blog because it will work better in places I don’t have strong internet and it will allow everyone to comment back so I can see what everyone thinks. I don’t know though, we’ll see.

Take care and enjoy your day!