The Snells: Bonjour Paris!

The last weekend the Goplen parents were here, we all flew to Paris. We were on different flights and the plan was to meet at the hotel. However, our parents were delayed out of Berlin, which caused them to miss their connection to Paris. So, much to our surprise, as we came out of our gate area, there stood my dad with a hand made sign that said "Snells." You know, like the chauffeurs hold up at the airport. It was pretty funny. We headed to the hotel to meet up with our family friends, Ralph and Cindy. Ralph was doing some business, so the four of us and Cindy went out to dinner. It was wonderful to have Cindy with us, as she speaks very good French. After dinner, we headed down to Les Champs-Elysees, a huge boulevard that connects the Louvre and the Arc de Triumphe. We headed up towards the Arc de Triumphe. It was really pretty as the sun was going down, with all the street lights lit up along Les Champs-Elysees. After we walked around the Arc de Triumphe, we headed back to our hotel. The next morning, we woke up pretty early and headed out to Versailles. Ryan was so excited...it was like a little kid in a candy store! We spent about half a day exploring all the palaces and the famous fountain! I actually learned a lot about the palace...for one, it is ridiculously decorated. I have never seen anything so ornate in my entire life. Loius XIV built the extravegent palaces, which eventually had room to house 3000 people! We explored the main palace, which housed the famous room of mirrors. It is a giant dining hall that has mirrors lining one side and windows on the other side looking out over all his land. After we explored the main palaces, we headed into the gardens to walk around a bit. We ate at a cafe that was close to the famous fountain that has horses coming up out of the water. All in all, Versailles was a pretty spectacular sight! After we got back into Paris, Ryan and I headed out to see some of the other sights that my parents had already seen before. We started by going to Les Invalides, the home of Napoleon's tomb. The whole museum is a war museum, but since we didn't have much time, we hurried through the museum (to my delight and Ryan's disappointment). Napoleon was originally buried on the island of St. Helena where he spent the last part of his life in exile. Several years after he died, he was brought back to France and buried in the Dome church, now a part of Les Invalides. It was quite a sight! After visiting Napoleon, we headed over to The Louvre. Once we got into the Louvre, we headed straight to the Mona Lisa. Everyone told us that we would be so disappointed because of how small it was. But, Ryan and I were actually surprised at the size. It was not large by any means, but we were imagining a picture the size of a postcard (perhaps slightly exaggerated). We were getting ready to snap a picture of it and the camera died. Flat out dead....it was a huge bummer! So after we tried several attempts to reviving the battery, we gave up and continued on. The museum was much larger than I had thought and so we wandered around a bit. We saw the Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek statue thought to depict Aphrodite, the Goddess of love. We also saw Code of Hammurabi, which is one of the oldest code of laws in the world, coming from the Babylonian era. After our tour of the Louvre, we met up with my parents and our family friends for dinner. We enjoyed a nice French dinner before heading back to the hotel, exhausted from all the sights! The next day, Ryan and I woke up early so we could go see Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle. Notre Dame was built in 1163 and took 200 years to build. After we explored the inside of Notre Dame, we headed over to Sainte Chapelle. This was a very small chapel built in 1248. It is most famous for its unbelievably extravegant stain glass windows. There are no pictures that can do them justice. They were floor to cieling stain glass windows all depicting some part of the Bible. The amazing thing was that over 70% of the stain glass is original from 1248. It is said that at one point part of the Crown of Thorns was housed here before it was moved to Notre Dame. Ryan and I were just amazed at how beautiful the chapel was. After our tours of the churches, we headed quickly over to the Pantheon to see some famous French tombs. Included in the list were Voltaire, Rousseau, Braille (the inventor of braille), and the Curies (famous scientists). We then headed to meet up with my parents to view the city from the highest point in Paris...the Eiffel Tower! After a long and some-what nerve wreaking elevator ride up, we made it to the top. The views of the city were beautful! After we got our feet back on solid ground, we headed to another beautiful church called Sacre-Coeur. Work began on this church in 1875 and took 45 years to complete. Nestled high on a hill overlooking the city, you could call this a "new" church in Europe. On our way down from the church, we saw some street performers who were not really performing. What did make their performance entertaining was when two little kids (maybe 3 years old) joined in their dancing. They were quite cute! After the church, we walked by Moulin Rouge and ended up finding some dinner. Since my parents had to get up early to catch their flight, they headed back to the hotel, while Ryan and I headed back to Notre Dame so we could climb to the top. After a long wait and many many stairs, we finally got to the top of Notre Dame. The views were so spectacular, especially since night was beginning to fall. After our climb up to the top, we too headed back to the hotel. It had been a successful day! The next day, Ryan and I went out once more and decided to explore Les Catacombs. In the 250 km of underground tunnels and quaries, lie millions of peoples remains. During the 18th century up until the beginning of the 20th century, people's remains were carried across Paris in the dark into the Catacombs to prevent further disease from spreading. While it was very eerie to be walking by people's skulls and bones, it was quite interesting to say the least. After the Catacombs, we wandered around Paris, found some lunch, and headed back to the hotel. It was a wonderful way to end a great vacation with the Goplen parents. We had such a fun time exploring Europe with them! Enjoy the pictures below!