Strasbourg and Paris

Strasbourg and Paris

The train to Strasbourg left at about 10 the following morning. We got to Stras after one change in Stutgartt. After repacking my bag and ditching the dirty clothes, and unpacking some of mom's stuff that she was leaving with me. We went to the Cathedral in Strasbourg and then on a boat tour around the island and up to the European Parliament. A traditional Alsacian dinner of Tarte Flambee and beer and then we caught the last train to Paris.

Our hotel was amazing! It was the same one that Dad and I stayed in when we went for Spring Break my sophomore year at Purdue. They gave us a suite for the price of a normal room, which was quite generous. Once we arrived we had discussed going out and getting a glass of wine in a cafe but ended up too tired, so just called it a night.

The next morning, after an unplanned lengthy lie in, we headed out into Paris. We were about 10 blocks from Ile de la Cite, where Notre Dame de Paris is. We wandered past the Inside out architecture of le centre Pompidou, which inside has a Modern art Museum. One of my favourite comments of the trip was mom's statement that "They've cleaned Notre Dame since I was here, it looks like a completely different building!" We spent most of the morning on foot, walking from the hotel to Notre Dame, then along the Seine to the Musee D'Orssay. The Musee d'Orssay was by far the most impressive museum we visited while we were on our trip. Personally, the Impressionists are my favorite painters. And beside the fact that the art there was amazing, the building itself was impressive. A former trains station, it has been transformed into a museum. They built small galleries off in the wings and the main area is still open, you walk in and the roof soars above you, you can see some of the galleries that look somewhat like boxes out in the open area ahead of you. We walked for a bit in a fruitless search for Julia Child's parisian home, only to be thwarted by strange numbering practices along rue de la universite… Next stop was the Eiffel Tower, and rather than walk to it, we took the subway. It stands to reason that even though walking was possible and also perhaps a shorter route, the trip on the subway had a specific goal. The view of the Eiffel Tower from across the river from Trocadero is stunning. I split with mom at the bottom of the tower and took the stairs (all 668 of them) and we met on the second floor. Partly because the elevator didn't stop at the first floor… but it was good. We were standing on the second floor as night fell across the city. The view was stunning to say the least… My favorite part was scanning the city to find the landmarks that we had already seen. Center Pompidou stands out for being ugly by Parisian standards, Notre Dame seems dwarfed by the city around it, and Sacre Coeur stands illuminated on a hill in the distance. We hopped a train home to grab some reading material and then took the metro over to Sacre Coeur. We toured what is in my opinion the most beautiful church in Paris and then settled in a cafe on the square at Montmartre. I've been sat in the three cafes on the square now, one each time I've visited the city. We had to walk home, as I didn't have change and the metro stop didn't have a ticket booth. Needless to say we slept well after that walk.

The following morning we aught a red tour bus near Notre Dame. It was one of the open top tour busses, which, for the morning was a wonderful idea. The bus sped around town,and we hopped off at the Opera as our first stop. The building was massive and the interior was beautiful. Marble (real and false) everywhere, and stunning gold leaf on the details. The inside of the theatre itself was impressive, crushed red velvet seats and expansive stage were gorgeous. After the opera (which I attempted to exit by a non exit door) we hopped back on the tour bus and went up the Champs Elysees (ba dah be dah pa) and took our pause at the Arc De Triomphe. A grueling climb up the spiral stairs (approximately 200 I believe) we found ourselves in what I would call the first ante chamber (I toured enough homes that that was a common phrase I heard over the course of the trip) of the building. Its a lobby up inside the middle of the arch. After a pause for movies and reading, we hiked up the 46 stairs to the roof where we noticed that dark clouds were gathering to our west and after taking some pictures, we made our way back down to the bus stop. We were in the third row, which is just outside the covering on the upper floor, which meant that after a few minutes we were starting to get a bit wet. We had wanted tog et off close to Les Invalides (a Napoleonic hospital made to look like a basilica) and instead were left a mile away, stuck to walk in the rain around Invalides to the Rodin museum. One thing I learned there was that sculpture is notoriously difficult to photograph… We then headed back to the hotel (where our bags were in the luggage room) and then made a quick pause at a post office before finding our train at Gare d'Austerlitz. The 14 hour ride from paris to Madrid was actually pleasant (for me at least)...