Sarah Senter's Crash Guide to Paris 101 (or, An American in Paris Part 2)

Eiffel Tower

I mean, come on. You're potentially in Paris for only one day - why wouldn't you climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower? I mean, it's only one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world! 

670 stairs later I was beginning to have second thoughts. Steps are not my strong suit - I am a traditionally built lady, and do not normally find myself scaling massive flights of stairs to the tops of towers, but let me tell you - the view made every single step worth it. It was a cold, cloudy day, but we could still see a long ways into the distance, and the view of the city was absolutely phenomenal. It was a totally surreal experience, standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and being able to look down on the entirety of Paris and pick out all of the famous buildings and structures, and one that I would recommend to anyone. The Eiffel Tower is also beautiful at night, as we had seen the night before--they light up the entire structure, and every hour on the hour, the lights start to sparkle and glimmer, and it's truly spectacular.

Notre-Dame Cathedral


Like I've said before, I love cathedrals. I think they're absolutely stunning and awe-inspiring, and let me tell you - none that I have seen are more stunning or awe-inspiring than the cathedral of Notre-Dame. (The fact that The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is one of my favorite Disney movies is irrelevant...heh.) The amount of exquisite detail in the stonework and gargoyles and chimera is astonishing, and the stained glass and Gothic architecture are positively beautiful, and you get an immediate sense of it's 850+ year history as soon as you see it and walk through its massive doors.

Inside, the cathedral was dimly lit by chandeliers and all of the candles from the surrounding chapels, and they had a path roped off for tourists to walk around the perimeter of the cathedral. Since it was Sunday, there was also a mass going on in Notre-Dame as we were walking around, and this made it even more eerily beautiful. The central nave of of the cathedral was packed with people attending the mass, and the organ music and the Latin chanting of the priests went on the whole time we were there, and they made the whole experience very atmospheric. They even had the swinging incense holder, which sent smoke up into the vast expanse of space above the alter in front of the exquisite rose windows - absolutely beautiful.

Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop


Across the Seine from the Ile-de-Cite where Notre-Dame and the Palais de Justice are, is an English-language bookshop called Shakespeare & Co, which was founded in the 1920s, and apparently was frequented by all of the American and British ex-patriates living in Paris during the interwar years, like Enrest Hemingway, Gertrude, Stein, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald and more. It's a tiny little shop with two floors, crammed with books in every single possible place, as well as reading rooms, tiny writing rooms with notebooks and typewriters for visitors to leave messages for later visitors, beds for people to sleep on (including beginning writers), and a piano for anyone to play. It reminded me of a much, much more compact, and much much older-feeling version of Ed McKay's - I figured I should buy something, just to say that I had, and I ended up getting a collection of selected poems by Dylan Thomas. Score.

The Louvre


Ahhh, the Big Mama of all art museums. I can't really talk about all that we saw in the Louvre without going on and on and on, but suffice to say...1) It's absolutely gorgeous. 2) It's absolutely MASSIVE. 3) It was SO bizarre seeing all of these amazing paintings and sculptures that you see in textbooks and online for years and years in person. Examples: The Mona Lisa (oh yes, we saw the Mona Lisa), Liberty Leading the People (the Viva la Vida painting, guys), Napoleon crowning Josephine in Notre-Dame, the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, a slew of awesome Egyptian artifacts, and so so so so much more. Expect pictures.

Montmartre and Sacre-Coeur

The 19th-century haven of bohemian artists, painters, and writers is just as charmingly boho and vibrant today, and we walked through the Artists' Square and several little side streets that were all lit up with Christmas lights - c'est magnifique. There was even an accordion busker - it's legit guys.

Sacre-Coeur is another cathedral, albeit one that was built in the early 1900s, but it was nonetheless just as beautiful as Notre-Dame. It's a huge, domed white-stone building sitting at the very top of the hill of Montmartre, and it holds some of the largest and most ornate wall and ceiling mosaics in the world. The bells were ringing as we were walking around the basilica - which I think is modeled on St. Peter's in Rome? - which made it even more epically amazing. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral, but I did get some lovely nighttime pictures of the outside of Sacre-Coeur, and the view of Paris from the hill.

Also Included in Sarah Senter's Crash Course Guide to Paris 101

• Walkbys of So Many More Parisian Landmarks (ie the Musee d'Orsay, L'Academie, Place de la Concorde, Tuileries Garden, the Moulin Rouge, the Pantheon, the Sorbonne, the Hotel de Ville, and so many many more.)
• Delicious food: Onion and cheese soup, hot wine and hot chocolate, crepe au chocolat e chantilly (Nutella and whipped cream - HELL YES), all ordered in broken French by MOI.
• Reenactments by Sarah and myself of various moments from a Hunchback of Notre-Dame inspired Whose Line is it Anyway? sketch in front of several Paris landmarks. Video evidence will surface, but content yourself with the original video, so you can compare later. :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YkR5byDw2w