Paris

From Dublin, we flew to Paris. I was really excited to be back in France, and really looking forward to speaking (non-québecois) French again. Our hotel was in a really central and nice location in the 1^er arrondissement, near the Louvre.

On our first day, we walked through the Tuileries Gardens, saw Madeleine Church, Notre Dame, and very disturbing art at the Pompidou Centre.


The next day, I went to the Musée Rodin, and the Musée d'Orsay, where I had some odd flashbacks of being 12 years old, and seeing the same statues outside the museum. After we had a leisurely coffee in St. Germain. All the chairs at tables in the cafés in Paris faced outwards, so you can watch the people go by in the squares.

We went to St. Sulpice Church next, which was in the Da Vinci Code. We didn't see any albinos or dead nuns, but it does have the gnomon (obelisk). It was funny because everyone was trying to pretend that they were there because of the holyness of the church, and not because of the book, but no one was pulling it off.

Next was place des Vosges which is "arguably the city's most beautiful square." It had pink-brick and stone mansions, and I really liked it, even though I had a lot of trouble seeing the colours.

It was also really near the Jewish Quarter, so I stopped to check out the neighbourhood.

The next day, we saw the Paris marathon in the morning, and then went to Versailles. I toured the palace, but wasn't that impressed - it really wasn't any different than Blenheim, or the Doge's palace in Florence. But the gardens were really incredible. Normally the fountains aren't on at this time of the year, but for a couple hours (and €5.50 admission) they turned them on and pumped classical music through the gardens. It was really incredible. We also rented bikes and went around the grounds.

That night we went to Montmartre which had really great views of Paris, and a really amazing sunset. We also stopped by the café from Amélie, so I should probably see that movie at some point.