3 Americans in Paris
Early start to our Thursday – up at 3:00 am to get ready and catch 4:00 am cab to Luton airport for our 6:05 flight to Paris. Yes, it was very hard to get started this morning, but knowing we were on our way to Paris, we managed to make the cab ride and flight.
With a planned itenerary in our hands (thanks to Mrs. Howard and a Paris guide book), we hit the ground running. First stop was the Sacre-Coeur (Church of the Sacred Heart) on a hilltop overlooking Paris. To get to that hilltop we had to climb at least 150 steps. Breathless when we arrived on top, the view of the cathedral and domed basilica continued to catch our breath. Inside we viewed the dome covered by a beautiful mural and marble statues of Saints throughout the structure. We arrived at this location around 9:30 in the morning and there was still quite a bit of fog over the city, so we were not able to see the entire skyline of Paris. It was completely beautiful none the less.
“I see London, I see France, I see . . . ” — ask Mrs. Schwibert to finish the line
Five bonus points to anyone that can correctly finish this line!
Next stop was to catch a metro line (subway) to the Louvre museum. We chose not to go inside this unbelieveable museum, since we were told it would take weeks to see everything inside! We did observe the glass pyramid in front of the museum and the beautiful architecture of the buildings, and then made our way across the River Seine to the Orsay museum. We chose to tour this museum because many impressionists works are displayed in this much smaller museum. We took in original artwork from artists such as Monet, Degas, Renoir, Rodin, and Van Gogh. Breathtaking oil paintings and marbled statues that we had only seen in books or on posters left us in complete awe. Ever heard of Whistler’s Mother? We saw her, along with Monet’s Water Lilies and Van Gogh’s self portrait.
Leaving the Orsay we hopped on a city bus to Notre-Dame cathedral. The architecture throughout this city cannot be described in words – standing outside and inside Notre-Dame left us speechless. Books and pictures cannot begin to describe the enormous arches, stained glass windows, marble statues, carved woodwork in the walls and doors. We looked all over for the Hunchback, but could never find him.
After Notre-Dame our next item on our must-see list was the Eiffel Tower (of course!). We got on another bus that followed right alongside the River Seine. The bus we were on would not take us all the way to the Eiffel Tower, so once we got off we walked. And walked. And walked. Finally arriving at the base of the tower, breathless again, we were also speechless. Only in pictures have we been able to view this enormous structure, and here we were right underneath it. We caught our breath and went to find the way up. The lines were very crowded, so we made the optimistic decision to pay the fee to CLIMB to the first landing – it doesn’t look so high, right? Wrong! 327 steps and several stops (except for Mrs. Kidd, who didn’t want to stop because the tower was SWAYING) later we eventually arrived at the first platform! This view of the city from all sides was amazing, but we wanted to get higher. We decided to pay another fee to catch the lift to the second landing for a better view – the ride was well worth any price. You can see all around this magnificent city for miles, and we continued to be in awe of the beautiful buildings. It was getting dark by this time, so we went back down to the ground to take some picture-postcard snapshots. The Eiffel Tower was lit up to the top and we clicked away on our cameras at this stunning site before us. After stopping at a gift shop, we drug ourselves away from the tower and began our walk (yet again) to the bus stop. Let us just say at this point that we really miss Oklahoma hospitality! What a surprise when the bells rang 6:00 and the tower began to twinkle! Incredible! We tore ourselves away and focused on finding a bus, which we did, to take us back to the Louvre and the Metro station. Rus hour on the subway – wow! Yuck! There must be a French game, “How many people can we cram on a subway?” Mrs. Schwiebert’s personal hygiene talk was definitely needed at this point!
After dashing from one stop to the other following the blue B RER, we hastly jumped on the train exhausted and relieved to find 3 empty seats. Some time later, about four stops to be exact, we realized that we were on the RED A RER going the opposite direction of the aiport!! As much as we had wanted to cram in a quick view of the Arc de Triomphe, we were so thankful that we didn’t and had plenty of time to get to the airport even with a major blunder.
We arrived at the Charles de Gaulle airport STARVING, having only had croissants and a 7-up with three small ice cubes for lunch (apparently our itenerary did not include stops for food). BUT, following the European tradition of closing everything at 6:00, we found sandwiches in a box, Lay’s potato chips, and luke warm Pepsi in a bottle. We quickly scarfed down our sandwiches and worked our way to the line for boarding the plane. There were many Irish football (soccer) fans on the plane with us (we found out later that they had lost a game with France apparently due to controversial officiating). We arrived at the Luton Airport at 10:15, having gained an hour intransit, returned to Mrs. Howard’s house, and fell asleep with the knowledge that we had just seen amazing sites that we had only dreamed of visiting.
