Pirouette

On Saturday Eric and I met Taylor for brunch and saw her off to the airport.  (Thanks so much for visiting Taylor!) Then we headed to the Louvre to stay out of the heat for the day.

Eric was interested in checking out the Roman and Greek sculpture exhibits, which worked out well because I did not see those exhibits when I went with my mom a few weeks ago.  My favorite sculpture of the day was this one.  I am not sure of the real name - I call it "high fiving monkeys" :)

In the evening we ate dinner at Pirouette, a cute French restaurant near Les Halles.  As many restaurants do in Paris, instead of handing us menus the waiter carried over a chalkboard with the day's prix fixe options. 

The food was delicious and very creatively presented!

L'arrivée de Eric!

I've been behind on the blog posts due to limited internet lately - but I'm going to catch up over the next few days with all of  the last week's adventures!  Last Friday Eric arrived! Eric and Taylor and I had a lovely lunch together and then Taylor left to spend the evening with an acquaintance in Paris, and I started touring Eric around the city. It was very hot - close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so we did our best to stay out of the sun.  In the evening I took him on a ferris wheel ride.

We had a lovely dinner at a traditional French restaurant near my apartment.

Afterwords I took Eric on an evening Seine cruse, and he got some really great shots with his SLR camera:

Arc de Triomphe

On Thursday Taylor and I woke up early and attempted to visit the Catacombs, but were disappointed when we saw that a 2 hour line had already built up before they opened, so we went to the Musee d'Orsay instead.  It was nice to spend a little more time there and see the exhibits I missed when I was there with my mom.  We took this picture looking out of the clock tower:

We then stopped at Berthillion for ice cream, a treat that my mom left us money for (thanks Mom! ) Taylor tried a few different flavors of glacee and I had a macaroon ice cream sandwich! yum!

In the evening I took Taylor to Razowski's, an American burger joint my classmates and I discovered a few weeks earlier that has very delicious veggie burgers.  Taylor was thrilled with the choice :)

After dinner we went to to the Arc de Triumph and climbed to the top.  The views of the city were fantastic!

Afterword we strolled the Champs Elysees back to our hotel :)

Les Deux Magots

On Wednesday Taylor and I decided to take it easy after our Versailles journey and have a leisurely walk around the shops on St. Germaine.  After a few hours of shopping, we stopped for lunch at Le Deux Magots, a cafe famous for its popularity in the past as a hangout of many famous artists and writers including Picasso and Hemingway.  

In the evening we had a wonderful picnic on the Seine :)

Versailles

On Tuesday morning Taylor and I woke up and took the train out to Versailles. We made it there around 11, which it turned out was a bit too late to beat the morning rush.  The line looked daunting, but we had come all the way out there so we decided to brave the lines and the heat.  After waiting for about an hour we entered the Versailles Palace.

The rooms were some of the most ornate spaces I have ever seen, covered in gold and bronze decorations, chandeliers, mirrors, and marble.  Not very much in line with my personal aesthetic, but quite an amazing thing to see. :)

My favorite part of Versailles was the gardens, which include over 3 square miles of beautifully shaped and maintained trees, shrubs, and flowers.

Sainte Chapelle et Notre Dame

On Monday morning Taylor and I crossed the bridge to Île de la Cité to visit Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame. Sainte Chapelle, a small gothic chapel that was completed in 1248 and built to house relics of the Passion of Christ, has incredibly stunning stained glass windows that tell many of the stories of the Bible. 

After Saint Chapelle, we took a short walk to Notre Dame, the much larger and more well known cathedral on the same island. Notre Dame was completed in 1345, after nearly two centuries of construction work. It is one of the most well known cathedrals in Paris and throughout the world. 

Upon entering the first thing on the right was a large crucifix. I lit a candle for each set of my grandparents, Alexander and Regina Rutkowski and Godfrey and Dorothy Barnosky, and reflected for a moment upon their lives and how much they would have enjoyed seeing this cathedral.  After walking around for a bit and learning about the history with the help of our audio guides, we were treated to a short performance by a wonderful visiting choir. 

As we continued on we came upon the chapel where the crown of thorns was displayed, encased in red glass. I was quite shocked about this, but turns out it is not the actual crown of thorns, but at most maybe a third class relic.

After touring the inside of Notre Dame, we climbed up to the bell towers which have wonderful views of the city.

La Fête Nationale et L'arrivée de Taylor

The night before Bastille day, the remaining members of the ESSEC crew had our last hurrah at a final Tuileries picnic.

Afterword, we made our way to a nearby fire station for the Bastille Day Firemen's ball.  On Bastille Day, all the fire stations in Paris open up to the public for parties, with dancing and bars filled with firemen serving the drinks :)

On the morning of Bastille Day, July 15th, Taylor arrived! While I was waiting for her at my corner cafe, I witnessed remnants of the military parade and the air show.

In the evening Taylor and I made our way to the Champ de Mars to picnic and watch the fireworks in front of the Eiffel tower.  The crowd there was huge!

The sun stays up forever in Paris in the summer, and the fireworks finally began around 11pm.  It was a fantastic show set to music - one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen.

Taylor took this video towards the end:

Looking forward to another week of Paris exploration with Taylor!!