My Favorite View of Paris

The Montmartre district of Paris is all kinds of entertaining.  It has the Moulin Rouge, streets full of sex shops, pub crawls in the evening, beautiful graffiti, squares full of artists, creepy men selling trains and mini Eiffel Towers, crappy souvenirs, and second-hand clothing sold in bulk.  How could you not love that?!  What's more, it's also the home to Sacré Cœur, a basilica atop the Montmartre hill.

Old pic. See if you can discover why.

Sure, the basilica is nice, but there's something magical about the view when you reach the basilica, and then turn around and look out at the city of lights. It's usually full of performers and tired travelers, all sitting and enjoying the view together.  You may even be harassed to buy a warm beer while you're sitting there. Don't accept, but enjoy that you have the option.

Can you see the human monkey in the background?

I love Paris and her dirty streets full of moderately-talented performers preaching love.  I know that this stop will always be a super-touristy one, but it's still one of my favorites.

Much love,
Angie

I am the Master of Touristy Pics in Paris

To prove my point, I offer you this:

Look at that tacky tourist precision!

All I'm saying is if you're going to Paris, you should probably just go ahead and buy an extra ticket for me.  I promise to make you look at touristy as possible all over the city.

Lovesies,
Angie

P.S. I made Bailey take this.  She would want you all to know that.

Got that Love Locked Down

There's a recent trend to put a lock on specific bridges in Paris as a symbol of your everlasting looooove. *Cue all of my nephews making barf noises.*

So Bailey and I thought, "Hey! We like each other. Let's do this!"  Actually, Bailey, being infinitely more cute than me, told me she wanted to and brought the locks over.

So we spent an evening etching them with a sketchy box cutter, and then coloring them with Sharpies. 

How precious are we?

Every time we walked past this bridge, there were more people locking their love, and then throwing the keys into the river to make that stuff legit.  Too legit to quit.

I guess that's it, Bailey, you're stuck with me forever!!

Can't wait to lock my love with all of you.

Angie

When I See an Elephant Fly

Ya, ya, you're right, there are no flying elephants in Nantes, but there is one really cool mechanical elephant.  It hails from Les Machines de l’île, or Machines of the Island.  One of the coolest things about this elephant is that you can take a ride on it as it walks around the island.  Sounds cool, huh?

Hey there, big guy.

The hilarious truth of watching this giant machine transport passengers is that it moves at a pace that makes a battery-powered wheelchair look speedy.  Yes, it's cool to see. Yes, it would be so fun to take kids on there.  BUT, watching people wait on board for 30 minutes while they loaded everyone just to slowly saunter around this little island made me feel confident that I was enjoying the experience much more just watching it unfold.

That being said, if you go to Nantes, you have to go to see the re-purposed shipyards that this elephant calls home.  He's surrounded by really cool machines that are inspired by the imaginary worlds of Jules Verne and the mechanical genius of Leonardo da Vinci.  How cool is that??

Much love to all!
Angie

Where else than Paris?

As I take you through my three days in Paris with my sister, I thought it'd be easier to navigate in pictures.  Very few things we did were out of the ordinary on paper, but the fact that I was able to do them in great company made them each new and entertaining again.  So, here goes...

Trying to remake the classic ESQ picture that originated when I went to Paris with my 5 fellow music majors.

Inverted pyramid inside the Louvre. Classic.

She's so purty.

Just so much love.  So, so much love.

NERD ALERT: Found Stravinsky's fountain!

Life goal: Accomplished. Baguette sword duel in front of the Eiffel Tower.

In case you couldn't quite see the details.

Hey, look! The Arc de Triomphe!

Hello, Versailles! You'r'e looking quite elaborate today!

OMG Selfie in the HOM!

When the fountains dance, so must I.

Marie-Antoinette's house was almost as beautiful as we are.

Snack time! Macaroons and fancy hot chocolate, anyone?

Giving our art opinions.

We made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower!!

Quick stop at the Moulin Rouge.  Note: no dancing here.

All in all, this was a great 3-days stop on our journey.  I don't think there's any big site in Paris that we didn't see, or any pain that my feet didn't feel, but it was all very worth it! And there will be a blog in the very near future on how to make it all worth it without spending too much of your hard-earned cash flow.  All of the important things!

Lovesies to all,

Angie