L & J Adventures...: Paris, Day Two

We did a lot of sightseeing today, and ALOT of walking! Josh went out for a run this morning; he ran about 8 miles around the city and experienced the Eiffel Tower along with a few other sites. After he returned, we got ready and set out to explore the city. Our first stop was Sacre-Coeur, a church constructed in 1875 located on top of a hill outside of Paris’ city center. We thought that we would work our way into the city and start with the farthest site first, plus we were hoping the weather would cooperate and the sun would come out in the afternoon so we could climb the Eiffel Tower. The church’s exterior was beautiful but I couldn’t really enjoy it for I was dying from walking up the huge hill that it was located on and for all the street sellers around (they are quite annoying and persistent). The inside was just as beautiful. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside but josh didn’t listen (imagine that) and took a few with his phone when the guards weren’t looking. We walked around, got a feel for the church then moved on to our next stop. Heading towards the Arc de Triomphe, we first stopped at La Madeleine, which is a church dedicated to Mary Magdalene and is one of the best-known buildings in Paris because of its prominent location and size. Then we stopped at Chappelle Expiatoire (Expiatory Chapel), a chapel dedicated to Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, although they were formally buried elsewhere. It was site in our museum pass so we thought that we would take a look. The last church that we visited along the way was a beautiful byzantine style church. Eglise Saint-Augustin de Paris or Church of St. Augustine, was built between 1860-1871 and was one of the first sizable buildings in Paris constructed around a metal frame. I loved that this church had chairs instead of pews; you don’t see many like that.

Finally, after more walking, we reached the Arc de Triomphe. After his greatest victory, the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon promised his men “You shall go home beneath triumphal arches.” This monument was to dominate Paris and indulge the Emperors liking for Ancient Rome. Since it was in the middle of a super busy street, we used an underground tunnel to enter the site (no running across this time). With our museum pass, we were able to climb to the top and see the city from a different perspective. And yes, we had to climb a stupid spiral staircase, 284 stairs to be exact, to get to the top. Did I ever mention that I recently hate spiral staircases? But as always, the view was well worth it, definitely a site to see. We were able to see Eiffel Tower very clearly as well as many of the sites that we visited earlier today. I was most fascinated with the street layout; there were 12 avenues that radiate off the road surrounding the Arc de Triomphe and each street had a different view, so cool. Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Solider from WWI. When we stopped to look at it, there was some sort of book or magazine that was thrown into the eternal flame. And instead of just starring at it like everybody else, Josh informed a worker and they alerted the police officer and he quickly ran to the memorial, grabbed the object and extinguished the burning book. It obviously wasn’t suppose to be like that, not sure why no one told them sooner. The eternal flame burns in memory of the dead who were never identified in WWI, and there is an unidentified solider buried below, but now is in memory of both wars. Very grand monument and experience, must visit if you ever travel to Paris!

After that, we decided to head in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. We ate lunch at this fast food burger place, similar to McDonalds, and continued walking. We stopped at the Grand Palais; Josh loved the classical stone façade with the art nouveau ironwork exterior and the glass roof. We stopped to take a few pictures and then walked across the street to the Petit Palais. We entered this free museum just to see the interior and courtyard and walked around a few exhibitions before heading out. We crossed the river and approached the Hôtel de Invalides, which was the first military hospital and home for French war veterans and disabled soldiers founded by Louis XIV. Inside the site is the Musée de l’Armée, which is a military history museum from the Stone Age to WWII. We were able to go inside with our museum pass but unfortunately it was uninteresting (sorry dad) and we quickly walked through one section before heading to Napoleon’s tomb.

Located within the site of the hospital contains St-Louis-des-Invalides Church, better known as the “soldiers church” and was built from 1679 to 1708. Behind the altar, you are able to see into the Dôme Church, which was originally reserved for the exclusive use of the Sun King (Louis XIV) and for the location of royal tombs; it took 27 years to build. After construction, it was considered a masterpiece in the sense that it complemented the surrounding buildings and is one of the greatest examples of 17^th century French architecture. But after Louis XIV’s death, plans to bury the royal family in the church were abandoned and it became a monument, which later showcases the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte. The emperor’s body was brought here from St Helena in 1840, 19 years after he died and placed inside the majestic red sarcophagus. His body was encased in 6 coffins and finally placed in the crypt in 1861 (is it really necessary to place him in that many coffins, no wonder the final one was so big)! Unfortunately the church was about to close for the day but we made it just in time to see the huge tomb and its grand placement but wasn’t able to look around too much.

Next stop, the Eiffel Tower! What a spectacular site to see! Even more beautiful in person than in any pictures! I couldn’t stop taking pictures myself! After admiring it for a while, we decided that we should go up it today. So we stood in this really long line that was very slow moving only to find out that the stairs entrance was closing at 6 and we would have to pay the price for the elevator ride instead (which would have been well worth it). We thought that we would just wait until the morning to climb the tower, that way we had more energy plus we could climb the stairs at a cheaper rate and hope to see more of the city from that view, weather permitting. It was beginning to get dark and we still needed to go to the love bridge better know as the Pont des Arts bridge so that we could put our lock on bridge. Walking at a fast speed, we wanted to arrive before the sun completely set because we knew that our cameras wouldn’t take any good pictures in the dark. It was a little over a 2-mile walk, but we finally arrived and were able to get a few good pictures before the sun completely set. The bridge is a popular tourist site for couples to bring a padlock with their names on it, attach it to the bridge and then throw the key into the Seine river below to represent their committed love, so of course we had to partake in this gesture. We knew that we were planning to do this before we even traveled to Europe so we brought a lock from home (I’m sure the lock business around the bridge is rich off of this idea) and before we left Prague for Paris, Josh engraved our names and date on it. The lock came with 2 keys; we threw 1 in the river and plan to make the other one into a Christmas ornament so we can remember this special day. What a great memory!!

We were told that you must experience the Eiffel Tower during the day and night because it was a completely different experience. So what do you think that we decide to do? Walk back the 2 miles to the Eiffel Tower to see how it glows at night. We thought that we might as well do it now because we might not have enough time tomorrow, cause we still had a lot more sightseeing to do. As we were approaching the tower from the river, the lights made it look so beautiful! At night was by far my favorite time to see the tower and on every hour, it would sparkle for 5 minutes, which made it even more picturesque. Josh thought that it looked better during the day because he liked seeing the structural details, so to each their own as they always say! As we stood in amazement, we kinda had to pinch ourselves (especially me), just to think that we have this amazing opportunity to explore these beautiful places, so blessed!

We definitely had a busy day, saw lots of sites and did ALOT of walking! Sometimes I wish we had a pedometer to track how many miles we walk a day! We decided to call it a night and took the metro back towards our hotel. We stopped at this Chinese restaurant that was closing and picked up little cartons of sweet and sour chicken, something similar to general tso’s chicken and fried rice and took it to the hotel to eat. We were both exhausted, especially Josh since he ran this morning, so we ate our dinner and shorty after went to bed to rest up for day #3.