I might make a lot of people mad with this comment but I hated the Eiffel Tower. The structure’s super cool and I’m a fan of the steels itself but the actual location was awful. It was crowded and right when we walked up a cop was chasing someone. I was in a group of 8 girls (so, large but all female) and we were continuously made uncomfortable by men. Also, (to a certain point) the farther away the better the view. It looks the same everywhere from every angle so being forced into the cow herd underneath was unnecessary.
While the Eiffel Tower nearly ruined Paris for me, the Louvre made it. Wow, is that museum beautiful. We only had time to visit the outside
(and the mall beneath–look,there was a Starbucks) but the outside was all I needed to stand slack jawed.
We were meeting our class at Notre dame so we walked and visited the lock bridge along the way. The locks combined are like 40 tons or so (like 15 elephants) which makes it super bad for the bridge. The city will actually take the bridge down June 1st. The wire will be completely replaced with glass panels. I was fortunately able to see it while my family, who are going in a few weeks, will not.
Notre Dame was beautiful. Visiting the many old Cathedrals this trip greatly helped me to understand Catholicism and where the current spiritual relics comes from. Imagining villager coming to these places and not being able to read or possibly understand God then encountering these unbelievable buildings. While nowadays I could just crack a bible and see the wonders God performs, the Cathedrals were their introduction to the Lord’s magnificence. (Gonna make some people made again: the Notre Dame of Strasbourg was my favorite compared between it, Reims, and Paris)
So far, I spoke of seeing the lock bridge, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame of Paris. All but the Eiffel Tower were concurred today. Just today I also visited the main shopping strip (visiting an insanely quick pizza place, the fancy, well known macaroon place, and a quaint Irish pub), hotel de ville, King Louis (the 14)?’s gardens, what used to be the guillotine and the Arc de Triomphe. I’ve been sitting over an hour now and my feet still throb. I wore my combat boots stupidly thinking I was choosing comfort and fashion. My prior blisters have blisters within them.
Hitting so much of Paris in such a short time may have made my experience a bit biased but I found the city to be unbelievably touristy. All I could think was at least Disney has rides. And intense security. I might hate Disney much of the time but at least I feel safe. That really wasn’t true. Maybe it’s because my roommate, Julie, stayed up the night before reading about how to fend off pick pockets and in turn made all of us super paranoid all the time (not that that’s a bad thing). Or how everyone just constantly told me to be safe. Be careful. Stay in groups. But I was constantly uncomfortable.The non tourist areas (for example not the Eiffel Tower) were great but I definitely could not picture living there.
It’s 9 pm and I’m riding back to Lux with the suns still high in the sky. While the sun may disagree with me after the long day, I’m going to sleep. As always, there’s more photos available on my Flickr.
Hope you had a wonderful day.
Words of the day:
leave me alone = laissez-moi tranquille
Learned due to the Eiffel Tower
Lesson of the day:
The louvre is a 2.7 miles, 45 minute walk from the arc and feels like 100 days when wearing combat boots and enduring two stabbing blisters every step
TayZiegler 
Taylor, you are something! I am amazed at how you can write this blog, it so organied. You are a sponge soaking it all up. Have enjoyed everyone of them, well worth you effort and time.
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