Italian Inspiration: Chasing the Eiffel Tower

Here we are on the cusp of May and I have much to tell you, so bare with me as I write a slightly-longer entry about one of my favorite memories of this time abroad and of all my life—my trip to Paris!

My Ekphrastic poetry class ended two Thursdays ago, and as soon as class concluded at noon I, and four of my classmates headed through Orvieto to catch a ride down the mountain, to catch a train to Rome, to catch a bus to the airport, to catch a flight to the outskirts Paris, to catch a bus to a main port IN Paris, to catch a metro to our hotel in Paris. Needless to say, it was a very busy afternoon of travel and we all collapsed into bed Thursday night and woke up bright and early Friday morning to begin our weekend!

Friday morning began with a search for croissants (sidenote: French croissants are better than Italian ones, but Italian cappuccinos far outweigh the French). Next we spent about four hours in the Museo de Louvre. Aside from housing some of the world’s most famous art pieces, some great book stores and two beloved Starbucks shops (where I had possibly the best latte of my life), the Louvre is the most interesting and beautiful museum I’ve ever been to. Because of the overwhelming amount of art, we followed our map to some of the most famous pieces, including the Mona Lisa! Seeing Da Vinci’s most famous painting is an interesting experience because the painting itself is probably only a little over a foot in height, incased in glass and completely surrounded by eager tourists. To even see the painting I had to fight my way through about a hundred people to the front of the roped off space in front of Mona Lisa and her curious smile. My favorite moment of the morning was seeing a statue called “Cupid Kissing Psyche”, its marble is so smooth and beautiful, but the figures’ flesh looks as soft as ours and it captures a beautiful embrace between lovers.

We spent the afternoon walking through gardens and along the Sine River, eating crepes and stopping in shops and at vendors’ stands. We went into Notre Dame which is an absolutely gorgeous cathedral. The inside fulfills the very definition of gothic style with smooth, gray arches and stain glass full of yellow, blue and red. It was beautiful and I just kept thinking that the cartoon, The Hunchback of Notre Dame portrays the building really well, so good job Disney!

The evening was spent at my favorite spot in all of Paris, possibly all of the world—the Eiffel tower! Our method all weekend long was to spot a main attraction from across the river and walk towards it until we found it, so that’s precisely what we did with the Eiffel Tower. The closer we got to it, the more difficult it became to find because buildings and trees blocked its view. All of a sudden we turned around a random corner and the tower was standing right in front of us. Framed by the quaint cobblestone street and a few green trees, all the posters and pictures I’ve looked at of this magnificent structure came alive. I realized I’ve been wishing and waiting for soooo long to be able to see this beautiful tower up close and was so caught in a moment of joy I screamed and probably could have cried too! We first came across the tower in daylight, began to climb the first two levels it in dusk and by the time we caught an elevator all the way to the top, evening had fallen and all the lights throughout the city were turned on and the Eiffel tower was glowing in brilliant yellow against a velvet black sky. We spent hours walking around each lookout on the tower, trying to find all the spots we’d walked throughout the city during the day, taking in the beauty that is Paris. As we descended the tower, it began to mist and rain and as we walked to find a restaurant to eat dinner, the tower sparkled. We had a fancy dinner at a French restaurant, including dessert and wine and walked around Paris at midnight before getting on a metro and heading back to our hotel. It was the perfect day, one I’ll remember forever as one of my favorite!

Saturday morning we went to the Museo d’Orsay, which was filled with impressionist art and a lot more specified than the Louvre. I enjoyed the museum because each room was organized by artist and time period, moving from neo-impressionist all the way to post-impressionist artists. We saw tons of Tolousse LeTrec, Serat, Luce, VanGogh, Degat, Monet and Renoir paintings. They were so beautiful and particularly meaningful because so many of these artists spent time in France; when I looked at VanGogh’s painting of a river at night I felt like I was looking at the exact spot of where I was the evening before, the colors as magical in the painting as the felt in real life.

After the Orsay, we set out on a quest for more crepes, baguettes and the Luxemberg gardens. The gardens were beautiful and we spent a good amount of time there taking pictures, drawing and writing. Then we headed back to the Louvre and walked from there all the way down the Chams Elyssey to the Arc di Triomphe. Once again we hit this beautiful monument right at dusk and saw it change from the colors of daylight to being lit up with a glowing orange. We went back to the Eiffel tower to see it one more time and watch it sparkle again (which happens every hour on the hour). Another perfect day was topped off with a Nutella and banana crepe before heading back to our hotel. Sunday began at 430 and was a hectic day of travel—we almost missed our bus to the airport because of some transportation mishaps at the hotel, but our concierge was very accommodating and even though we had some bumpy and terrifying rides, we all made it back to Orvieto in one piece! So thank you for all of your prayers.

In a few days I’ll tell you about Florence and all I’m learning in class #3: Renaissance Narrative.

inside the Louvre