"Paris is always a good idea" - Audrey Hepburn
Day 3 - Wednesday - Our Anniversary
We had finally come to the day!
Our 3 year anniversary.
I remember our wedding day like it happened yesterday.
A beautiful, sunny, hot, summer June day.
We were married in the Salt Lake City temple at 9:40 AM.
Who would have thought?
3 years later we live in Germany
3 years later we have shared 2 homes
3 years later we have lived in Washington D.C
3 years later we have gone through a deployment
3 years later we have shared a life and love most people dream about in 50 years
In 3 years I have accomplished so much:
The love of a man so deep and pure that nothing can shake it.
I'm one blessed girl.
Our anniversary day started with us getting ready and me trying to figure out what to do with my hair and what to wear (I brought 10 outfits). I ended up throwing it into a sock bun and putting a t-shirt on with pants for walking. Hair was not being a friend on this day.
Jake wanted to leave as early as possible on this day, but I kind of like to sleep so we didn't leave until 9:00.
We stopped at a bakery outside of the hotel and got a croissant and turnovers. Oh my gosh they were so good. Better than Pillsbury. :)
Any bakery in Paris is going to be amazing.
We ate while we walked to the metro. We took the metro on this day because we were going to the Catacombes which are on the opposite side of Paris and would take forever to walk to.
Key things about the metro:
1. There are some homeless people down there trying to get on the trains. I saw one guy try to run past the gate where the tickets are taken before they shut on him, and then he kept looking at women's purses. I hurried and zipped mine up and tucked it under my armpit.
2. They are crowded. Plan to stand the entire time unless you can catch a seat.
3. Buy a bus/metro ticket. It's a day pass and it's cheap. We paid 3 euro for both of us. In D.C we paid 3 dollars each.
The Catacombes are right outside of the metro entrance. The line for the Catacombes is a little ridiculous.
We waited 2 1/2 hours to go inside.
They only let 10 people in at a time because only 200 people can be inside the tunnels at one point.
History of The Catacombes
Back in the day, the builders of Paris would go deep underground to find limestone to build with. Doing this lead to a labyrinth of tunnels. They eventually found a better place to dig, and abandoned the area. A century later, a building collapsed into the tunnels, so the king at the time had them go and secure the tunnels so that buildings and such could be built above them. They are still securing them today.
During the French Revolution, there were so many bodies that they ran out of room in the cemeteries to bury their dead. Because of health issues, they eventually took all the bodies and stored them in the tunnels. Today there are over 6 million people buried in the Catacombes.
The Catacombes were opened to the public in 1810
Location:: 1 Ave du Colonel Henri Roi-Tanguy
Price:: 14 euro for both of us
We enjoyed the Catacombes a lot. It was so eerie though, and I don't suggest doing it on an anniversary. We didn't think about that part until we were inside of the tunnels staring at the skeletons.
Our favorite part of the Catacombes was that there was a group of teenagers there on a school trip. They were following behind us so we could hear how scared the girls were and how immature the boys were. Ha ha
Favorite part though was when I told Jake to go stand for a picture and so he turned around and walked to the other side, one of the boys felt Jake bump into him a little, and squealed like a little pig and sucked all the air in the room.
I felt bad because Jake and I couldn't stop laughing at him. Even right now I'm laughing!
And when he told his friends what happened, they laughed at him too!
It was seriously hilarious to see this 16-17 year old boy get scared.
I guess that's what a huge room of dead bodies does to you.
We took some fun pictures with the bones, but in reality, it was very eerie and sad. By the end of the tunnels, I was more than happy to get out.
If you suffer with claustrophobia then don't go. Jake had to duck a lot because of how small the tunnels were.
Go for the experience though.
After the Catacombes, it was about 2:00 and we still wanted to do the Louvre.
So we got back on the metro and headed to the Louvre
I heard someone tell me it's about a 2 hour wait to see the Mona Lisa. So because of this I wanted to get there fast and hurry before it closed.
At The Louvre you have to stand in a line to go through security inside of the pyramid, then you go down an escalator to buy your ticket, then you choose in what location you want to start.
History of The Louvre
In over 800 years, The Louvre has metamorphosed from being a fortress to a palace, a stable, a granary, and a home for squatters once the kings abandoned Paris. In 1793, after the revolution, it opened as a museum to display royal treasures. It it housed to more than 35,000 items and it would take about 9 months to see everything on the inside and read about it. The Louvre is the largest museum in the world.
The popular modern main entrance, designed by Chinese-American architect, was opened in 1989. The pyramid is made of glass so it does not disturb or take away from the historic and enchanting building that surrounds it.
Location:: Que du Louvre and Rue de Rivoli
Price:: 20 euro
The Louvre was awesome! This was another favorite of mine.
We got into the museum, and because I was worried about the 2 hour wait to see the Mona Lisa, we booked it. We kept following the signs, and I kept looking for a long line to get into. Finally after the signs stopped and we were at the end of a hallway, I asked a worked where the Mona Lisa was, he pointed us into a a corridor hallway. When we got there I expected to see a line or something, but nope. The Mona Lisa is in a glass frame with a rope around it so you can't get too close with security guards guarding her. Then around the ropes is a big group of people trying to get that lucky picture of the painting. I'm short and small, so big crowds are kind of fun for me. I can sneak in and out before anyone notices that their spot was taken.
So I did what I do best and got to the front, then turned around, and grabbed Jake and pulled him up.
While I was taking pictures, a bunch of people were trying to push forward. I felt like I was at a rock concert.
I turned my camera around to get a picture of Jake and I, and this nice lady grabbed it from me and said "I'll take then for you". So she hurried and took a couple shots of us with the Mona Lisa, handed me my camera back, and then continued to try and push her way to the front.
