the louvre

The Louvre Museum was the first major attraction we went to see in our whirlwind four day trip. The Louvre was a palace before Louis XIV built Versailles and the royal family made Versailles their main home. The place is huge. The Louvre of course is filled with art- paintings upon paintings, sketches, sculptures, old artifacts from past kings, etc.

My favorite part of course was the building itself. The architecture was amazing and to think of all the kings and queens who had walked the halls before us was awe-inspiring. I loved finding new staircases and seeing different types of marble with beautiful, detailed carvings. And to think it all was built before modern technology. Now that we have modern technology, we are producing some of the flimsiest, plain jane buildings out there.

And all the French doors...be still my heart! My favorite piece of art that was not part of the actual building itself was the sculpture of Nike. My friend Christine and I were able to get a picture with her :)

One of the most disappointing things on my list to see was the Mona Lisa. It is so incredibly tiny compared to what I had always thought it was. I knew it wasn't huge, but it seemed almost comically small for such a famous painting.

And it does NOT help that they put her right across from literally the largest painting in the whole museum! Who planned that??

You could spend at least a couple of days at the Louvre really exploring everything. But unless your an art fanatic, you only want to spend a morning or afternoon here. Honestly, after about 3 hours of taking in all of the art, my brain started to get overloaded with paintings! It probably didn't help that I had been up for about 36 hours at that point...

-katie

paris: the hotel & palais royal

As you all may have noticed on my Facebook and Instagram, over Labor Day weekend I got the opportunity to go to Paris, France---it was an amazing experience! Exhausting, but amazing.

We left Louisville, KY on a Thursday afternoon and flew to the Atlanta airport. From there, we took an overnight flight to Paris, and arrived there early Friday morning. We got on our coach bus and headed to the hotel, which ended up taking over an hour because someone rented a stick shift car but had obviously never driven a stick shift and got his car stuck on the exit ramp blocking everyone behind him, in the Paris International airport! It was a mess, but it happens. I felt so bad for the guy, he had to be so embarrassed. Someone got out and showed him how to shift the gears but then he got back in...and got stuck again. He finally got over to the side enough to let people pass. Moral of the story: just get a cab.

The first place we went to was our hotel, but just to drop our stuff of in a "safe keeping" room. Our rooms weren't ready yet but they had a room for baggage so that you could go out to Paris and enjoy your day. I had never had that luxury when traveling elsewhere, and ended up carrying my things around with me, so I really appreciated it!

I'll be honest, I was disappointed when we drove up. It was in a new part of Paris with lots of concrete and zero charm. I was expecting quaint streets of paris in some old, historic building (you know me!) but this place was new, and in the "suburbs" of Paris. Here is what it looks like driving up to it.

But we spent so little time there, it didn't even matter. It was actually kind of nice to come back to a hotel that was newly renovated, and you won't find much of that in the center of Paris unless you pay a lot of money. The bathroom was super modern and clean, and the beds were basic but so comfortable. Honestly, I was so tired at the end of the day I could have slept on a cold, hard cave floor. They also had an elevator, which I never once saw in any of the nice, quaint, 'center-of-the action' places I stayed in Spain. It's hard to retro-fit elevators into century-old buildings. Plus, it was a one minute walk to the RER, Paris' express trains from the suburbs to the center of the city (basically a subway).

We first went to the center of Paris to visit the Louvre (no time for sleeping here!). We had a couple of hours of free time before we were to go in, so we were able to roam a little bit around the area. Upon the advice of our awesome tour guide, We walked to a small garden and courtyard, le jardin du Palais Royal. It was a beautiful, quirky, and surprisingly quiet spot in the middle of Paris. It is peaceful and not over-run with tourists. An artist, Daniel Buren, designed and constructed black and white columns of various sizes in the middle of the Palais Royal courtyard. This modern art addition in the middle of architectural history is supposedly quite controversial with the French...I liked it :)

A cute Parisian couple enjoying their lunch. 

Of course, I just had to climb atop one (hope that's okay) and snap a picture!

I would definitely recommend stopped at the palais royal while in Paris! It's less tourist-y and beautiful--and it is literally across the street from the Louvre! Getting a bite to eat at one of the local cafes near-by and taking it there to eat on one of the many benches or columns, (heck even the ground) would be a wonderful way to enjoy a part of Paris that is off the beaten-path of constant tourists. Plus, it's free. Beautiful, peaceful, quirky, with minimal tourists and free? Doesn't get much better than that.

-katie