Visiting The Eiffel Tower And Other Strange Wanderings In Paris

It is a chilly, rainy day in Paris and somehow it manages to still be beautiful. Kaylin, Russ' cousin Drew and I took le metro up to Montemarte, which is the north side of Paris and the highest point in the city. We met up with a friend of Drew's in Montemarte and walked up the lovely cobblestone streets and steep staircases, winding through charming backroads until we finally came upon Sacre-Coeur. Le Sacre-Coeur is a large basilica that was built in the late eighteen-hundreds and it overlooks the entire city of Paris.

The inside of it is absolutely incredible. Unfortunately, it is forbidden to take photos inside the church because it is a sacred place of "perpetual prayer." I'm not really sure what that means besides the fact that I couldn't take pictures, so I have no photos of the inside. The ceilings inside were so high and carved completely from gray stone. There is one big dome in the center of the building and a half-dome at the end of the building with a mosaic of Jesus and I guess a bunch of saints, all outlined in gold. There were statues of Mary everywhere, carved out of stone and marble, there were little alcoves built around the inside of the church, each of them devoted to a different saint. There were tables of candles set around of each of these alcoves, and people were lighting them and I think they were praying. You were not allowed to talk or make noise, and the man at the door was turning people away for people dressed inappropriately (tank tops, shorts, etc). I don't know much about Catholicism, so I wasn't really sure what was going on most of the time, but it was the most beautiful church I have ever been to.

Kaylin and I split from Drew and his friend and took le metro from the north of Paris all the way to the south of Paris in Montparnasse to try to see the Catacombs, but unfortunately it was closing as we got there, so we will try again another day

Last night was quite an adventure. Kaylin and I left the dorms around nine o'clock last night to take a walk around le Jardin Luxembourg (Paris is really far north, so the sun doesn't set until like ten-thirty at night). When we got there, it was closed, so we just walked around looking for something interesting to do. Suddenly Kaylin looked at me and said, "Let's go to the Eiffel Tower!"

I thought that was a wonderful idea, considering that at night they put on a light show there. So I pulled out my handy-dandy Rick Steves' 2008 France travel guide, and turned to the Metro map. We found what lines we needed to take to get there, and went straight to the Cluny-La Sorbonne metro station. We had to switch trains three times and walk for a while to get there, but it was so worth it.

The Eiffel Tower had blue lights on it, making it glow against the city background. Soon after we got there and started taking pictures, they turned on these white lights that blinked all over the Tower, making it sparkle like a diamond. They started out blinking slowly, then over time they got faster and faster until the Tower was a fantastic blur of blue and white.

As we were leaving the Eiffel Tower, we ran into a group of about seven girls from the Auburn group. They were also leaving to go to a cafe and invited us to go with them. Unfortunately it was nearing midnight and all the cafes were either closed or closing and we were tired. So Kaylin and I decided we just wanted to go home and three other girls joined us. Four of the others decided to venture on in there quest for an open cafe so the group split. We walked around for about twenty minutes looking for a metro station before we realized that we were lost. In Paris, in the middle of the night.

But fortunately I had my handy-dandy Rick Steves' book with an excellent map of the metro and the streets. After about a half an hour of wandering around and directions from a waiter at a cafe that was actually open, we found the metro with twenty-five minutes before it stopped running. Two trains later, we were back at the dorms!