674 Steps

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with Eiffel Tower, France, Mr. Footlong, paris, photography, sights, sightseeing, travel, views, weather February 28, 2012

Yesterday, we visited the Holy Grail of Paris sightseeing. Sadly, the elevator to the top was still broken (boo), but we still had a blast and took in plenty of sights from the 2nd level. We had plans to meet up with my uncle Josh’s friend Nicole (another former Seattleite), at the École Militaire Metro stop – which is where we’d get off to see the Eiffel Tower anyway – so we opted to climb the tower after sunset and then head straight over to meet her. Plus, our camera is made for low-light, so I was really excited to go to town on some evening shots. The above photos are from last week when we visited during the daytime but opted to wait and see if the elevator was fixed.

Here’s one benefit to going in the evening: zero lines. This area was full last week, and this is the line for walking up the stairs! The line for the elevators was also markedly shorter. So there’s a pro tip for you. The stairs are open until 6pm and the elevators until 11 (later in summer), so you have plenty of time to visit after sundown.

The light show started as we were buying our tickets (you can see a hint of the sparkles in the above pic), which was really cute because everybody gasped and started cheering. It goes on for about 5 minutes, so the first part of our ascent was like being inside a rave…or trailed by paparazzi. Because we are hardcore (and cheap) we took the stairs up. It’s actually not that bad at all, and you really do save a lot of money – a stairs ticket is only €4.90! I’ve actually taken the stairs almost every time I’ve visited. I always think my legs are going to be so sore, but it feels pretty good to walk up, and it’s not as crowded and you get different views than you do from the elevators. Plus you get to be smug, and get a workout in. Win-win!

first level - you can see Montmartre in the upper right corner

progress

movin' on up

success!

It was a gorgeous night to see the city – clear, but with a bit of misty fog creeping in. Très romantique, as I kept saying to Jared (I’m sure that never got old).

This is what happens when you ask a stranger to take your photo. The puff of fur in the corner is from her enormous sleeve. It’s a good photo of us though, so I’ll keep it.

fog rolling in

École Militaire

Les Invalides and the center of Paris

underneath the elevator (not a real person)

We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about what happened to Mr. Footlong, so we made sure he was with us on our visit to one of the most iconic sights in the world. He’s been a little camera-shy lately.

"My, what a paramount looking-glass!"

"Fromage!"

We made it back down just in time to catch another light show from beneath the tower:

And because we’re cheesy…

I like how incredibly off-kilter this is.

By this time we were starving, and very ready for dinner. Nicole took us to an adorable place near her apartment, and it was crammed with locals, so that was a good sign. It was pretty affordable and very tasty, and as soon as we arrived I realized that it was next to the hotel where my parents had stayed 12 years ago when they visited! My aunt and uncle are actually visiting in a few weeks and staying here too, so I was able to give them a good restaurant recommendation.

Le Petit Cler

We had a lovely evening of wine and conversation, and are hopefully getting together with Nicole again before we leave. We have been so fortunate to spend time with new friends here! It’s what we had hoped for when we set out on this trip. In this and many other ways, Paris is really working its magic on us.

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Lazy Weekend

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with Amélie, France, Montmartre, paris, photography, Sacré Cœur, travel, views February 27, 2012

Sadly, our friend Andrae had something come up and wasn’t able to visit this weekend, but we still had an awesome time with our new friends Claire and Jordan. My mom’s coworker Olivia went to college with them and got us in touch since they are over here for graduate school (which, after hearing about it, sounds very involved and we are rather impressed). It was actually a pretty perfect set-up because they live over in my favorite neighborhood, Montmartre, and I had been meaning to take Jared over there for a walk-about. We set a meet-up for Friday headed over a few hours early to explore, and Jared declared that it was what he’d always imagined Paris to be (evidently, a super charming West Village).

We started by walking up the steps to Sacré Cœur, and filing through like cattle for a brief viewing of the interior (no pictures of course, but it’s worth a look).

The day was really warm but pretty foggy, so the view wasn’t as spectacular from this point as it normally would be. Though I am partial to the once-in-a-lifetime view we have from our apartment.

