Paris!

Good afternoon to all my dedicated followers!
I must say Kudos to you for putting up with my sporadic (or nonexistant...) posts lately. I lost my camera two weeks ago, with all my Paris pictures on them. I was able to snag a few pics off Tante Joke. It just turned up, actually just about an hour after I began writing about the places, trying to bring pictures into your head.
I won't tell you that I found it attached to my computer. The cord is quite long, and the camera was hidden under some papers, so I had the cord in front of me these past two weeks... But I won't tell you that.
But here are the word pictures the two cities that I started writing before the camera decided to show up.

1. Paris
Looking from the highest point overlooking the city different shades of tan and white colors stretched to the farthest horizon. There is a city law that states that no other colors can be used, in order to preserve the ancient rich elegance of the city, pronounced Par-ee with a slightly upturned nose.
Upon first entering the city, we were directed to a parking garage. Of course Val had to go to the bathroom :) so we followed the WC signs through a dimly lit narrow concrete corridor, the kind of thing horror films are made of. Then we entered a tiny greenish room marked 'Toilet'. There was however no toilet to be found, only a hole in the ground with two concrete steps for your feet. One had to squat in order to use it. My bladder muscles were exercised quite severely that day, as this barbaric hole was not really my style!
Walking through this area of the city was quite sketchy. Beggars lined the streets with cardboard signs, at some point Val even had a man reach inside her pocket after telling him she had 5 euros on her. Thankfully Om GertJan was more observant than my naive friend as to what he was doing ;)
We entered one of the thousands of tiny cafes lining each side of the street. The interior was red silk type of material, and the waiters dressed in black suits, were very formal and opened glass coke bottles over thier shoulders standing at attention.
We also rode the metro. While on the metro I tried to talk to someone who was about 30. I thought for sure he would know English. But no, either he didn't know it or he refused to speak it. The French are quite well known for their slightly obnoxious way of refusing to speak English. One of my French friends tried to convince me the other day that French is soon going to be the language that the entire world will learn. We'll just have to see about that :)

But here's the much waited for pictures!

A bike ride to Leiden, 35 kms away (plus a lot of extra upon getting lost on the way back... actually this picture is taken in the middle of nowhere, way off my route. It was sure beautiful!)

A cannon in Paris. It really struck me how each of these scratches came from a real cannon ball a couple hundred years ago.

Metro station... Doesn't this remind you of Les Miserables? It's not even edited! It was quite amazing to see!

Getting close to the Eiffel Tower...

Getting closer to the Eiffel Tower...

And there it is!! I wonder how many of my friends from across the globe have stood in this exact spot!

Typical French houses. Appartments were everywhere, most often with a cafe below.

This is the place where Napoleon is buried. His statue is half way up, quite a ways off the ground. This is so that standing from above one must bow down to look at him, and standing from below one must look up to him. Also there is a massive organ in here, and gold everywhere. It is an incredible building!

The soldier's hospital

Chapel in the soldier's hospital. Actually this is the same building that Napoleon is in. Through the window at the back one can see his massive coffin and statue with all the rest...

The flags that you see hanging from the roof are from the captured territories that France has taken in the past.

Arc de Triomphe!

It is in memory of all the fallen soldiers I believe. An eternal flame burns in the middle to remember them.

A massive (kind of ugly actually) thing with Egyptian symbols and carvings all over it. It was taken by Napoleon from Eypt.

Palaces that stretched on and on, displaying huge riches to the world.

Some famous gate, I forget what it was called but I did not recognize the name.

If you were touring Paris with your true love you would pay 3 euros for a lock, and write your names on it and attach it to this bridge. We've seen this in several places, it's very much a European thing.

Notre Dame!

The famous window of Notre Dame. At 6:00 when the sun is shining through apparently it is very beautiful.

One of my favorites, taken inside the Notre Dame.

I cannot delete the second one, so you will just have to look at it again :)

Our beautiful and pretty awesome travel partner Renee!

MacDonalds in Paris

Notice all the tan colors. There was very little color, except for the glass buildings in the modern part of the city.

The Sacre Coeur. Absolutely stunning in its detail.

 

I believe this is inside the Sacre Coeur.

An ancient gun from 1624 used to guard the city.

At the top of the city here three men were trying to sell souvenires in front of the Sacre Coeur. It was really crazy, because we were looking at their stuff when all of a sudden they quickly hustled all their things into thier bags, and tore off into the bushes down the hill. When we looked around there were three men in camo uniforms holding huge guns in their hands. These men even had dog-tags around their neck (I think that's what it is called) that had their blood type, in case they were taken wounded to hospital. We hurried pretty quick into the safety of the church!