Before I write about Paris and my trip with Mark, I have big news: I bought my plane tickets home! I'll be home in D.C. on Saturday, May 18, a little over four months from now. But before I get back to D.C. I'll be stopping here:
Reykjavik, Iceland.
I was looking at plan tickets Friday evening with my friend, Katie, and they were either ridiculously expensive or they stopped in Iceland. And then we realized, "Hey. Iceland. That could be pretty cool." So we'll be flying from London to Reykjavik on May 14 for about $80 (Katie was smart and checked the EasyJet fares) and then from Reykjavik to D.C. on May 18 for only $262. Meaning I am flying home for less than $400...and stopping in Reykjavik, a place I've heard only good things about so far. Pretty exciting!
But back to the present. Or, rather, past. Paris!
The last leg of the Burke family vacation was in Paris because a. Paris is great and b. Mom and Colleen had never been there before. I've been lucky enough to have been to Paris several times now, and I always love it. I told Mark that if I were to live in France again, I'd want to be in Paris. This time Dad found us a really great hotel/apartment close to the Champs-Elysées; we actually had to drive through the traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe, which was an experience in itself. When we walked into our apartment in the hotel they had left us gourmet chocolates, two free books about Paris, a card addressed to the Burke family, champagne, and juice. They also gave us macaroons on New Year's Eve.
Since we were close to the Champs-Elysées, we went out and walked it that evening so we could see the Christmas decorations and the Arc de Triomphe all lit up at night. It was windy and raining so Mom, Colleen, and I all went out with matching umbrellas from the hotel, but there were still thousands and thousands of people out. Which, frankly, is always a relief for me after Périgueux.
Arc de Triomphe - which I much prefer at night. It's cool during the day as well, but it's very pretty with the yellow lighting at night.
Lights on the Champs-Elysées and on the Cartier store. Love the lit up tigers.
I loved the rings of lights on the trees. They changed colors continuously, all in snyc with one another. Also in the picture on the right you can see the Arc in the background - and also some of the thousands of tourists who were doing the same thing that we were.
The next day we actually got some sunlight (some of the only sunlight I've seen in weeks), which was good since we wanted to walk around the city. Paris has a ton of museums and monuments, but it's also just as great to just walk around and see the buildings and the city itself. It's a very gorgeous city - there's a reason that people love it! Also I don't have a ton of pictures because I've taken lots in the past, but I did get some good ones.
Our first stop was Sainte Chapelle, a church fairly close to Notre Dame in the middle of the city. Sainte Chapelle is known for it's amazing stained glass and the fact that it contains Jesus's crown of thorns (which is not on display at all times, so we didn't see it or anything). It's a Gothic structure, started in the 1200s, so it's pretty amazing!
The lower level of the cathedral. This is where the commoners had to go to church while the upstairs was reserved for royalty. It's not such a shabby place to be relegated to.
Christmas decorations were still up at the back of the lower floor.
I couldn't get the greatest picture of all the windows because half of them were covered for restoration purposes - but you get the idea. The entire story of the Bible is told in all of the stained glass. The round rose window at the front is the story of Judgment Day.
It's seriously one of the most elaborate and decorated cathedrals you'll ever see.
One thing to add is that there was a line to get into Sainte Chapelle. It wasn't too bad - probably only half an hour or so. But it's important because we waited in a lot of lines that day. After Sainte Chapelle we went over to Notre Dame, in front of which there was an enormous grandstand with signs about the cathedrals 850th anniversary. Pretty incredible, right? I guess they had grandstands up because they'll be having events at the cathedral this year. Just to get into the cathedral (which is free), you have to wait in an enormous line. Of course it is packed inside as well. But Notre Dame is a pretty amazing place, and we were there on a Sunday, so there was a service going on. It was very cool to actually see a service in the most famous church in France! And it was neat to see how quiet it was. There were signs telling the tourists to be respectful of the worshipers and to be quiet, and people really did make sure to whisper.
