Paris- Christina and Cristian

These are the Romanian Carpathian Mountains from the window of the airplane.

Pont Neuf- New Bridge is actually the oldest in Paris. The first stone was laid by Henri III in 1578. The bridge has 12 arches and is actually split into two bridges on either side of the island.
Under the bridge is the Vert Galant (old spark) square. Named after Henri IV who was very busy in the boudoir.

The Louvre from under the bridge in the park on the Ile de la Cite which is a boat shaped island. Notre Dame, St. Chapelle and the Conciergerie are all on the island.

This is a statue of Henri IV inaugurated the Pont Neuf and gave it its name in 1607.

St. Chapelle- is famous for its magnificent stained glass windows and Gothic architecture. It is also called "a gateway to heaven." The windows portray more than 1,000 biblical scenes.

The chapel was built in 1248 by Louis IX to house what was believed to be Christ's Crown of Thorns and fragments of the True Cross. The King paid three times more for the relics than for the entire construction of St. Chapelle.

The lower chapel was used by servants and lower court officials and is very dark. The exquisite upper chapel was reserved for the royal family.

During the Revolution the building was badly damaged and became a warehouse for storing flour. It was renovated a century later.

The Rose Window tells the biblical story of the Apocalypse in 86 panels of stained glass.

Notre Dame- was built on the site of a Roman temple and was commissioned in 1159. It is built with French medieval architecture. The first stone was laid in 1163, marking the start of two centuries of toil by armies of Gothic architects and medieval craftsmen. It witnessed the coronations of Henry VI in 1422 and Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804.

Square Jean XXIII is behind Notre Dame and is a formal garden with a Neo-Gothic fountain opened in 1844.

The West Rose Window depicts the Virgin. The Kings' Gallery underneath features 28 stone images of the kings of Judah.

The spire is 295 feet.

The addition of the spire and gargoyles were carried out in the 19th century.

The Portal of the Virgin is surrounded by kings and saints.

The Conciergerie was the country's main prison during the Revolution. The Conciergerie and St. Chapelle are both surrounded by the Palais de Justice.

The Conciergerie served as a prison from 1391-1914. During the Revolution, the prison was packed with over 4,000 prisoners. It's most celebrated inmate was Marie-Antoinette. She was held in the cell below until her execution in 1793

The Conciergerie has a four-aisled Gothic hall where guards of the royal household once lived.

The building was renovated in the 19th century but still retains its 11th century torture chamber and 14th century clock tower.

The Louvre- was Europe's largest royal palace before it became the world's greatest museum with over 300,000 paintings.

Cristian in the Jardin des Tuileries.

The famous Mona Lisa.

The crazy line to get to the Mona Lisa. I hate crowds!!! The Louvre was so crowded in these small halls. We just went through and quick as we could to see the art we knew about. I really don't like or have the patience for art museums but Cristian wanted to go.

This was a really pretty building on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees.Place de la Concorde- was a swamp until the mid 18th century. The square was known as Place de la Revolution when the guillotine or Black Widow was placed here. On January 21, 1973, Louis XVI was beheaded followed by over 1,300 other victims including Marie-Antoinette. The blood-soaked square was optimistically renamed Place de la Concorde after the Reign of Terror finally came to an end in 1794.

The 3,200 year old Luxor obelisk was presented to King Louis-Phillippe as a gift from the viceroy of Egypt. It is the oldest man-made object in Paris from 1200 B.C.

Eiffel Tower- was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1889 and was only meant to be a temporary addition to Paris's skyline. It is 319 meters tall and was designed by Gustave Eiffel. It was also the world's tallest building until 1931.

Cristian and I took the elevator up to the first and second levels. The top level was closed because of ice and wind. Once we got to the second level we saw why. It was sooo cold up there that it hurt!! The second level was high up enough. We had sandwiched and cappuccinos on the second level to warm up. There were a ton of pigeons in the restaurant begging. One nibbled off of a french fry right out of my hand. Cristian was disgusted.Twelve golden stars of the European Flag mark the beginning of the French Presidency of the EU, and the whole tower is lit up blue at night. Every hour, on the hour, 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance.

In 1989 Philippe Petit walked across a tight rope from Trocadero-Palais de Chaillot to the second floor of the tower.

Trocadero Gardens and Palais de Chaillot

We were going to go up this day but for obvious reasons we did not.

Arc de Triomphe- The arc took 30 years to complete! After his greatest victory, the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, Napoleon promised his men they would go home beneath triumphal arches. Disruptions with the architects plans and the demise of Napoleon's power delayed the completion until 1836. We went up at night so not too many views.

On November 11, 1920, the body of an unknown soldier was placed beneath the arch to commemorate the dead of WWI, and the eternal flame is lit every evening. We were there at the time when the old men from the wars came to light the flame with a ceremony. They were wearing their army outfits from the wars.
Champs-Elysees with the ferris wheel at the end.

