I went to Paris...

So, after a few weeks and my journey home to America, here is my grand post on Paris.

This was one of my first views of Paris at way too early in the morning.  What a lovely, dirty train station.

But at least they tried to make the metro prettier with murals on the walls.

We found this awesome garden-clock.  It was pretty cool.

Here was the nice entrance gate to Versailles, the same one through which Louis XIV entered.

And this would be one of the few photos taken of me, just to prove that I actually was there.

There was gold trim everywhere on the palace.  It was sort of weird that it was outside, exposed to the elements and all, instead of being kept in a safe place like gold usually is.

This statue was sort of cool,  but what I loved was the fact that there was a bird on her head.  Yes, there really is an entire picture devoted to that in my blog post.

My picture here is blurry, but the amount of work spent on everyday things in the palace was amazing.  These doors were incredibly intricate.

Even the ceilings had detailed scroll work.

Not only that, but the window latches were monogrammed too.

Going through the palace, I was sufficiently impressed, but also incredibly disgusted.

All this work, all this beauty, was made for just a few men.  Not only that, but most of the time, the only merit the men had was their birth and wealth.

Artists labored on immense ceilings like this one, and the interesting thing is that the artists aren't remembered, their patrons are.

The palace was enormous and the amount of detail and work put into everything was huge.  If the same amount of work were to be done today, it would cost a fortune, and that's with all of our technological advances.  It was sobering to think how much harder the work must have been when it was done.

All those realizations really turned me off from the place.

Sure, it was gorgeous and impressive, but such beauty was created at a high cost, with monarchs living richly while their subjects wallowed in misery. 

 On the one hand, I loved it, but on the other hand, I couldn't stand it.

I couldn't purely enjoy the beauty because I knew at what cost it had come.

I also hated the fact that I didn't find the occasion for the grandeur worthy.

It was all created for men, and even if you view it as a gift to mankind, not just individual kings, I don't find us worthy.

I found it to sort of give us more importance than I think we deserve.

I just wonder if I was the only one there thinking those thoughts.

Versailles also had a long hall chalk full of art.

Gigantic murals lined the walls for a long, long time.

And the art didn't stop with the end of the canvases, it continued onto the ceilings....

...And walls.

It was interesting how everything became an intricate work of art.

And there was so much of it.  All that art was scarily impressive.  Like this hall, it had statues lining either side, and it was one long hall, too.

I also noticed a huge difference in style.  Here, the more detail you could stuff into a room, the more grand the room was supposed to be.

I think that in general, nowadays, we go for a single stunning piece that is supported and off-set by other simple accents.

Here, everything was supposed to be it saturated with patterns.

I have to say that though it was impressive, I appreciate modern decorating tactics more.

I did love though that the floors were part of the decor too.  They were pretty neat, but you'll all get to hear more about that in a later blog post.

After much walking and picture taking and galking, we finished our tour of Versailles,

snapped a final picture in front of the golden gates, and headed to see

the Eiffel tower.  This would be my first view of that very famous structure.

From far away it doesn't look that huge, but as you get closer, it seems a whole lot bigger.

I of course have a few souvenir photos of me and it, just as proof that I went there.

We backed away from it a bit and waited for it to light up like it does every night.

Here are the boring lights of the Eiffel Tower.

And here would be the light show of the Eiffel Tower.  It was very flashy and blingy and apparently at Christmas time they just keep the light show going all night.

The next day, we went to the Louvre.

We of course saw the pyramid.

But my favorite part was inside the Louvre.

It was huge.  And I mean HUGE.

It was somewhat similar to Versailles in the artisitic take on things like doors...

or ceilings.

And it was chalk full of art.

It was a little saddening to think that thousands of artists spent considerable amount of time perfecting their masterpieces,

but often those grand masterpieces would only get a quick glance before the observer moved onto the next one.

Incredibly famous paintings like this one only got a couple of minutes before its audience shuffled on to the next world-famous painting.

And then so many paintings and sculptures are knocked off the list of  "to sees" because there are just too many.

After spending several hours in the Louvre, I only saw a small fraction of its art, and most of what I saw I only had time to peer at while walking.

It made me wonder why artists create the beauty they create.

I don't think they do it to become famous and reknowned, because the vast majority of them are forgotten.

Even if they are admired and famous, little time is usually spent studying their work compared to how long it took them to make it.

Therefore there has to be something else that pushes us to create beauty.  For me, I find the reason easily: we like to create because we were created in the image of the Creator.  I do wonder, though, how others explain this need to make beauty.

I just wanted to point out that pregnancy pictures have been in fashion for a looooooooong time.

