Six Hours in Paris

Me, Christmas tree, Notre Dame.

Our pre-Christmas travels ended in Paris ("the New York City of France"). Now, we know that for many Americans France and Paris are one and the same thing, but despite living in France for three months, we had only spent time in the Paris airport and in the Paris Metro system getting from the airport to the train station. But to return to the US for Christmas, we had to fly out of Paris at 7 am so we decided to take a train there the day before, spend the afternoon in the city, stay at the Ibis Hotel at the airport (which was quite nice and very cheap!), then get up unbelievably early to catch our flight home. So we've now (finally!) had our first experience together in Paris, albeit very briefly.

Interior, Notre Dame. Lisa thinks this is quite an impressive view
of the inside.

Because Lisa had been to Paris before, it was up to me to choose what we would spend our afternoon doing. While seeing the Louvre or the Musee d'Orsay are near the top of my list, I knew those would take hours in and of themselves. So, to see more of the city, I decided on the cathedral of Notre Dame (home of the famous hunchback) and the Eiffel Tower (which Lisa hadn't seen up close on her previous visit). We started by taking the train from the airport into the city center, helping some rather confused young Eastern European women purchase tickets for the train and helping a guy on the train find out which branch of the train-line he was one. We got off the train in central Paris and walked to Notre Dame, approaching it from the front, which is a pretty impressive facade.

Rose window, Notre Dame.

There were quite a few tourists inside, more than we've seen at most other sites we've visited (although Lisa said there were many more on her first visit). I didn't find the interior all that impressive, although in fairness, it was cloudy and mid-afternoon, so not much light came in and we had just seen the amazing Men's Abbey in Caen earlier in the week. But the stained glass in the church was very pretty, particularly the shade of blue they used. Sadly, many of the stained glass windows were destroyed during the French Revolution (again, most revolutionaries didn't like the Catholic Church too much).

Exterior, Notre Dame.

After walking around the entire interior, we walked around the exterior and the decorations around the windows and on the buttresses were quite beautiful. Perhaps the exterior is the way to appreciate the church. The whole building was constructed between 1163 and 1345 and there were apparently numerous changes to the architectural styles on the exterior during this period (although I didn't know that at the time I was there). It was one of the first buildings to use flying buttresses to support the walls, allowing them to be thinner and taller and meaning it was easier to install large windows without damaging the structural integrity of the walls. One more note on the exterior: during the French Revolution, revolutionaries ripped off and beheaded many of the sculptures of the kings of Judah, thinking they were kings of France who deserved to be symbolically beheaded!

Notre Dame.

Eiffel Tower.

Next, we walked back to the underground station to go to the Eiffel Tower. On leaving the station, we walked along the Seine for a short ways (encountering a woman who asked directions to the underground station - apparently we were the go-to people for directions that day!), then suddenly we cleared the buildings and the Tower appeared practically out of nowhere. It was very surprising! It's much taller than either Lisa or I thought and, as Lisa said, it's more beautiful than we expected, with decorative pieces of metal on the underside of the arches. We walked around underneath it for a while, but we decided not to go up into it partly because it was a cold and windy day and partly because I'm not sure if I could handle the height!

Military School.

We then walked through a long park (the Champ du Mars, named after the Campus Martius in Rome) away from the Tower and towards the Military School, taking pictures of the Tower as we went. At the end of the park, we could see the dome of Les Invalides (originally a hospital and retirement home for French war veterans but now also containing military museums and monuments) behind the Military School. We also got to see a rather modern Peace Monument installed in the park directly in front of the school. By this time, it was about 5 o'clock and they turned on the lights of the Tower, so we got to see it fully illuminated.

Dome in the background from Les Invalides.

Peace Monument in the foreground.

Le Pierrot restaurant.

We decided it was time to get some dinner (despite being so early) because we had to get back to the airport to turn in since we had to be up so early the next morning for our flight. We walked down a large street (the Avenue de la Motte-Picquet, if you're curious) away from the school and settled on eating at Le Pierrot. It was a nice bar/brasserie, but we were the only people eating dinner at such an early hour - most people were having a late afternoon coffee or an after-work beer. Lisa had an asparagus-spinach soup and poached eggs in ratatouille and I had a crusty goat cheese salad (which was much larger than I expected!) and sausages and potatoes in oil. For dessert, we split a mascarpone mousse with strawberries and mint leaves, which was very good, even if it was a bit summery.

First course at Le Pierrot.

Artsy shot of the Eiffel Tower.

After dinner, we walked back towards the Eiffel Tower (but along a well-lighted street, not through the dark park!). It was very cool to see it bathed in light. I was also impressed that the stairs/elevator to the top doesn't close till 11:45 pm. I'm sure it's very beautiful to see Paris at night from the top of the Tower! After taking a few more pictures, we took the train back out to the airport hotel, ready to leave the next morning for two weeks with family in the States.

PS. This blog entry was written by Aaron, despite the fact that it says by Lisa.

Bonus picture: The Notre Dame nativity scene had running water in it!