Paris and the end of 2009

For the end of the year I decided to go visit Paris for a couple days to see the sights that I hadn't yet seen as well as create a memorable bookend for 2009. My original plan was to spend three days and two nights but since there were absolutely no openings in any hostel for the night of the 31st, I decided to spend only two days there. Leaving Chambéry at 5:30 in the morning was a challenge and before I knew it I had fallen asleep and was waking up three hours later as the train pulled into Paris' "Gare de Lyon". First things first, I spoke with the ticket counter to get my return ticket moved up one day. Next I went to the tourist information center and bought a Paris Museum Pass which saved me alot of money on Museum entry fees and automatically moved me to the front of the line for entrance into most of them (all for just 30 euros!). With those two tasks out of the way I descended into the underbelly of the city to take the metro to my first destination, the Louvre (see above). I won't try to describe the Louvre to you here aside from mentioning its overwhelming immensity. I will tell you that it was an amazing experience for me. Having taken three years of art history classes in high school, going to the Louvre was an experience which "a bouclé" ("capped off" or "brought full circle" in French) my understanding and study of art history. My favorite work of art here was easily the "Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace" (above), one of the most famous statues in all of history. You make think that this headless figure is just another "headless-figure" which hair-splitting art historians have somehow deemed incredible (as I first did when I studied it in high school). But until you face it in person yourself, you will never fully recognize the existence of the life still strugging to wrench itself free from its stone cage. The beauty will floor you... period. Throughout the rest of the Louvre (which itself is an incredible building rivaling any I had previously seen) were scattered more famous works of art, most famously Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", including the one you see here on the left entitled, "Liberty Leading the People" or "La Marseillaise".
Well after somewhere between three and four hours of walking through this goliath of a museum, being overwhelmed by the incredible amounts of crowding people, and developing some merciless hunger pangs, I decided to leave the Louvre. From the famous glass pyramid at the museums entrance I walked down through the Tuileries (famous French gardens) and visited the "Orangerie" where I saw Claude Monet's famous "Water Lillies" paintings. From here I took a walk through the city to a little street called "Rue Cler" which exemplifies the best of what outdoor market shopping in Paris has to offer. There were so many brightly colored fruits and vegetables filling the stands which lined the street, not to mention the vast array of cheeses whose odor was very overpowering. The rest of my day consisted of walking the streets of Paris, enjoying the sights and sounds and just taking it all in. When I finally headed back to my hostel I had an interesting run in with some potential pick-pockets who, thank the Lord, were unsuccessful in their attempts to steal from me (this experience heightened my awareness for suspicious activity and helped me be aware enough the next day to prevent a man from getting his wallet stolen on the metro, although it earned me a new understanding for Arabic curse words).
New Years I woke up and left my hostel early in the morning and took the metro out to the famous Chateau de Versailles, palace of the Sun King Louis XIV. The inside was incredible (see the famous Hall of Mirrors here on the left) but after seeing many of the chateaux of the Loire Valley it was not as interesting to me as the gardens outside. Versailles is incredibly vast and the gardens stretch on forever. There is not much I can really say about them except that wandering through them was my favorite experience in Paris, most of which has to do with my love for nature and landscaping experience. Here are some more pictures from the grounds (the Grand Canal that you see stretching into the distance in the second photo is over one mile long!). From Versailles I went back into the heart of Paris to visit the Musée d'Orsay, the city's second most famous art museum that is actually housed in what used to be a train station. It houses many of the most famous impressionist masterpieces in the world. Daylight was running out however and since the museum was closing early due to it being New Years Eve I left for the Montmartre district. As I made the way up Paris' highest hill I saw that the fog had rolled into the city making it nearly impossible even to see the Eiffel Tower, glittering lights and all. I did get to see Paris' second most famous church though, the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. This basilica is made out of locally quarried travertine stone, which constantly exudes calcite, thus ensuring that the exterior of the building remains white, even despite age and pollution.
Well, as you can imagine, after 11 days of traveling around Italy followed by two days in Paris I was ready to get home and get some rest. So I spent New Years Eve riding the train back to Chambery but it was not a sad thing in the least. I am so thankful for all that I have gotten to see and accomplish this year in Europe and not only that but looking back to all the things that have happened in my life this year, I am amazed and can easily say that 2009 has been the most fulfilling and rewarding year of my life to this point. May (not the month) 2010 be just as life-changing and rewarding!