Paris '06 photos

The Classics:

The Eiffel Tower, like duh, and the Notre Dam Cathedral.
In the front square of the Cathedral, there's a little golden metal plate on the ground. There's even a few coins people seem to have NOT picked up! THIS is apparently the *center* of Paris. I'm sure Parisians think that not only is it the center of Paris, but the center of the world :)

L'Arc de Triumph, The Louvre.
I loved the book The Da Vinci Code.... so I couldn't help but imagine scenes from the book while I walked through the halls of the Museum... and it somehow felt like it really DID happen there. Either way, being surrounded by that much valuable art is a surreal and strange kind of feeling.


The Versailles Palace:

The Hall of Mirrors, the artwork, all the bedrooms were nice too, but the best part of Versailles was the GINORMOUS garden in the back! The bus ride leading to the Palace and the front square was small and a little cramped with tourists and buildings, so I didn't expect there to be such a clearing in the back! I thought people went to see only the Palace... oops. So when I went out into the Garden, I was surprised at how DYNAMIC the Garden was! You can't even see where the garden ends! There were so many different sections, separate Gardens, statues, fountains, ponds... no, not ponds, LAKES! etc... This Garden shouldn't even be called a "garden". It should be called a National Park. I wikipedia-ed it... it says it's 800 hectares!! I don't even know how many soccer/football fields that is but... that's a WHOLE LOTTA GARDEN!

But my FAVORITE place in Paris goes to.... *drum rolls*
Montmartre and Sacre Coeur!

First when you get up on the hill of Montmartre, you have the most beautiful panoramic view of Paris. It's hard to notice while you're IN the city, but all the buildings are controlled at a certain height. So when you get up there, you see a LOT of sky and a real horizon. The sunset was spectacular. You can even see the Eiffel Tower glittering once in a while after the sun sinks. You realize why people love Paris so much. But then you turn around and see the Sacre Coeur right behind you! It looks like it's watching over and guarding Paris.

But it doesn't even end there! You walk into the alleys of this hill and then you find the CUTEST most picturesque restaurants, cafes, shops, galleries, etc! There's even a square where artists are drawing portraits of tourists. Picturesque, I tell you, picturesque.

The entire time I was thinking, "No wonder everyone loves Paris so much!"