The day after the wedding, March 18th, Scott and I set out on our honeymoon in Paris. With excitement and much anticipation we disembarked our plane and quickly noticed that it was snowing!
Ah, Paris. What can you say? It is an absolutely amazing city. We only ran into a couple of rude Parisians – most were extremely friendly. In fact, we found that almost all Parisians will deign to speak English.
The hotel was a disappointment. I think their website overstates reality by quite a bit. No worries, however, as we only slept there and were out every day from dawn to well past dusk. We wore out our feet, knees, and backs – we’re still recuperating.
Versailles is beautiful. I took photos and obtained postcards that I can share with my students. My next goal is the create a PowerPoint incorporating all the knowledge we obtained during our tour.
The Eiffel Tower put on a performance for us. We were at the top for the sunset, and when we were walking away it began to dance with lights. A magical moment.
The Louvre was way too much. You can’t possibly take it all in. The building itself was worthy of a few days. Scott really enjoyed the medieval castle archaeology display in the basement. I just about had a religious moment in front of the Mona Lisa.
Musee D’Orsay. Mark, Scott’s best man, arranged for a private guide for one afternoon, so we had a private tour of the museum, complete with an extremely passionate and knowledgeable art history lesson. Both Scott and I were very impressed and this was possibly the highlight of the trip for both of us.
Arc de Triomphe. There was a military ceremony going on below, with every different kind of French military uniform, and that was interesting to watch. We climbed the stairs and took in the beautiful sunset.
Notre Dame. We happened to catch it during Lent and the presentation of the Crown of Thorns. The actual crown presumably. The stained glass is wonderful.
Saint-Sulpice. We saw the ‘Rose Line’, plus some interesting literature debunking the Dan Brown novel.
Food. We ate great food on almost every day, and were most impressed with the bread and the pastries. We also loved the Café Crème. One of the best dinners was at an Italian restaurant. Now we need to go to Rome for a good French dinner.
The Seine. We did a river cruise. It was very inexpensive, and the guide provided some interesting insights and historical context.
The weather for our trip was terribly cold, wet, and windy. It got bad when we arrived, and began getting better as we were leaving. Our next trip to Paris is definitely going to be scheduled for the summer.
