Paris in Black and White - Part 2

So here we go, as part of my finishing all unfinished projects in my life project... Paris in Black and White - Part 2. 

Previously on Ditjies en Datjies:

#It was a cold cold winters night, with temperatures falling to the minus degrees.  Jaco and Charlene had an old mattress to sleep on in what used to be a beautiful home, but was now a student flat with old food and dirt everywhere.  Problem number 1: they could not find the geyser to switch on the hot water.  Problem number 2:  they could not get the internal heating system to work.  With 2 dirty blankets and one plastic bottle filled with hot water from the kettle (no coffee or tea or milk) they go to bed for the last night of Charlene's 27 year old life...  

Like sand through the hourglass... Just kidding...

The story goes like this.  You know how some people tell you that you survive the cold European winters because of the excellent internal heat systems that are in place everywhere.  Some people even say that you get hot when you are inside buildings and restaurants and that you take your millions layers of clothes off.  This is all true... And we would have been completely fine in the not-so-glamorous-student-flat we were staying in, if only we could find the switch...  Disaster!!!!  First of all, there was no hot water and we felt cold and dirty and tired, but that we eventually discovered underneath the flat somewhere in a dodgy little room.  But we could not find the switch to the internal heating system.  We were already pretty late to start our sightseeing that first night, so we decided we will just  find the stupid switch when we came back.  We didn't...  

It was the coldest night of our lives.  I was a cuddler (not really a word I know) that night and I am never a cuddling person. We woke up, stiff from coldness and barely able to move after struggling to keep warm and fall asleep in the first place.  We then decided to scout out the students rooms and find some more blankets.  We eventually had a mountain on top of us.  Now, we were slowly starting to heat up our bodies.  I remember waking up a few times that night with my body sweating from the heat we created with all the blankets, but my face ice, ice cold.  So, it was not a surprise that Jaco woke up with a terrible cold... And I woke up feeling cold and very lonely without family and loved ones, but only a husband who had no sleep and a cold to try and sing to me on my 28th birthday... 

We took a quick (at least semi-hot) bath and got dressed and ready for the day.  When we walked out the front door, we realized that it was literally colder inside the house than it was outside the house. As we walked the few kilometers into town we started feeling a bit more normal again.  We went to the pharmacy to get Jaco some medicine for his cold.  The pharmacist looked at us trying to explain to her what was wrong in English and got an expression on her face I did not like and walked away without even a nod or a finger pointing us in the right direction.  A young little girl came from the back and was a bit more friendly and after many hand signals and some charades, she finally understood what kind of medicine we needed.  What kind of place is this where people don't understand English, or sometimes pretend to not understand English?  People warned us before and said we should first speak Afrikaans when we need something and then try it in English, but I thought they were just being silly... But no, I would really recommend any person going to Paris or around Paris to speak any language but English and hopefully receive a much warmer welcome than we did.  My birthday was not looking too bright.  We went to a little cafe and ordered something off the menu that we did not understand and the waiter could not help us (off course) and we had some sort of breakfast and at least a cup of strong coffee to start of the day... Jaco had his medicine and was starting to feel a little bit better.  And the cafe had wi-fi, so at least I got a few messages on Facebook from family and friends for my birthday that made me feel much better about everything.  Maybe my birthday would not be so bad after all :)  

Here we go:

This was taken just outside the little house we spent our first (dreadful) night.  I loved the look of the rain (or maybe just water from the cold) drops on the branches...

The day was starting to turn around:  Notre Dame Cathedral and the Seine river in the background.  I had my lucky beanie on, my new red jacket, a warm scarf and I was ready to have the best day ever in what people call "The most beautiful city in the world." 

One of my favourite photos I took in Paris, because there is a lamp, a beautiful cathedral and a bird :) 

 

A zoomed-in look at some of the sculptures on the cathedral.  I tried to find some information specifically about this one I took, but I did not find anything... But you can read some interesting information about the building and history of Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) at this link.  

Interesting fact of the day:  There is a little village called Notre Dame in Mauritius and they have a little chapel that I guess can count as a mini-cathedral around here.  I didn't see any gargoyles though..

Some ice-skating in front of the Hotel de Ville  (city hall).  I was amazed how much different I experienced Paris form the previous night.  I was definitely starting to get swept up in the wonder...

