So that about sums up how marvelous it is here. One of the best pictures I've had during the last two weeks. I've been writing in a physical journal about my adventures, which I suppose doesn't really count in terms of letting everyone who reads this what I'm up to. Sorry!
Tomorrow is my last day in Paris, and after that I'm headed to Bordeaux. I'll be there for about a week before moving on to the south of France.
Paris has been so amazingly wonderful, and I've met many great new people during my stay here so far. CouchSurfing is really one of the greatest ways to travel I think. My hosts have all been very nice people, including Jeanne - Rebekah's best friend and not a CSer - and her family, whom I stayed with when I first arrived in Paris.
Being here for nearly two weeks has really given me the opportunity to see Paris more as an inhabitant than as a tourist. I've spent days exploring each individual Arrondissement - there are twenty seperate neighborhoods in Paris proper - on foot, and seeing all the major attractions as well as countless unheard of wonders. I think I've managed to step foot in almost every church - of varying denominations - in town. Those are some of the best things to see because they're always remarkable outside and in, it's constantly cooler inside a church than it is outside - temperature wise I mean - and they're all free. It amazes me how many of these people pass up too because they're concerned with getting to Notre Dame and Ste. Chapelle. Granted those are both amazing feats of architecture and stained glass, some of the smaller cathedrals and churches are just as wonderful. Amusingly enough the only church I had a problem getting in to was the American Cathedral, only because they didn't allow bags inside, and had no facility for storing them if you had one. Oh well.
As cliché as it may be, my favorite spot in all of Paris is right next to the Eiffel Tower. There are so many fantastic places in this city, but not any of them can compare to the immense joy this area (in the 7eme) gives me. I think it's partly due to it being one of the first truly amazing things I'd seen when I first came to France, and partly because it really
is just one of the most incredible structures on all the earth.
More to come...
Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo
Les Invalides and shadow from the Eiffel Tower
Auguste Rodin's sculpture Le Penseur (The Thinker)
