paris (finally!!!)--sacre coeur, arc de triomphe, and the louvre

this is a picture of the train on the ride to paris. it was a four hour train ride and the way there we got to be in first class! that was pretty exciting for me. they even served us a lunch. the train was a french train company so it was slightly different than the german ones. if i had thought about it, we could have taken a much, much cheaper flight. but i thought the train would be easiest because shilo doesn't like being on planes. but we could have saved money. oh well. next time, i'll remember that.

this is a shot of this really pretty cloud i saw shortly after we arrived. we were on our way to see sacre coeur and i looked up and here was this cloud. so this is what the sky of paris looks like. more or less.

this is only a part of the million of steps we had to climb up on our way to the basilica. sacre coeur is the second highest point in paris, next to the eiffel tower. there were so many steps and it was so hot. by the time we got to the top all we wanted to do was sleep and drink massive amounts of water.

this is staci and shilo in front of sacre coeur. i tried to get them to take my picture a few times but neither one of them is very good at using my camera. so you'll see very little pictures of me, if any.

this is a better picture of the basilica. it's very beautiful.

this is the moulin rouge. it's pretty touristy. shilo was super disappointed when we got there. the original building looked nothing like this. it's kind of sad how touristy some parts of europe are. especially paris.

the next day we went to see the arc de triomphe (here) and the louvre. we tried to go shopping but we weren't having any luck. there were a couple times in paris where we wanted to do something but things were either closed or it just didn't work out. i'll have to go back again and visit the things i missed this time around.

this is the bottom half of the famous pyramid by i.m.pei in the louvre. here's a tip: if you want to go into the louvre, use the underground entrance. we didn't have to wait at all. and you can always go out the big glass pyramid way. it's pretty impressive either way you enter it, though.

you can only really take pictures of the sculptures in the louvre. there are some places where you can take pictures of paintings but only one or two places. these are some statues i thought were really nice. i can't remember what they were called or much about them but i have a book that probably says something about them. i don't know what this one was called but i found it pretty impressive.

not sure what this one is called either but i think the guy in the back is apollo. but i could be wrong. all of the sculptures were pretty impressive.

this one is called milo of crotona. i know this because it's in my book. he's being eaten by lions but in the real story, they were wolves that ate him. just so you know.

i found this one to be very impressive and interesting. i think bronze sculptures are really interesting, especially when they oxidize like this one. yup, i'm a dork.

this is part of the ceiling in the sculpture room. in case you didn't know, the louvre was a palace and became a public museum in 1793.

this is the famous venus de milo. they say that if her arms were still intact, they'd be able to tell who she was supposed to be because the arms are what shows the characteristics of the person.


these are two pictures of my favorite thing in the whole museum. it's called "the winged victory over samothrace" and it stood on a cliff so that everyone sailing into port would see it. it was so amazing. you had to walk up these steps to get to it and it took my breath away. staci's, too. it's just so huge and impressive.

this statue is called "psyche revived by a kiss from cupid." i think it's so beautiful.

and this is the outside pyramid. it's in the courtyard of the louvre. there are some cool fountains (one that is pictured here) around it and way, way too many pigeons. although i miss pigeons now, kind of.

anyway, i'll update more later. but later this week or something. i promise.