Wednesday morning, we started out the day by going to St. Chapelle. It’s a beautiful church in Paris. There are stained glass windows everywhere, and incredible patterns. The church is built in the Gothic style, built by Louis IX. The stained glass around the windows depicts many biblical figures. The entire roof and most of the walls were extravagantly patterned. It was one of the prettiest churches we’ve seen so far. We didn’t spend too much time at St. Chapelle because we had to hit the Pompidou and the Louvre museums in the same day. The Louvre is open later, so we went to the Pompidou first. It was by far my favorite museum of the trip so far. It was so fantastic. I could’ve stayed in there for hours. They had a small Mark Rothko collection, and he’s one of my favorites. I was a little disappointed though because they didn’t have my favorite piece by him, but it was still really cool to see. They also had collections of Jackson Pollock and 
Piet Mondrian, both of whom I like a lot as well. I also found some new artists that I really like, such as Simon Hantai. There were also collections of Matisse, Delaunay, and Picasso. There were furniture collections by Corbusier and Van de Rohe. It really was a great museum. Even the layout and architecture of the building itself is really unique and interesting. It was definitely one of my favorite places that we’ve visited.
After going through the Pompidou, we got a quick lunch at a crepery. I had a banana and sugar crepe and it was really good, but not really what I was expecting. I didn’t really like the flavor of the batter itself, and it was a little sweet for lunch, but I guess there were other kinds of more substance such as ham and cheese, which I tried a bite of and it was the best ham and cheese combination I’ve ever tasted. After lunch it was off to the Louvre. At the time, that seemed really exciting. That was before we walked around the Louvre for over 5 hours. It was really cool when we got there though. The pyramid was absolutely gorgeous. I’ve seen countless photos of it and even seen it in movies, but the photos don’t even come close to doing the structure justice
. You walk through an archway that is the main entrance, and the pyr
amid builds up in front of you as you walk forward. When you can see the whole thing, it’s quite the scene. There are fountains surrounding it, and it looks really interesting because the fountains reflect in the glass of the structure, and the structure reflects in the water from the fountains. It was a really unique effect to see. My camera died right after the Pyramid, so I was only able to turn it on long enough to take a photo of the Mona Lisa. I didn’t get any other pictures in the Louvre, which is kind of depressing, but I’m sure I can copy them from someone else. Despite its length, it really was unbelievable to see some of the things in there. I’ve heard about them all my life, and again seen numerous photos and videos that show the pieces, but it’s such a different experience to actually see them in person. The first major thing that we saw was the Venus de Milo. It was actually really funny, because I was just looking around at other things, and then everyone stopped in front of me to gather in a group, and I couldn’t figure out why. It took a minute until I looked up and saw the statue in the center of the group. I guess I was missing the forest through the trees. I did finally notice her though and she was so incredible. I never realized that the statue was called Venus de Milo (Venus of Milo) because of the island she was found on. I thought that was just what the artist had named the statue, but I guess that wasn’t the case. The statue is believed to be the work of Alexandros, but it’s not known for sure. After seeing those two things, we made our way around the rest of the museum. We went through the Napoleon apartments, all the different time periods, different areas such as Mesopotam
ia and Greece. I really liked the Napoleon apartment. The entire museum was great, but I have to admit it was a little bit overwhelming. Walking the whole thing covers about 14 miles, and I feel like we did that. We spent over 5 hours in the Louvre. It kicked my butt. It was so exhausting…but still really amazing. After the Louvre, we went to a crepery that Megan had been to before. It was a really cool setup; you sat down in tables that were arranged around a center grill where they made all the food in front of you. Kylee and I shared a mushroom omelet. I didn’t understand though, that here when it’s called a ‘mushroom omelet’, that includes only eggs and mushrooms. No cheese. That was really weird to me. But it was pretty good anyway. We also shared a double chocolate dessert crepe that was sooo good! It was really rich though, so we couldn’t finish it. It had chocolate pieces and white chocolate ice cream and they both spread and melted together, so it was a little bit too much to handle.