The last time I visited Paris, I stayed in Montmartre with my friend Annemieke who was studying abroad for the semester, and I actually remembered enough of the turf to find my way around (and my Paris Pratique did the rest. If you are ever visiting Paris, invest in this book. It is worth it.). I don’t remember the area being quite as packed with tourists in previous visits, but it was only really bad in the immediate area surrounding Sacré Cœur, so once we wandered out a bit further it was much quieter. We found the Café des 2 Moulins from Amélie and the Moulin de la Galette, and then walked over to the back side of the hill where we were meeting Jordan and Claire.

Jared and I decided that much like the West Village, when we won the lottery, we’d buy a house over in Montmartre. Everybody else spends imaginary lottery money too, right? That can’t just be us.

this house, specifically.

We strolled by Montmartre highlights Lapin Agile and Clos Montmartre, which is an adorable tiny vineyard across the street (though apparently the wine isn’t great).

We met up with Claire and Jordan over at the Lamarck-Caulaincourt Metro stop and then walked over to their place for some wine and cheese. Their apartment is exactly the kind of place that we wished we could have found in Montmartre. It’s A-DOR-ABLE. We also wanted to go to their place because we wanted to pet their adorable cat Zoe. She was a little shy about us, but we got some good loves in.

We had such a lovely evening! We are kind of starved for conversation – not that we don’t talk to each other (A LOT), but it’s nice to have other interactions – and it was so great to talk to people who understood what that was like, since they only moved here 6 months ago from Seattle (also, yay Seattle!). We drank some wine, went to a cute neighborhood place for dinner, and made plans to go to Les Puces on Sunday.

A note on the Paris Flea Markets: my intel from the master of Parisien thrift shopping is that the best market is Vanves. Since we weren’t really shopping and just wanted somewhere to wander around, we just went out to Clignancourt, and luckily it was pretty quiet. There was one thing that I wished I could have bought, but it was clearly not coming on the plane with us and cost €450.

seriously, how cute is this?!

After the market we hiked back up to Montmartre to chat some more over coffee and strudel. It was a lovely lazy weekend in Paris and we are happy to have made some new friends. Maybe next time we can host them in Seattle!

For All the Amélie Fans Out There

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with Amélie, boat, Canal Saint-Martin, France, paris, photography, travel, views February 24, 2012

Can you guess what we visited?

That’s right – the Canal Saint-Martin. This is another of my favorite spots in Paris. We’ve been really good at hitting up the free sights this week, but it’s kind of hard not to when we have beautiful (albeit crisp) weather.

As we were walking across this bridge and wondering if the canal was still in use, we noticed a boat headed our way. Well, that certainly answered our question. We were psyched to see the locks in action.

out goes the water

down goes the boat

Jared got so excited to see the bridge open that his hair stood on end!

here it goes!

Happy Friday, folks! We are very excited because our friend Andrea is visiting from Switzerland this weekend, and tonight we’re meeting up with some friends of friends to hang out in Montmartre (and they have a cat!). It’s shaping up to be a great weekend.

Cake, Anyone?

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with France, French, gardens, history, Marie Antoinette, palace, paris, photography, travel, Versailles, views February 23, 2012

On Tuesday we exhausted ourselves by taking the train out to the Palace of Versailles and touring the extensive grounds. I was particularly proud of myself because I had snagged us 2 for 1 admission through the Versailles website, so it was only 18 Euros instead of 36 (which really would have hurt to dole out, especially since I’d been here before). Though it was a Tuesday, the place was PACKED, and it was our first real taste of tourist bottleneck. We were actually kind of shocked, since we’ve been spoiled and had most sights relatively to ourselves on this trip. Usually I am able to crop other people out of pictures entirely, which lead my Uncle Nick to ask if there were ever any people around when we went sightseeing. Not the case with Versailles, as you will see.

We made it through the maze of tour groups to see the palace bedrooms, Hall of Mirrors and various grand drawing rooms and artwork, and then escaped the throngs by heading out into the gardens. We ate lunch and trekked down to the Grand Trianon (and pet a kitty on the way), and then to Marie Antoinette’s personal estate at the Petit Trianon. She chose to escape the rigors of court life in the palace by retreating down to her very own peasant village and farm. I’ll let that sink in. Remember, she was the one who is most historically credited with not understanding the plight of the impoverished French citizens…while she was literally playing at being a French peasant on her private acreage of an enormous palace. That lady was nothing if not consistently out of touch with the real world.

Still, her little farm was the most interesting part of Versailles for us, and we saw the fattest pig I have ever seen in my life, so that’s something.