All the priests in white at the front.
Priests + the heads of tourists.
It's a massive building, and it's very beautiful. Most cathedrals are, but Notre Dame is particularly gorgeous because it is so well maintained. They have to keep the most famous church in tip-top shape!
Walking around the back of the church. I was trying to get a good picture of all the arches and columns.
Saints outside the front door. That's John the Baptist holding his head. Also a shot of Colleen and me out front.
We walked around Paris a bit after visiting Notre Dame and had lunch in a typical Parisian cafe. We'd decided that we would visit the Eiffel Tower that evening. The Eiffel Tower is really where the lines started. I knew there were going to be lines to wait in: I've done the Eiffel Tower twice before, and there are always thousands of people there. But I did not at all expect the lines to be like they were that night. It's not really a monument that you can skip, though, so we stuck it out and waited for about two hours at the bottom, rode to the second floor and checked it out, waited about 45 minutes to get to the top, checked out the top, and then waited in lines to get down twice more. It was a looot of waiting. Nobody was feeling particularly chatting.
Also, I've been up the Eiffel Tower at night in the middle of July. It was pretty chilly. But the top of the Eiffel Tower, 1050 feet in the air, on the 30th of December...brutal. It was freezing and the wind was crazy. One side of the tower was being completely avoided because the wind was so intense. But the pictures don't show all that.
Looking down the Champs de Mars (Paris's version of the National Mall). The big yellow building lit up on the left is Napoleon's tomb.
I mostly only have shots of this side of Paris because the other side was the windy side.
The moon was really bright and full that night!
Looking back at the tower from across the Seine. This was on the way back to the hotel. We all went back and pretty much collapsed because we were so tired and cold!
Which brings me to the last day in Paris (another long blog post, I know, but at least it's mostly pictures!) Mark arrived on December 31, so I went and met him at the airport early that morning. We headed back to the hotel and went out to walk around with my family. We had another meal in a typical French cafe (which was delicious) and mostly just walked around. (Still not sure how Mark did it since he was majorly jet-lagged. He was starting to fall asleep while we were walking, I kid you not.) Anyway, we did make a stop at Napoleon's tomb since my family hadn't been there before, and we also checked out a bit of the war museum that's attached to his tomb. It's all housed in Les Invalides, which is the old hospital for soldiers. I've talked about it before in a blog post from when I visited in 2011 - it's the museum with thousands of suits of armor. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff.
Family picture in front of the Eiffel Tower. I think this is the one that made the Christmas Card. Or the New Year's Card. Whatever you want to call it.
Mark and me also in front of the Eiffel Tower, just a different location.
Napoleon's tomb.
And finally, of course, to mention New Year's Eve. We went back to the hotel and rested and ate dinner (since we had a kitchen in our apartment) before going back out to watch the Eiffel Tower at midnight. It wasn't a big show this year. I think that sometimes it is, but there weren't any fireworks or anything. But we got to go down and watch the Eiffel Tower light up at night with tons of other people, hear everyone honking their horns, and drink a bottle of champagne. So it was a definitely a good way to bring in 2013!
It's not a great picture because it was raining and I was trying to keep my camera dry, hold a glass of champagne, and hold an umbrella (well, Mark might have been holding that for me), but I wanted to show the view that we had on New Year's Eve!
Mom, Dad, and Colleen left the next morning, and I was definitely sad to see them go. It's nice that next time I get to see them, it will be because I'm back in the U.S. and I won't have to say goodbye for four months at the end of it again! I think that's definitely a bit of a relief. The end is in sight here, so now it's easier to focus on the good things (basically all the traveling I'm going to do and working on my French and seeing my friends) and not worry about the bad things as much.
Tomorrow's post: my trip with Mark.
P.S. I have no one to root for in the playoffs now. Maybe that's a good thing since I'm missing it all anyway.
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