Paris Opera House, and the long walk to the Grand Arch

I remembered sketching the Paris Opera house for one my classes in school. I never really knew too much about the place, but it definitely exceeded all of my expectations when I finally saw it today.

The inside was spectacular, crazy ornate details from floor to ceiling in every room. Below is just one picture from the inside to give you an idea of how cool this building is.

After we left the opera house, we did some shopping down one of the main streets in Paris, lots of expensive awesome stuff to say the least. Stephanie really wanted to walk to the Grand Arch, it didn't look too far away, so we decided it would be worth it to walk down there and see it. When we finally (after a good 1-2 hour walk) arrived at the city, the Arch was in good view now and all of the modern buildings around it were a site to see! Not the usual Paris that everyone is used to seeing!

There was tons of really cool modern art throughout this courtyard between all of the modern business buildings, very cool!

Don't worry Steph, we're almost there!

When we got there, after a terribly long walk, we were greeted with an awesome view and live music!

After leaving for the day, we got some pizza at a local artisan pizza restaurant by our hotel, and of course, it was delicious.

Paris Free Day #2

Today we got a pretty slow start getting out and about on the town, but we did end up seeing and doing some really fun things! Below are some pictures of the the Zaha Hadid exhibit at the Arabic Institute in Paris (of course) pretty futuristic design!

Afterwards we headed past Notre Dame on the way to the metro, and we saw this really cool bridge that was covered with all these different kinds of locks that people has put there.

Later that night we decided to head up the Eiffel Tower! To the top that is :) The elevator ride turned out to be pretty intense, haha.

Just a few nervous girls, haha.

The views from the top we're outstanding, breathtaking you could most definitely say!

Looking down from the top.

Oh ya know, just doing a little star/city gazing from the top.... not really though.

1st Free Day in Paris

Today was Sunday, a few of us found a church next to the Pompidou to attend. They even had an english translation room which made things nice. Understanding the speakers is always good :) Afterwards we headed back home, and then made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. We went to the top and had some great views of the city!

The long staircase back down! (We also climbed this staircase all the way up!)

Just some window shopping... wish I could have eaten this!

We went to dinner at Alfansi's... Alfansos... something like that, haha. They host USU students a lot when they are here. Below are a few of the pasta dishes we ordered.

My Buuuuuuurthday!! :)

Yes, I was fortunate enough to spend my 23rd birthday in Paris, and we did celebrate Paris style :) We started the day off going to Fontainbleau, touring the grounds and the building of course. We were allowed to take pictures in this one, so that was a bonus.

There were a lot of really cool things in Fontainbleau, everything was decorated over the top of course. Below was a really cool long hall, and nobody in it!! It's almost impossible to get a picture of a long hall with nobody walking around in it, so I thought that was treat. Awesome architecture with the barrel vaulted ceiling all the way down, it really helps lead your eye through the space.

Like I said, every room was over the top. Just imagine that pretty much every room looked something like this in relation to wall ceiling and floor/furniture decoration. Pretty crazy!

Awesome ceiling. Every single house we've toured on this trip has had something really interesting on the ceiling. It seems like in our modern design today, especially as a student we can forget that all sides of the space are important to the feeling and design of the space.

This sorbet was highly recommended by our professor Darrin... except it wasn't the right sorbet... haha still tasty though :) We got Raspberry, Lemon, Mango, and Black Currant.

After we left Fontainbleau we went to the grocery story to quickly buy some food for a picnic that we would have at Vaux Le Vicomte. I split food with a few other students, we ended up spending about 5 euros each and we had PLENTY of food :) Below is a shot of the sandwich I made: baguette, salami, ham, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and a herb dressing. It was really good, better than I thought it would be for sure!

Darrin and Susie surprised me with a little happy birthday song and chocolate eclairs! So nice of them! They were most delicious! :)

After everyone stuffed themselves we headed up to the house, Vaux Le Vicomte.

I liked this house because it had a different approach to their display for visitors. The had created these ( I think wax) sculptures of people in the rooms and they had dialog for them playing. Some of them even had projections on their heads for their face so it looked like they were really talking, pretty neat!

And of course, we had to finish the night off with some fireworks in the back gardens :) It was a great time, I couldn't have asked for more on my birthday! :)