After the long adventure at the Louvre and dinner, we still weren’t even close to done with our plans for the day. From dinner, we headed over to the Arc de Triumph. We climbed up all of the stairs to get to the top, and it hurt like hell. It was a miserable climb, but very worth it when we got to the top. The sun was starting to set, so we sat up there for about 15 minutes and watch most of the sunset over the entire city. It was super pretty. And it was really nice to just sit up there for a few minutes and relax. After a little while, we hiked back down the steps, and started to make our way over to the Eiffel Tower. It turned out to be a wasted effort. Our whole intention was to go up to the top, but we didn’t realize that they close off the top earlier than the rest of the tower, so when we got there, it was too late to go all the way up, so we just decided to cut it and try later. It was a really great day overall, but it definitely was a little bit overwhelming.
Piet Mondrian, both of whom I like a lot as well. I also found some new artists that I really like, such as Simon Hantai. There were also collections of Matisse, Delaunay, and Picasso. There were furniture collections by Corbusier and Van de Rohe. It really was a great museum. Even the layout and architecture of the building itself is really unique and interesting. It was definitely one of my favorite places that we’ve visited.After going through the Pompidou, we got a quick lunch at a crepery. I had a banana and sugar crepe and it was really good, but not really what I was expecting. I didn’t really like the flavor of the batter itself, and it was a little sweet for lunch, but I guess there were other kinds of more substance such as ham and cheese, which I tried a bite of and it was the best ham and cheese combination I’ve ever tasted. After lunch it was off to the Louvre. At the time, that seemed really exciting. That was before we walked around the Louvre for over 5 hours. It was really cool when we got there though. The pyramid was absolutely gorgeous. I’ve seen countless photos of it and even seen it in movies, but the photos don’t even come close to doing the structure justice
. You walk through an archway that is the main entrance, and the pyr
amid builds up in front of you as you walk forward. When you can see the whole thing, it’s quite the scene. There are fountains surrounding it, and it looks really interesting because the fountains reflect in the glass of the structure, and the structure reflects in the water from the fountains. It was a really unique effect to see. My camera died right after the Pyramid, so I was only able to turn it on long enough to take a photo of the Mona Lisa. I didn’t get any other pictures in the Louvre, which is kind of depressing, but I’m sure I can copy them from someone else. Despite its length, it really was unbelievable to see some of the things in there. I’ve heard about them all my life, and again seen numerous photos and videos that show the pieces, but it’s such a different experience to actually see them in person. The first major thing that we saw was the Venus de Milo. It was actually really funny, because I was just looking around at other things, and then everyone stopped in front of me to gather in a group, and I couldn’t figure out why. It took a minute until I looked up and saw the statue in the center of the group. I guess I was missing the forest through the trees. I did finally notice her though and she was so incredible. I never realized that the statue was called Venus de Milo (Venus of Milo) because of the island she was found on. I thought that was just what the artist had named the statue, but I guess that wasn’t the case. The statue is believed to be the work of Alexandros, but it’s not known for sure. After seeing those two things, we made our way around the rest of the museum. We went through the Napoleon apartments, all the different time periods, different areas such as Mesopotam
ia and Greece. I really liked the Napoleon apartment. The entire museum was great, but I have to admit it was a little bit overwhelming. Walking the whole thing covers about 14 miles, and I feel like we did that. We spent over 5 hours in the Louvre. It kicked my butt. It was so exhausting…but still really amazing. After the Louvre, we went to a crepery that Megan had been to before. It was a really cool setup; you sat down in tables that were arranged around a center grill where they made all the food in front of you. Kylee and I shared a mushroom omelet. I didn’t understand though, that here when it’s called a ‘mushroom omelet’, that includes only eggs and mushrooms. No cheese. That was really weird to me. But it was pretty good anyway. We also shared a double chocolate dessert crepe that was sooo good! It was really rich though, so we couldn’t finish it. It had chocolate pieces and white chocolate ice cream and they both spread and melted together, so it was a little bit too much to handle.After the long adventure at the Louvre and dinner, we still weren’t even close to done with our plans for the day. From dinner, we headed over to the Arc de Triumph. We climbed up all of the stairs to get to the top, and it hurt like hell. It was a miserable climb, but very worth it when we got to the top. The sun was starting to set, so we sat up there for about 15 minutes and watch most of the sunset over the entire city. It was super pretty. And it was really nice to just sit up there for a few minutes and relax. After a little while, we hiked back down the steps, and started to make our way over to the Eiffel Tower. It turned out to be a wasted effort. Our whole intention was to go up to the top, but we didn’t realize that they close off the top earlier than the rest of the tower, so when we got there, it was too late to go all the way up, so we just decided to cut it and try later. It was a really great day overall, but it definitely was a little bit overwhelming.
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