We bolted after that.
Too many crazy people.
The Mona Lisa is smaller than I always imagined it, but bigger than it has been described to me.
Jake kept wondering what the big deal about her is because there were 1,000's of better paintings surrounding us.
It's a Da Vinci piece.
No one knows who the woman is.
It's been stolen and tried to be sold in Italy.
It's a mystery piece of art.
&& some other reasons that I learned in college, but can't remember.
After seeing the Mona Lisa, we went around and looked at a bunch of other paintings, then saw a bunch of the Egyptian artifacts that the museum has, and finally, we were hungry.
There is a cafe in The Louvre on the second level, same side as the Mona Lisa, that isn't bad in pricing as long as you don't get a water (5 euro each).
Star Rating:: 4.0
Review::
Food wasn't horrible, we both got a sandwich. I had a chicken sandwich and Jake had a tuna sandwich, but dang the water was expensive and didn't even taste good. (I'm picky about water). Plus they don't make the food there, it's prepackaged. The sandwiches for about 6 euro each and about 10 inches long. Not too bad.
After lunch it was time to see the greek statues!
When I was 11 years old, I had 2 best friends, and every day at recess we would play like we were greek gods. We also read during class every greek mythology book there was in the library.
So you can only imagine how excited I was so see the actual statues of gods like Athena, Apollo, Cupid, and even the Roman goddess Venus - goddess of love, who was adapted from the greek goddess Aphrodite.
I got a picture with Athena because she is one of my favorites, and then we went over to the Venus di Milo statue.
I wanted to get a picture with Jake kissing because the statue is the statue of love, so I asked a lady, who was American, and she hastily took our photo. Whatever lady.
After seeing her statue we walked around and saw more statues, more paintings, and more fine art.
After being there for 3 hours, it was time to leave.
I wanted a picture of us kissing under the Eiffel Tower, but my DLSR camera died right as we got to the the Eiffel Tower the time before giving us only my point and shoot camera. So we had to go back to get the shot.
The walk from The Louvre to the Eiffel Tower is a pretty good one.
About 2.5 miles.
While walking there we started to get hungry again. We decided that since it was our anniversary we wanted to eat on the river in one of the boats and look out at the Eiffel Tower.
We found one that looked like it wasn't going anywhere, but was still on the river.
I can't for the life of me remember the name, but the location is right on the seine, right by the bridge leading up to the Eiffel. I'm going to Paris again in July with my mom and dad and want to eat there again.
Star Rating:: 5.0
Review::
The waiter was awesome. He took really great care of us, and even though he didn't speak great english, we both eventually understood each other. The view was AWESOME! We sat right in front of the Eiffel and it was SO romantic. The food was good. I had chicken with a spinach rice and Jake had pork chops with mashed potatoes. We each got a roll. I think the next time I go I'm going to get something else. The spinach rice had a weird flavor.
After eating and leaving the waiter a great tip, so much that he sang a little to Jake (ha ha), we went and got ice cream. Can't go on vacation to a different country without ice cream.
I had run out of euro at this time and only had my card so when I got the ice cream I noticed the guy had a card reader and didn't think anything of the price.
Well, after he served us up, I pulled my card out and he explained that his card reader wasn't working. I scrounged for euro in my purse, but came up about .60 euro short.
He said it was fine and just took what I had.
I'm tell you, French people are nice.
We ate our ice cream, and then continued on the way to get a picture with the Eiffel of us kissing.
We got to a great grassy area and asked a girl to take pictures of us.
I love other people that are good at taking pictures. She took about 6 for us and didn't even complain.
Once we got the picture, we decided to start going back to the hotel. It was about 9:15 at night at this point (Yes, I know the picture looks like it's 6:00 in the evening...it's not)
When we got to the other side, I wanted to wait until the sun went down so I could get pictures of the Eiffel all lit up.
While walking to the other side we kept having these men coming up to us trying to sell us trinkets. We kept refusing. We also had men coming up to me and trying to shove a rose into my hand.
I've had friends tell me about them.
There are people in Paris who will ask you to sign a form, and then ask you to pay.
There are people in Paris who will put a rose in your hand, and then ask you to pay.
Do not do it!
I mean if you want a rose and want to give a guy money for it, then do it.
But signing your name?
Be smart when you are in Europe. Never a good idea.
I'm not someone that needs a rose, especially an expensive rose. So I kept telling them to go away, even had to kind of push one of them away because he wouldn't get out of my way.
We were sitting watching the Eiffel Tower, waiting for the sun to go down when we looked over and saw a couple getting their engagements taken. They were doing it in the perfect spot, so of course being a photographer, I wanted the picture too. We waiting until they were gone and then I asked this guy in a group to take our photos. He was awesome. He was moving up and down and all around getting all the right angles. Ha ha. I told him he should look into the photography business.
Once we had our pictures taken, the lights started to come on.
It's was 10:05 PM and not fully dark yet.
Then the Eiffel Tower started to sparkle.
It was so beautiful and I loved sitting there with Jake watching it get lighter and lighter and sparkle.
It was time to go back to the hotel at this time
We started walking, but then noticed a group of people surrounding some dancers.
I used to dance so this kind of stuff really interests me
They were breakers and were really good.
They put on a show for a half hour. They were hilarious and at the end called out "If you like the show, you pay, if you don't like the show, you pay"
We bolted because I had no euro on me.
We then walked the 2 mile walk back to our hotel.
That is the end of Day 3 - Our Anniversary - The perfect anniversary
Day 4 to be continued.
Au Revoir
All images while posted in blog are copyright to CW Photography
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