April in Paris

I suppose "Paris in April" would be a little more accurate but that is not nearly as fun!

I've been here three days, and we've done our best to cram as much as we could into these three days without making ourselves too exhausted. Tomorrow is our last full day here before we head home Monday morning! We've made sure to take the time to eat and sit down and recognize when we need to go home, and so far it's made a difference.

We took a night train on Wednesday and arrived in Paris around 9:30 Thursday morning. There are seven of us from BCGS here, and us three girls (Hilary from ND and Leah from Johns Hopkins) found an apartment near the Bastille area that is cute though quite tiny with a kitchen, bathroom, place to sleep and internet so we are thrilled with it. Thursday was our settling in day, we hung out at a cafe for an hour till we could get the key to our apartment, then we started walking around! We saw the outside of Notre Dame Cathedral and bought our museum passes at Sainte-Chapelle, where we also met a friendly German who chatted with us (auf Deutsch, of course!) which was very fun. Sainte-Chapelle was beautiful, it's tucked away not too far from Notre Dame and full of so much beautiful stained glass.

Notre Dame!

Inside Sainte Chapelle

We also hit up the Louvre before it closes. I know you could spend a week at the Louvre and still not see everything, but sadly we don't have a week so we saw what we could in a few hours. We made sure we saw the Mona Lisa before trying to find the artists that we were more interested in. I mean of course we are interested in the Mona Lisa, a painting that is famous for being famous, but it's hard to really appreciate a piece of art when there's 15 feet of visitors and cameras held in the air between you and it. The paintings from Renoir, Monet and Dürer were a lot quieter.

Hilary, Leah and myself in front of the Louvre

From there we tightened our walking shoes and headed to the Eiffel Tower. The weather was gorgeous (and has been with the exception of one 30 minute shower/hail storm Saturday afternoon) which helped. Also, since we were getting hungry, we stopped for some delicious crepes with sugar on the way which definitely bolstered our spirits. And before long we were at the Eiffel Tower!

Guess where?

Friday we spent the day at Versailles. Again, stunning, but we walked so much that by 5 o'clock we knew it was time to head back. Versailles and the Hall of Mirrors was obviously very impressive, but it was so full of people that sometimes I found it a little hard to really appreciate the room. The gardens were so cool, huge and so precisely trimmed and well-kept, and the flowers were in full bloom. I really loved the Grand Trianon, another place on the Versailles estate, and the Petit Trianon, which was Marie Antoinette's  extra castle. The Grand Trianon especially was beautiful, and much quieter, so it just felt more like the home of royalty. Plus the castle matched the flowers!

Versailles

Grand Trianon

Friday after Versailles we made dinner--lots of dinner--in our apartment before heading out to the Arc de Triomphe just as it was getting dark. We climbed all the way up to the top too, and wow! was that a cool view. You could of course see the Eiffel Tower, very neat, and just seeing all the lights of the city coming out was beautiful. Afterwards we met the boys for an hour or so near our apartment to exchange stories before they had to head back to where they were staying.

Arc de Triomphe

Looking out from the top

And today--another eventful day! We hit up two of my Aunt Kye's suggestions before closing time: Musée Rodin and Musée d'Orsay. Musée Rodin is a sculpture museum, with many sculptures in the gardens surrounding the girl's school-turned-hotel-turned-museum. Musée d'Orsay was especially cool, because it has many works by some of my favorite artists: Monet and Renoir (including his most famous "Moulin de la Galette"), and my new favorites Pissarro and Sisley. This museum didn't allow photography so I can't share any examples with you but if you Google Image any of those you'll see. I bought a print of Renoir's "Chemin montant dans les hautes herbes" as a souvenir that can add a little more culture to my room.

We found a place to eat close to the museum, since we were again starving, and then we headed to Notre Dame again, this time for Mass! We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and still made it to Notre Dame at about 7:30, when we joined the line for the Easter Vigil Mass. Arriving an hour and a half early put us quite close to the front of the line. We could enter the cathedral at about 8:15. The only downside was that we couldn't see the huge bonfire that was lit in front of the cathedral--we saw them setting it up while we waited in line and chatted with our new German friends--but we could see a little from the TV screens inside the church. The service was definitely impressive, and the inside of the cathedral was stunning, or so I think. It's so big! And the architecture is so impressive. I don't know what else to say. The service was not quite the Vigil service I was expecting, but it's hard to say why. I think it, again, had to do with how many people were there. Also since it was entirely in French I could follow the readings by studying the program and using my pathetically small "vocabulary" and grasp of the readings in English, but the homily was lost on me. And it was a very long service--three hours. I had expected that much, but that doesn't make standing up for so long any easier! I was also intrigued by the five people who were baptized and confirmed tonight--how on earth do you get to be confirmed in the Notre Dame cathedral?

Overall it was a stunning way to celebrate Easter. I still can't believe I just saw Easter Mass in the Notre Dame cathedral. Can't wait to see what the rest of this trip brings!