We made it back from our honeymoon in Europe, and what an adventure! For two weeks we traveled through France and Italy, staying in a combination of busy cities brimming with history and more secluded retreats for relaxation.
We experienced so much I'm not even sure what is the best way to share it. We said "wow" and "look" and "yum" a lot. Countless beautiful scenes gave Isaac the opportunity to perfect his panorama shots. I think I will try to share our adventure the same way we experienced it, city by city. Each city was like a different chapter of our honeymoon. In all, we visited five cities, and used a combination of public transportation, rental cars and of course our feet to get around.
Here are a few of the highlights from Paris, France - our first destination. We were only in Paris for two full days (that's four including travel to and from), but I'd say we did our best to pack those days full. Our main objectives in Paris were food and art.
We started our days with pastries - trying at least one different boulangerie or patisserie every day. This was our "first course" at a place just down the street from where we were staying.
The Louvre must be Paris' most famous museum, and it was here we started, quickly getting lost within its three wings and mazes of artwork, sculptures and artifacts from many different cultures and centuries. Even though it was the weekend, the place is so big we still found ourselves alone in several rooms, able to take some wide shots like this one below. We maybe breezed through half of what this museum holds in the many hours we were there.
Adjacent to the Louvre is the jardin de tuileries, providing fresh air and sunlight after a long time indoors pondering on and viewing things from the past. The white and blue building in both pictures is the Louvre.
We left the Louvre in order to ensure we had time for the museum I was most excited about - Musee d'Orsay. I love impressionist and post-impressionist art most of all, and this museum is known to house a marvelous collection of such dreamy pieces. The museum is an old railway station, making the building itself a sight worth seeing.
The clock's face looks across the river Seine towards the Louvre.
It was such an adrenaline rush to see the works of artists I've admired for so long in the flesh, to be able to lean close and examine each stroke. Seeing each piece felt like taking the first bite of a delicious dessert - it sounds cheesy but that is really what it felt like - some rich cheesecake or chocolately delight that slowly melts in your mouth. It was bliss. Isaac was so kind, taking pictures of the artwork we were most drawn towards so that we can view them again and again and remember our time in France.
I will share just a few of our favorites.
This mostly bronze statue by Edgar Degas captivated me. Although we saw many statues in Europe, marbled works depicting kings, gods and legends, this fourteen-year old ballerina is by far my favorite.
Our feet were tired after more than 8 hours of walking and standing and soaking in the sights. And this was just the first full day.
The next morning we traveled to the Palace of Versailles, a castle just dripping with the opulence of the last French kings. We really liked the architecture, colors and patterns of the chateau, especially the marble court, below. Behind us on the second floor is the king's bedroom, whose windows looked out east towards the rising sun. Like the sun, he believed everything revolved around and for him.
We had to squeeze in just one more museum, Musee d'Orangerie. Its heart is an oval room housing THREE huge paintings of Monet's waterlilies. This small museum was far less crowded with tourists and its collection was small in size but magnificent.
We had a more laidback evening. We went to buy chocolates from a chocolatier who apparently has the highest honor given to people who make chocolate. We bought several pieces without exactly knowing what all of the flavor combinations were. We grabbed some more refreshments and spent the late afternoon sitting by the Eiffel Tower. All of the chocolates we ate were amazing - flavors like lime and lemongrass, pistachio, I-don't-know-what and jasmine. Isaac fell hard for a drink called Orangina, a yummy carbonated orange juice with pulp. Cigarette butts are sprinkled throughout this grassy area, an unbelievable amount of them. There are many trashcans on both sides; people can be lazy.
As the sun began to set, we raced to the other side of the river seeking a grand view for our last night in Paris. We ran up the 284 steps of the Arc de Triomphe (which got our hearts pumping) not wanting to miss out on the sun setting. What a view.
There is Arc de Triomphe and also the swirling stairs within it. And yes, I kept the bright teal bag from the chocolatier. It is very nice quality and very cute.
Maybe you noticed in the two landscape shots above that there don't seem to be any sky-scrapers in the heart of Paris, only some further outside of the city center. This is because of the countless tunnels beneath the city - old rock mines, catacombs and the metro subway system. Compared to South Korea's subways, taking the Paris metro each day felt quite messy and unorganized. It often made you walk up and down and take many turns to reach your desired platform - I suppose because the builders had to work around pre-existing passages and tunnels. It's pretty eerie and overwhelming to think about everything that has gone on or is going on beneath this pretty city. There is a catacombs museum that lets you tour this underworld but we opted not to do so.
Besides, we had enough mysterious events at our "Parisian home". We stayed on the top (seventh) floor of a beautiful, old-style apartment building in Paris, just a few metro stops from the major destinations. We booked the place through airbnb, a website that lets individuals rent out their place to others. It usually ends up being cheaper and more charming than hotel stays. I really wanted to try using airbnb, and Isaac was nice enough to give it a whirl. We used a mixture of airbnbs and hotels during our two weeks in Europe. This place was no honeymoon suite, but it was a fine and cute home base for our wanderings. When we returned to the place each night, it even had a few memorable quirks.
This one door just would not stay shut. It would not easily close and latch, but required quite some force to make it stick. Isaac would slam it shut, so hard that it would shake the walls and the floor. A little later, without a sound, it would be open again. Each night he forced it closed, then we would wake up to find it open and the city lights streaming through it. There was also one light in the apartment that would turn on by itself. We came home and this one light was shining, the switch flipped into the on position. Perhaps the home-owner had stopped by for something. I turned it off. Yet later in the night the light shone again, the switch moved to the on position. Again I turned it off. When we woke up in the morning the light was on once more.
Isaac humors me as I tease about our place being haunted. Sitting above the tombs of hundred of thousands of unknown people, how can it not be haunted? It was a fun joke and made our not-so-glamorous accommodations more fun and memorable.
We ate our last Parisian dinner at the restaurant shown below. Heading home, we decided to get off one station earlier to find a place to eat. As soon as we walked up the steps and onto the city street, the warm red and gold glow of this place called to us. This is the typical look of restaurants in Paris that we saw: outdoor dining, usually two or three tables deep, often chairs positioned side-by-side facing out towards the street so that you can people-watch while you dine. This meal we both ended up eating an insane amount of cheese. Isaac was crying out for kimchi or shinramyun, but there was no hope for spicy relief on our French plates.
And that was our quick but concentrated stay in Paris. Our honeymoon adventure was just beginning, and we were starting to wonder if maybe we had been a little too ambitious planning to visit 5 cities in two weeks.
