France Day 3: Van Gogh & the Eiffel Tower

Hi there! ; )

After an amazing, and long, walking tour of Paris, the next day we had it a little easier. We woke up early and, after breakfast, grabbed a taxi to the Musee d'Orsay. The line was a little long but we were there early enough that it went pretty quickly. 

Tuesday, August 19th

I had been looking forward to this museum because there were Van Gogh paintings in there! I find Van Gogh extremely interesting and it was amazing to see my first of his paintings in person! Mom and I headed straight to the gallery where his paintings were located and spent quite a bit of time in there.

My two favorites in this gallery were two of his self portraits.

It was a surreal feeling to be standing in front of a person's painting that I had read and researched about. His life has always intrigued me, and to think that his hands drew those lines was amazing! During his lifetime he only managed to sell one of his 900 paintings, the rest were not made famous until after his death. The fact that he put so much of his time and passion into his artwork, yet people only saw him as a crazy and worthless artist, breaks my heart. Today, his paintings sell for millions. He is on the list of most expensive paintings ever sold for his painting, Portrait of Doctor Gachet, which sold for $82.5 million in 1990. I wish he could know that! I wish he could know that people no longer think his artwork is worthless, but that instead he's one of the most famous and successful artists of all time.

There is a song by Don McLean written about Vincent Van Gogh that I have always loved and found so touching (plus its a beautiful song!):

"They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now

For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night

You took your life, as lovers often do
But I could've told you Vincent
This world was never meant for
One as beautiful as you."

In case you wanna listen, you won't regret it! : )

Ok. My history lesson/proclamation of love for Van Gogh is over. For now.

After the museum we had lunch and then headed to the Eiffel Tower.
I could not believe how big the Eiffel Tower was! I knew it was tall because I had been seeing it from various parts of the city, what I didn't know is how wide it was. I was surprised big time by that. Honestly, I hadn't been looking forward to seeing the Eiffel Tower too much just because you always see it in pictures and everything, so I felt like I had already seen it in a way. However, seeing it in person is not the same at all as seeing it in pictures and I was pleasantly surprised.

The tower was built in 1889 as the entryway for the 1889 World's Fair. At first the French didn't like it and it was to be torn down after 20 years. However, it became known as the most recognizable structure symbolizing Paris, so it was left up. 

We rode the lift up to the second level and took some pictures from there and then mom and I went back to the ground level and walked away from the tower so that we could get pictures of the entire thing.

View from the second level.

Momma and the tower : ) 

Forever wishing I had bought this.

After seeing the Eiffel Tower we were then taken to our ship to start the cruise!! Oh man, I was so excited! This was my very first cruise!

Boarding the Avalon Creativity!

As we walked in we were greeted by the majority of the staff on board and were given welcome champagne and snacks! Before dinner we had a safety demonstration where they put on the emergency siren and we all had to meet on the sky deck and put on our life vests. I took this as a silly photo opportunity.

That evening we had our first dinner, a 4 course meal, and set sail out of Paris! We were able to see the river and the beautiful riverside views as we had dinner, I couldn't stop staring outside. It was impossibly pretty.

Dinner on the ship, on our way out of Paris!
This was filmed with my phone, so please excuse the quality. 

 Before and after dinner I walked around exploring the ship. I was really impressed with how nice everything and everyone was! The sky deck was closed due to low bridges so I had to wait to venture up there.

Mom and I unpacked our things. Being on a cruise is nice because you can unpack and leave your things there the whole time you travel! I was able to Skype with Garrett and show him around our ship and the things we were passing as we sailed.

We sailed overnight and the next morning arrived in Vernon!

 

France Day 2: l'Orangerie & Montmartre

Yes, I am aware that day 2 is apparently the longest day in the history of ever, but this is the last "Day 2" post! We saw so much and, looking back, this was probably one of my top favorite days of the entire trip!

After seeing the Love Bridge and having lunch, we hopped onto the metro and headed to the Tuileries Gardens and the Musee De l'Orangerie. The Tuileries is a garden area where the French go to relax and spend time outside, and it is right next door to the l'Orangerie museum. The l'Orangerie is home to many impressionist and post impressionist paintings such as Monet's Water Lilies. Several paintings by Picasso and Renoir live there as well!

While walking to the museum we saw this wall that has "I love you" written in over 2,000 languages on it!