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Strolling Paris

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with France, French, paris, park, Père Lachaise, photography, Promenade Plantée, travel, views, weather February 22, 2012

Our first full day in Paris, I gave Jared a walking tour along the Seine so that he could get oriented. I originally wanted to take him to the Eiffel Tower to continue the tradition of going to the highest point in a city to get our bearings, but the elevator to the top was out for the week. We’re hoping for a clear day next week to go back. Anyway, we settled for a nice walk and planned out some museum stops for when the rain arrives (this weekend and next week – boo).

Le Pont Alexandre III

Place de la Concorde

Jardin de Tuileries

We wove back and forth across the river so we could catch a few points along the way. We also stopped to check out the love padlocks along the Pont des Arts. The tradition is that lovers write their names on a lock, then lock it to the bridge and throw the key into the river, thereby stating that their love is eternal. I particularly enjoyed the numerous combination locks that were affixed to the bridge. Keeping their options open, I guess?

On Monday, we did even more walking and visited two spots that I had never been in Paris. First, we walked through Père Lachaise Cemetery, which is a short walk from our apartment. Those of you familiar with Père Lachaise will know that this cemetery is famous for being the largest in Paris and the final resting place of numerous French legends (Balzac, Colette and Molière to name a few). It’s also home to several notable foreigners such as Oscar Wilde, Chopin and Jim Morrison. I’d like to say that we visited at least the people I’ve listed to pay our respects, but this place was huge and confusing. We got lost more than once. If I had known, I would have brought a map of just the cemetery (pro tip for next time). In the end, we only found Oscar, but the cemetery is beautiful and I found it way more peaceful than creepy. At any rate, it’s nice to stroll amongst the greats for a while.

it's so vast that it has its own street signs

I find this disturbing, especially that his crotch has been rubbed...

Next, we ambitiously walked all the way down to the Promenade Plantée, which I was very excited to visit. The Promenade is an elevated park built on the old Vincennes railway line, and was apparently the inspiration for New York’s now infamous High Line park (which we love). Naturally, this park really shines when everything is in bloom, but it was still fun to see a slightly hidden spot that isn’t that well-known by tourists.

We had a leisurely stroll and picnic lunch, and then walked to the Metro along the street so that we could check out the shops built under the Promenade. They were all closed, which was a tragedy because we wanted so badly to pet the CUTEST PUPPY IN THE WORLD that ran up to greet us.

this picture does not do justice to his wee-ness

but this one does!

OMGTHATPUPPY. I am still thinking about him.

So you can see how we’ve walked our a**es off in the past few days (especially yesterday at Versailles, which I’ll post tomorrow). We’re pretty exhausted, but it’s easy to wear yourself out looking at gorgeous places in Paris – especially when they’re free to visit.

Paris, Jared T’aime

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with France, French, paris, photography, train, travel, views, weather February 20, 2012

We can hardly believe it, but we’re down to our last two weeks in Europe! We decided in the end not to go back to Croatia because it was easier and cheaper to fly out of Paris, and we’re just kind of ready to head back to some familiar territory for a bit. The truth is that moving around a lot gets pretty tiring, and we’ve pretty much seen everything we had set out to see. We’re heading back through New York in two weeks, and then we’re going to regroup in Seattle for a few weeks, buy a car and spend the spring and summer in the Southwest, Colorado and hopefully also California. We had originally planned an epic road trip for our honeymoon in 2010, but only ended up having a week off so we just spent some time in California. Now that we have some time, we thought we’d reprise that idea a little – and it doesn’t hurt that the weather will be gorgeous down there. It’s been cold in Europe so we need a little warming up!

We arrived in Paris on Saturday morning, after a 12-hour overnight train from Barcelona. This pretty much sums up our train ride, if there were also a picture of us sprawled out in reclining seats with sleep masks on, rambunctious toddlers behind us and gangster rap blaring (honestly, who does that?? I was thisclose to walking over and handing them my headphones):

Barcelona Franca Station

bar car!

As for our place in Paris, we really lucked out. It could have been a total disaster because we left things to the last possible minute; we weren’t sure we’d be able to afford to come here, and we weren’t having much luck finding a place to stay that was within our budget. When Jorge and his friend Valerie cooked us a lovely dinner on Sunday night, they also invited their friend Georgina. Georgie used to live in Paris and contacted her friend on our behalf, who then contacted her cousin who happens to have a spare one-bedroom apartment! We never would have found this place on our own because they normally don’t rent it out – it’s just for visiting friends and family – but they made an exception for us.