This picture has little purpose other than the fact that I liked the stripes of the stairs and the diamonds of the floor together.  I hope someone else out there appreciates it.

I found pack cows in the Louvre.  If you don't get this caption, don't try, just admire the painting.

Now this is one awesome lamp.  It might be going on my Christmas list......

And after many hours and much fatigue, our tour of the Louvre was complete.  It was my favorite part of Paris though, and I hope to go back one day!

Right outside the Louvre, we found a sidewalk artist!  I had never personally witnessed one before, so I was really excited.

Way off in the distance there, you can see the Arc de Triomphe.

On our way to the arc, we stopped by the president's place and loittered for a while in hopes that someone famous would pass.  No one did.

Then we made our way to the Champs Elysees.  (Please kindly excuse the absence of accent marks.)

Here would be my only picture of it and it was blurred due to the business of the neighborhood.

Inside the stores, we found quite possibly the ugliest shoes ever for an exorbitant price.

I didn't bother to look at the price, though, because I knew it would disgust me even more than the shoes.

After a nice long tour of the stores, we finished up with the Champs Elysees and moved on to....

L'Arc de Triomphe.

And the tomb of the unknown soldier with the undying flame.  However, the visit ended quickly because it was late and quite a few of us were in danger of passing out from fatigue and hunger.

The next morning started with some train delays due to a bomb found on our line.  Exciting, huh?

then we made our way to the big opera house, but the outside was all I saw since it just happened to be closed the one day of the week that we go to visit it in the middle of school vacations.  I have lots of luck.

We quickly got over our disappointment and moved on to see l'avenue de la paix.

They had bunches of cool doors.

And plenty of chic jewelry that costs, as the French would say it, "the skin of your bottom."  (Yes, that's a genuine French saying that I learned over there.  They have a real knack for expressing their sentiments.)

They also had really funny faces over all the windows.

After that, we visited the Tuileries.

It was quite pretty with all the fall colors.

On our way to the bateaux mouches (a special French boat used often for sightseeing on the Seine), I got another picture of the Arc de Triomphe from the distance.

We also passed the beginning of their Christmas shops.

Apparently their quite wonderful, but they weren't open, so I just admired their decorations instead.

Back in the metro, I snapped some pictures of the wall art that they like.

I found it cool because I never remembered seeing art like this back in the D.C. metro.

Here would be a bateau mouche.

On the tour, we got to see all of the Paris bridges.  They really take their bridges seriously because each one has to look pretty.

On the tour, I couldn't help thinking of Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Carey Grant, because they went on one too.  But their's was much nicer.

On the tour, I got to see Notre Dame from a distance.

Unfortunately, that was all I saw of Notre Dame because we didn't have time to go in it.

Here's the bridge right by Notre Dame.  It's really pretty because it's in wood.

And here we have the back of the famous cathedral.

The bateau mouche was really fun and cool and relaxing in the midst of a crazily busy trip.

Next, we went up the Montparnasse tower to get a view of Paris.

In my opinion, it was a lot better than going up the Eiffel Tower because I think it was cheaper and you also got the Eiffel Tower in all your pictures of Paris from high in the sky.  I thought it was the best of both worlds.

We then visited the Moulin Rouge, just to say that we went there.  So, yup, I've been there, and I hope never to go back.  Let's just say it was not my favorite part of town.

The next day we started off by visiting Sacre Coeur, another famous Parisian cathedral.

It was pretty and magnificent, just like all the other cathedrals.

This one, though, had venders outside, and I couldn't help but think of Jesus' words in Matthew 21:13,  "'He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”'  It saddened my heart.

Next stop, Monmartre, the famous artists' district.

There were lots of pretty paintings, and I really wished I could have bought one to take home.

But the really pretty paintings were also really expensive paintings, so my wish was not granted.

This artist was quite possibly my favorite because he mixed painting and sculpting in really beautiful ways.  It was impressive.

Here's another view of Sacre Coeur.

And look!  On the side of this building there was a painting of Thompson (or was it Tompson?) from Tintin.  I totally appreciated the random incorperation of culture on the building.

Before heading home, we visited the Pouces.

The Pouces is the Paris flea market, with one part just like a normal European open-air market,

And the other part is a gathering place for antique dealers.

My post about Paris is almost done (whew, that was long!), and we're now going to conclude with a few random photos.

In Paris, we found quite possibly the most ugly motorcycle (the one on the right).  The others thought it was cool, but in my opinion, it's ugly.

We also found a legit telephone booth!

And I also discovered that the French believe in decorating way too early for Christmas too!

Check back in a few days to see a post with my artistic take on Paris.  (Yes, that description is purposely vague.)