I love you.

Je t'aime.

 Waiting in line to go into the museum, we took advantage of the fact that the Eiffel Tower was just right there. This was the closest I had been so far!

Tuileries Gardens

I would definitely suggest going to the l'Orangerie museum if you are ever in Paris! It was great because it wasn't one of those overwhelmingly massive museums like the Louvre, it was just the right size! Plus, there are Monet paintings in there! You aren't supposed to take pictures of the paintings in this museum, but I snapped several with my phone anyways. (Sorry mom, I know how annoyed you were with the people sneakily taking pictures, but I was one of them. Forgive me?)

Claude Monet

Renoir

Picasso (and the first and only booby you will see on this blog).

After the museum we headed to Montmartre! Montmartre is a hill in the North of Paris that is home to the gorgeous Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur (my mom's favorite place in Paris). When I say hill, I mean hill! It sits pretty above the rest of the town, it is the highest point in the city, and was visible from our hotel room.

The stairs up to the top were ridiculous so we rode a lift up. The Sacré-Cœur is gorgeous and the view of Paris from it's steps is breathtaking. Just like any other major tourist spot in Paris, it was crowded!

The Sacré-Cœur is a Roman Catholic church built from 1875-1914. 

View from the hill.

We toured the inside (where there were hundreds of lit candles!) and on our way out a pick pocket/gypsy/thief/asshole tried to steal something from Cindy's purse! It doesn't matter if you are in a church, people are going to try and take advantage of you. Thankfully Sue slapped their hand away saying, "Get your hand out of there!" and nothing was taken. 

Afterwards, we headed to an artists' square in the neighborhood and, after looking at the artwork, snacked on some crêpes!

Nutella & banana crêpes.

Sue's pretty drink!

After we finished up we headed back to the hotel and went to dinner later that night. I had chicken pasta that was only ok, but this crème brûlée was delicious! 

After dinner it was shower time. Taylor Swift was having her Yahoo Live Stream that night so I got into bed prepared to watch that. I was able to watch some of it, but my service wasn't great. I talked to Garrett afterward via Skype and he had watched it for me and taken notes so that he could tell me what the surprises were. How sweet is that? #34839 why I love him: He watches Taylor Swift Live Streams for me and takes notes.

The next day we see the Eiffel Tower and finally set off on our river cruise!!

Ps. If you are viewing this on your phone, are some of the pictures upside down? For some reason when I look at my blog on my phone, the pictures I took with my phone are upside down! Help!

France Day 2: Love Bridge and Lunch

After Notre Dame and the cream puffs, we headed to the Love Bridge which was a bit of a walk. I loved walking around Paris and seeing the various shops, restaurants, and people watching. The weather was absolutely perfect for a stroll through the city!

There were so many houseboats along the Seine river. This one is actually a fire station.

Europe and their narrow streets!

The Love Bridge is actually something I found out about through Instagram! I follow Troian Bellisario who plays Spencer on Pretty Little Liars. She spends quite a bit of her time in Paris and she had put up pictures of the Love Bridge and I decided I had to go! See, my nerdiness paid off! : )

If you look closely at the above picture you might see that the entire bridge is covered in locks! Couples have been coming here for years and adding locks to the bridge and throwing away the key. It symbolizes their love and their hopes that it will last forever. 

Really wishing Garrett was there to add a lock with me. One of these days!

Not only are the locks on the metal parts of the bridge, but there are locks upon locks, too! The locks are actually weighing the bridge down, so officers in Paris have started cutting them off and getting rid of them a little at a time. People have put locks on other things around the bridge too.

After the Love Bridge we had lunch at La Palette. Our tour guide told us that several famous people had eaten here before, such as Ernest Hemingway! After doing some research, I discovered that it is also where a portion of Taylor Swift's Begin Again music video was shot!! I wish I had known that while I was there! Figuring that out led to rewatching the video and seeing that part of it was also shot on the Love Bridge. Fangirling, big time! 

We all thought our waiter Bryan was really cute so we got one with him too. 

We all ordered the Croque Monsieur which is toasted bread, ham, and cheese. I had this several times while in France but this place had my absolute favorite! 

Had to have a chocolate eclair for dessert.

I would give anything for one of those right now. Ahhhhh. 

After lunch we headed to Montmartre, which is coming in the next post!

: )