Georgina saves the day!

This place is really a find too: it’s in the quiet 20th arrondissement, has everything we need within walking distance, and on the 10th floor of the building so we have KILLER views of the city. I like to think it’s Jared’s proper introduction to one of my favorite cities, and Paris is doing everything it can to make him fall in love. Even more than that, our landlords are the nicest people we could have imagined. They live across the hall and have been so welcoming and sweet. we feel so lucky to have met them!

Jared helpfully points out our location

living area

kitchen

terrace

comfy bed

BAM.

It’s hard to tell from pictures, but when we’re sitting on the couch the Eiffel Tower looks like it’s right outside our window. It’s just there, casually chillin’ in the view, no big deal. I know it’s kind of a touristy thing to think the Eiffel Tower is cool, but I don’t care. It’s a gorgeous structure, and it’s stunning at night – especially with the hourly light show.

Do you like how I even managed to get the très French emergency siren in the background?

We’ve had a few days to get oriented and we’ve already done miles of walking. This is my 5th visit to Paris and though it changes and I change, being here never gets old. I love this town and I always feel at home here. I am just excited to show Jared all my favorite spots! The weather is supposed to be clear and sunny this week, and then rainy next week so we’re doing all the outdoor stuff now and saving all the museums for the rain.

For now, I will leave you with gratuitous shots of our view at sunset.

Roman Barcelona

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with barcelona, baths, history, photography, Roman, Spain, travel February 17, 2012

Tonight we’re taking the train to Paris, and we have to get out and see one more sight and finish packing, so I’m going to keep this short.

On Wednesday, we checked out the Museum of the History of Barcelona, which is pretty cool for its tour of the ruins of the Roman city that spawned modern-day Barcelona. The free audio guide informed us all about life in Roman Barcelona, and pointed out what each ruin was in its day. Afterward, we stayed in keeping with the Roman theme and visited the baths. Heaven.

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Gaudí’s Obsession

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with architecture, barcelona, cathedral, Gaudí, history, photography, Sagrada Família, Spain, travel February 16, 2012

The first sight I wanted to see once Jorge left was Sagrada Família so we went first thing on Monday.

A little background from Wikipedia:

“Though construction of Sagrada Família had commenced in 1882, Gaudí became involved in 1883, taking over the project and transforming it with his architectural and engineering style—combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms.

Gaudí devoted his last years to the project and at the time of his death in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Sagrada Família’s construction progressed slowly as it relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War—only to resume intermittent progress in the 1950s. Construction passed the mid-point in 2010 with some of the project’s greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completion date of 2026—the centennial of Gaudí’s death. The basílica has a long history of dividing the citizens of Barcelona—over the initial possibility it might compete with Barcelona’s cathedral, over Gaudí’s design itself, over the possibility that work after Gaudí’s death disregarded his design, and the recent possibility that an underground tunnel of Spain’s high-speed train could disturb its stability.“

First, let me say that whether or not you are religious, whether or not you are one for visiting churches, whether or not you are an appreciator of architecture, this is one site that unequivocally lives up to the hype. It’s simply a beautiful space, and we were awed by it and felt truly peaceful when we were there. When this is finished, it will be one of the wonders of the world, and we were marveling that by the time it was done we’d probably be coming back with teenage children!

Gaudí designed the interior to mimic wandering through a forest grove (literally using examples from nature as the inspiration for his forms), and he succeeded fantastically. We immediately felt like we were looking up at enormous tree trunks and not stone columns, even before we read of Gaudí’s intent for the space – it was accessible to every person who visited, and that is a rare and beautiful thing. After we’d examined every part of the interior, we went downstairs into the museum to view the model shop for the ongoing construction and some of Gaudí’s original plans for the church (and his crypt in that last photo). It was a great visit, and I am so glad that it was as wonderful as I had imagined because it was one of the places I was most looking forward to seeing.

In short, GO HERE.

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Gaudí’s Utopia

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with architecture, barcelona, Gaudí, Parc Güell, park, photography, Spain, travel, views February 15, 2012

Jorge had to rest on Sunday so he directed us up to Park Güell, which was at the top of my list. This post goes out to the lovely Nick who made us promise to visit the park for him while we were in Barcelona.

