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“Bonjour!” “Merci!” Two words that I said a lot when I was in Paris. Most of you probably know that bonjour means hello, but not everyone may know that merci means thank you! What about the word beautiful? I never learned this word in French, but according to google it is “belle”. This blog post is going to be based around that word, belle, because everything I saw and experienced on this day was utterly beautiful.
On my second day in Paris I explored the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre. Before you say anything, yes The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is based in this Cathedral, and yes there were gargoyles at the top! However, this is besides the point; the Notre Dame Cathedral was amazing! It was the most peaceful place; there were little nooks surrounding the nave (the main body of the church) that held statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and quiet areas for prayer. The walls of the Cathedral were covered with stained glass windows, with vibrant colors all around. It was the most peaceful place; it made me feel so safe, even with hundreds of people walking around me. On this day, I learned that over 30,000 people visit Notre Dame each day! At first I could not believe this, as when I got to the Cathedral there was barely a line, however, when I left there was a huge line wrapping around the building and in to the street. The Notre Dame Cathedral was amazing and is a must see if you ever plan on traveling to Paris!
The next attraction was one of my favorites from the whole trip, The Louvre. Have you ever seen the movie The Davinci Code ? If not, I very much recommend watching it because the movie is based in the Louvre. I actually watched this movie for the first time today, as I am currently in Florida with my grandparents and still resting off the jet lag from our trip to Paris! It was really cool to watch because every time the actors were in a hallway that we were in, or near the Mona Lisa we would scream “Hey we were just there the other day!”. Now, to answer your question, yes, I did see the Mona Lisa, and yes, I will put a picture of it here on my blog! The Louvre is now a museum, but originally was the home of King Louis XV before he moved to Versailles (which I visited as well and will share in another blog post so stay tuned). This museum is the second biggest museum in the world, behind a museum in Russia, and housed over 50,000 people before the French Revolution. I won’t bore you with a huge history lesson, but I thought that was pretty cool. While walking in it, it was hard to imagine the fact that a King lived there. It was so huge, I have no clue what I would do with myself if I had lived there! Our tour guide told us that if you were to look at every single artifact for 30 seconds, 7 hours a day, everyday, you would complete the museum in 2 in a half months. Isn’t that crazy?! With that, I definitely did not see the whole museum in the few hours that I was there, but I did see a lot of cool things. I saw many crowns and jewlelry of the former Kings and Queens. I saw magnificent paintings and sculptures, and like I said before, I got up close and personal with the Mona Lisa. I did not get a super clear picture of her because 1. She was protected by glass and 2. There were about 100 people squished around me pushing to get closer to the painting. I also saw the famous Venis de Milo statue; which was so much cooler in person by the way! They say that people are still searching to see if they can find her arms, because still no one knows who made her, or whether or not she was supposed to have arms. I have seen pictures of her in text books and such, but I have to say it was neat to see in person. I saw the back of her, which was surprisingly really scratched up and almost dirty looking; some say that she was found resting upon a tree and that is why her back is so scratched up.
These were just a few of the amazing artifacts that I was lucky enough to see in the Louvre! It was one of the most amazing places I have ever been in; all of the statues and paintings were astonishing. I really do hope to go back there one day, and I hope to at some point see everything that the museum has to offer!
Purse (perfect purse to avoid those pickpocketers)
Add this scarf to the purse for a cuter look!
Notre Dame Cathedral
The Louvre
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