Tons of seafood at the markets.

St. Germain des Pres- is Paris's oldest church originating in 542 as a basilica to house holy relics. Most of the church was destroyed by a fire in 1794 and then restored.

Mosque

St. Etienne du Mont-houses the shrine of St. Genevieve, patron saint of Paris, and the remains of literary figures Racine and Pascal.

Pantheon- When Louis XV recovered from a desperate illness in 1744, he was so grateful to be alive that he conceived a magnificent church to honor St. Genevieve. The church was planned in Neo-Classical style and began in 1746 and was completed in 1790. With the revolution underway, the church was turned into a pantheon- a monument housing the tombs of France's great heroes. The facade is inspired by the Rome Pantheon.

Us being morbid in the Crypt.The interior has four aisles arranged in the shape of a Greek cross from the center where the great dome rises.

Funny Art

These baby faces wrapped around the whole building and said how many minutes old each baby was.

St. Jacques Tower- dating from 1522 is all that remains of a medieval church.

Got Hemorrhoids?

Chateau de Versailles

Grand Trianon- This smaller palace in the gardens of the main Chateau is made of stone and pink marble from 1687. It was built by Louis XVI to escape court life and to enjoy the company of Madame de Maintenon.

Formal Gardens- everything in the garden is symmetrical. The Grand Canal was also built in the park for Louis XIV's boating parties. We had to walk through the gardens to get to the smaller palace and it was freezing!! It started to rain ice while we were in the Chateau and then was snowing when we came out so we were wet and it was slippery. I definitely recommend coming here in the summer time.

The present palace was started in 1668 when it grew around a hunting lodge. The different wings were all added at different times. It was so crowded and people were shoving their way through. They needed way more security than they had and you would think they would know this by now.

All of the rooms were richly decorated with colored marble and stone carvings and velvet and silver furniture.

An artist named Jeff Koons was on display. He is famous for making huge metal sculptures of balloon animals and objects. They were a bit fun. People were taking more pictures of his work than the actual art work of the castle.

Michael Jackson and Bubbles. hahahahaha.

Not sure what this is.

Nobody is getting in!!

Some dude asked if we wanted him to take a picture of us so we said sure. Then he made me take like 5 of him until it turned out right.

New Year's Eve!!!
This is right after we got engaged!! I have my new ring on. We were standing in front of the Arc de Triumph on the Champs de Elysees.

It was very odd that the city didn't put on a fireworks show. They didn't do anything. Good thing some restaurants near us had some...as well as a lot of idiots on the street. We also got lucky while we were at the Eiffel Tower. We found a perfectly intact bottle of French champagne on the ground!!! We popped it at midnight.

Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Palace

Montmartre and Sacre Coeur- We took the cable car up the hill to Sacre Coeur. We bought an Orange Travel pass for the week and it worked on all transportation even to Versailles and the airport. Sacre Coeur is a Neo-Romanesque church started in the 1870s and completed in 1914. We ate some roasted chestnuts here and they were delicious. St. Pierre de Montmartre- There are artists (I mean hustlers) everywhere in Montmartre trying to con you. They will start to draw your picture and then try talking you into staying for the rest and try to get you to put your finger into a string bracelet to help them finish it and then latch on. Its funny to wait and watch the tourists who fall for their gimmicks.

Pompidou Center- is like a building turned inside out. Escalators, elevators, air and water ducts are all on the outside. It is an art museum and features some Picasso. They say its Paris's top tourist attraction. Picasso Fountain is in the Place Igor Stravinsky near Pompidou.

Catacombs- A long series of quarry tunnels built in Roman times, the catacombs are now lined with ancient bones and skulls. Thousands of rotting corpses were transported here in the 1780s to absorb the excess from the unsanitary Les Innocents cemetery. Most of Paris's larger churches once had their own cemeteries, but city growth and generations of dead began to overwhelm them.

The old cemetery was saturated to a point where its neighbors were suffering from disease, due to contamination caused by improper burials, open mass graves, and earth charged with decomposing organic matter. There were 910 meters of tunnel to explore.
Oh yeah and when you come out you get your bag checked. There were skulls and other bones confiscated from tourists and we were some of the first 15 people in line. I wonder how many they confiscate by the end of the day. SICK!!!

Some protesters behind the Catacombs entry.

Cimetiere du Montparnasse- opened in 1824. It is said that the cemetery is the burial ground for yesterday's celebrities. Unlike Cristian, I didn't really know many of the people.

Constantine Brancusi a famous Romanian sculptor is buried here. He spent most of his adult like in Paris and they love him. He even has his own museum. The first town I was assigned to for Peace Corps called Targu Jiu, was his birthplace. He also has a ton of really neat sculptures there.