Park Güell was the idea of Count Eusebi Güell and designed by Gaudí as a planned, self-sustaining community on the Muntanya Pelada above Barcelona. Ultimately, it was a failure since it was a tough sell at the time to convince wealthy Barcelonians to move away from the action of the bustling city in the early 20th century. The idea would sell like hotcakes now, but Guadí was always a little ahead of the curve.

He designed the space in 3 segments: the colorful, fanciful first stage for the youngest residents, the more reserved second level for the middle ages, and the most austere top level (with the best view) for the senior citizens. It seems that the bottom level gets all of the attention, since it is in Gaudí’s bright Trencadís tiling, but it would have been really interesting to see what this park would have been like had it realized Güell and Gaudí’s vision. Nowadays, it’s a bit crowded with tourists (I would recommend visiting on a weekday). However, it’s free to visit and affords some of the best views of Barcelona.

After our visit, we went over to Jorge’s friend Valerie’s apartment and she and Jorge cooked us a delightful meal of Moroccan chicken, quinoa, carrots, salad and orange cake for dessert. It was such a nice treat to have a home cooked meal (that I didn’t have to prepare) and some great conversation with friends.

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Barcelona: Land of Gaudí

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with architecture, barcelona, Gaudí, modernism, photography, Spain, travel, views, weather February 14, 2012

We made it to Barcelona, and it’s FREEZING! We were expecting it to be colder, but apparently it’s unusually cold here right now. Europe is going through a cold snap in general, and all the locals here are freaking out because it’s so much colder than usual. Nobody is used to heating their apartments for real winter temperatures so we are making due with space heaters and extra socks. Luckily, our bed is super warm and we have a great mattress so we just watch a lot of movies in bed in the evening. Our apartment doesn’t have internet, but it’s been kind of nice to have some quiet time together without the distractions of being connected. It’s frustrating too, but we’re looking on the bright side.

It was a bit of a rough trip over here because two days before we were supposed to leave, I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible case of the flu. I barely managed to get packed up, and then on the day we left Jared had to carry all our bags downstairs in several trips while I guarded them at the cab stand. Our train ride was 11 hours and I slept for 9 of them! I toughed it out and saw some sights this weekend and am feeling much better today, thankfully. We met up with our friend Jorge on Saturday morning, and the poor dear was also sick! We were quite the pair this weekend. He was such a trooper and showed us around the Barcelonetta neighborhood, all the Gaudí stops, and helped us get oriented to the city.

Jorge was great because he is a designer so he had a ton of knowledge of Gaudí and told us what we had to see and what we could skip. We took a quick stop at Casa Batlló to view the exterior (the interior tour was rated overpriced by Jorge). The design is meant to depict the story of St. George and the Dragon, and sits in a row of other apartment buildings designed by other important modernists of the time. In fact, the building next door was designed by Gaudí’s closest competitor.

scales of the dragon

even the sidewalk tiles were designed by Gaudí

Next we walked up to La Pedrera (Casa Milá). Jorge had seen it a few times and he insisted we had to experience the interior, so he paid for our admission and met us when we were done (so sweet!). It was pretty spectacular, and we learned a lot about Gaudí’s methods and inspiration through the museum in the attic.

Gaudí designed the chimneys and water towers on the rooftop to look like soldiers in the battle between good and evil. Gaudí was fanatically religious, so a lot of his architecture incorporates biblical themes, but he took most of his inspiration from the beauty of nature and incorporated it heavily into his forms. We kept remarking that that he was like John Muir in how he experienced God through the natural world.

Gaudí's signature Trencadís treatment

The attic that houses the Gaudí museum is made up of a network of complicated arches. Even when creating structure, Gaudí believed in incorporating beautiful design.

The museum also showed how he created some of his forms, and showed clear examples of some of the natural elements from which Gaudí drew inspiration.

this network of chain was hung above a mirror...

...to map out the arches for this cathedral

The next part of the tour was a walk through one of the apartments in the building (the Pedrera portion of Casa Milá). It was decorated to show what it would have been like to live there as a bourgeois family in the early 20th century. It was interesting to see how the rooms were divided into asymmetrical flowing units that mirrored the curves of the exterior, and how the furniture was placed to adjust to that design.