 

In front of the Louvre - the largest museum I have ever seen!  I love this photo, because it is so typical of tourist photos.  You cannot control the people in the back and you hardly ever get a photo without other tourists taking over :) 

 A photo of Jaco taking a photo.  My favourite kinds of photos... Look at that magnificent building - and that is just one wing of the Louvre.  

The famous glass pyramid in at the entrance of the Louvre.  Here is some extra information on it.  

In 1983, French President François Mitterrand proposed, as one of his Grands Projets, the Grand Louvre plan to renovate the building and relocate the Finance Ministry, allowing displays throughout the building. Architect I. M. Pei was awarded the project and proposed a glass pyramid to stand over a new entrance in the main court, the Cour Napoléon.^[34] The pyramid and its underground lobby were inaugurated on 15 October 1988; the pyramid was completed in 1989. The second phase of the Grand Louvre plan, La Pyramide Inversée (The Inverted Pyramid), was completed in 1993. As of 2002, attendance had doubled since completion.^[35]

Spot the lovebirds under the some of the great French academics and scholars outside the Louvre...

We walked so much and we felt a little lost most of the time, but we saw some beautiful things along the way.

 

Chaos at the Mona Lisa.  I did make it to the front though.  I can be very sneaky if need to be :)  

Some of the more interesting pieces we observed along the way.

The Louvre was a great experience, but it is way too much too take in at one go.  There are so many different things to see and you cannot appreciate the beauty and wonder of some of the pieces if you are rushed off to all the other parts.  Some of my favourite things to see in the museum was some of Monet's work, some Johannes Vermeer and many beautiful sculptures.  The Mona Lisa was not my favourite part of the tour, probably because trying to appreciate a portrait while feeling like you are in a mosh pit does not...mesh?

When we finally escaped from this magnificent museum, the city had turned into a magical wonderland... If there was anything in me that still wondered why people fell in love with this city so much, it soon became very clear to me during the magic hour at dusk.

 

The Eiffel Tower slowly started lighting up in the mist....  

 Street lamps soon transformed the streets of Paris into a fairytale setting...

Jaco admiring the amazing view over the Seine river...

 I have to go back to colour for a few photos to share with you just how amazing this truly was....

The city of love - unfortunately we had no-one that could take photos of us walking around looking in love, but I did manage to take a photo of another loving couple :)

Magnificent view over the river.  The picture doesn't do it justice at all.  I remember thinking that it looked exactly as though we were part of a painting ourselves.  I was mesmerized by how unreal it felt...

City ligths in colour

City ligths in black and white

It was official:  I was in love with Paris.  I could see myself writing novels here, the most beautiful poems. Sonnets singing about the beauty of it all...  And this from a person, who really does not like cities.  

When we could finally tear ourselves away from it all, we rushed back to the train station, to Antony, to the little cold flat to get ready for our night on the town.  It was my birthday and our last night in Paris and we were going to go all out.  A trip up the Eiffel tower with a sip of champagne at the top was what we had in mind and to eat something nice (and not too expensive) in a restaurant afterwards...

 

Ready for action.  I got a birthday dress from Jaco that day (in between our busy schedule) and I was determined to wear it, no matter how cold it was.  Thanks to leg warmers, awesome boots and a thermal underneath it all and off course my red jacket over everything, I was ready for action.

I can probably do a blog post just on the amount of photos I took of the Eiffel tower.  This has to be one of the most amazing man-made structures ever.  Especially how it lights up at night.  But the architecture is just out of this world.  

Interesting fact:  The Eiffel tower is 6 inches bigger in summer than it is in winter. 

So here follows my Eiffel Tower Series:

 

 

 

 View from the bottom...

And the view from the top...

 

 Not sure if I will be able to beat this birthday view soon or ever in my life...  It was spectacular.  We didn't mind the cold this time and the shared (very small and not so cheap) glass of champagne helped. 

Last photo of the evening, just as proof that I really was at the Eiffel tower on this magical night.  

We struggled to find an open restaurant, but we did find one eventually.  We ordered something that we thought was steak and salad and that turned out to be stew and salad, but we were hungry and it tasted very good.  Then we were on our way back.  

Oh yes, very important event I forgot to mention.  We managed to contact the owner of the house's sister to come and show us how the internal heating system was working.  We slept much better that night...