The Surreal Eiffel Tower
Post date: 27-Aug-2009 17:28:19
The Eiffel tower is even more beautiful in person than in the movies. It felt quite surreal to peak at it through the trees. As we starred in awe from the top deck of the Paris hop on and hop off bus we'd catch another glimpse of it in between buildings It actually changes colour in different amounts of light. Perhaps it's quite moody like the Paris weather. In the sun, the tower is a deep coppery bronze. In a rainy dark sky it looks beige with a slight blush of pink. It's quite bronze and beige in other lights but always has a matte finish like a finely made picture frame. It's dizzying to look up at and it was very exciting and made me happy to write in my journal with the tower on it. Okay, I'll femme la bouche now and will stop drooling over the iconic tower.
We found a geocahe not too far from the Eiffel tour. We decided not to engage in the typical Eiffel Tower poses for pictures-holding up your hand to hold the tower etc. We couldn't bring ourselves to that level of tourist. However, I do like the disgruntled geocaching pictures of Colin in front of the tower. I also like our kissing picture which
may also be a bit cliche, but it's a must to French Kiss in front of the tower. I'll give in to that tourist pose. You can see these pictures in with the swarms from the day.
We also visited the Notre Dame Cathedral and the best part was admission was free. The Gothic architecture church was built in 1193 and is was of my favourite churches we've visited so far. I felt sort of bad and melancholy as we walked through the church because there was a service going on and all these tourists are tromping through and sitting on the pews, taking pictures, starring at the poor people trying to pray and listen to the service. I guess they get used it though.
On our walk back to the Chatelet Les Halles train station, we saw a really cool fountain with all these moving sculptures. It's called "Stravinsky Fountain" and it's by Tinguley and Saint Phalle.
We stopped at McDonald's for a quick snack, grabbed a few groceries (super cheap wine 3.95 euros for a bottle of 2007 saugvion.
So, the train from La Borne Blanche (where we're staying) to Paris (Chatlet Les Halles) usually takes about 40 minutes. Therefore, silly us assumed it would take the same amount of time to get home in the dark. However, we got on the train and it went as far as the Villiers-le-Bel Gonesse-Anouville station. Everyone got off the train (and there weren't a lot of people on it because it was 9:30 at night) and the lights turned off and on. We thought okay is that the end of the stop or is the driver just taking a break or something. A few minutes later an announcement was made in French and I interpreted it to mean it was the end of line and we better get off. We ran off and then the train immediately turned it's lights out and headed back the other way. We were very happy that we had bailed. We waited for another train that said it was going to Orry La Ville and got on. Sure enough, it went to Goussainville station (only one stop further) and then did the same thing. When we got off we realized that there was a big blockade in front of the train too. Thankfully the third train we got on made it straight back to La Borne Blanche. On our 30 minute walk from the station to the house where we are staying we enjoyed some beautiful lightening.
Check out all 196 of the shots here.