Thursday, May 23, 2013

When Good Americans Die, They Go to Paris

Oscar Wilde got pretty close to how I feel about Paris. It truly is a magical city. I spent hours of my young childhood flipping through my mother's many art books. My mom has a massive crush on France considering she majored in French and lived over there for a little while. She has a serious thing for impressionist painting and I do too thanks to her. As the impressionist movement was based in Paris, it really isn't a suprise that the most renowned works of impressionst tried (and succeded) and capturing the magic of Paris.
They really loved Paris; Monet, Manet, Renoir. It's difficult to not feel the same they did as they did such a remarkable job of convincing you that Paris was the most beautiful city in the world.
The Louvre was everything and more than it is cracked up to be, but the Musee D'Orsay captured my heart. I even teared up a little bit as I stood in awe at how transcendent all of it was.
While we were in Paris, we also go to go to Notre Dame which took my breath away at how massive and elaborate it was. It took 200 years to build. Can you even believe that? America has only been established as a country for that long. I wish as much dedication and reverence was put into buildings here as went into so many of those in Europe.
We also got to go to Sainte Chapelle which is better described in pictures than in any words I could come up with.
The Effiel Tower was also pretty spectacular. I wasn't expecting to think much of it, but I found myself marveling at how impressive it was. The architectural design is pretty genius and going to the top gives you a spectacular view of the city.
The food was not as amazing as I expected, but we really only had a total of five meals there and two of those were in the hotel. I would definitely want to come back and do a better food hunt :) Now here are just a huge smattering of pictures for you
One of the most remarkable sculptures I have ever seen. The skill required to make this is astounding!


Hermaphrodite sculpture. Sel loves this one





No words needed

Notre Dame. Sadly no hunchback was spotted

But some gargoyles were..

King Louis XII Bed Chamber

They had this amazing bird market while we were there

This doesn't even get close to giving Sainte Chapelle justice


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