Before we begin, did you read Part 1 of this Paris travel blog series? Check it out here!
The combination of jet lag and staying up late really hit us this morning so we cancelled our plan of going to Versailles at seven am and slept until almost nine! Ahh much needed! Upon waking, we loaded up our things for the day and headed to Eric Kayser bakery (again) and picked up some awesome pastries! We also had our first French coffee this morning, a watered down cappuccino that left us with the feeling that the French should leave the coffee making to the Italians! We took the metro to the Orsay museum which dates back to 1898 when it was originally a train station. It was very reminiscent of Grand Central Station in New York City, with it’s vast ceiling and famous clock. Nowadays this building holds a large collection of Monet’s, Van Gogh’s Self Portrait and Starry Night, The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel and nearly one hundred works by the French artist Renoir. We waited in line for 2 hours with a very kind family from San Francisco. Keith (a physicist), his wife Georgie and their daughter Miranda. We shared lots of laughs as our line crawled along the sidewalks surrounding the museum. “We really turned a corner” was the catch phrase every time we made progress and literally turned a corner on our way towards the museum. It rained off and on during our wait, a few times it poured, but thankfully we remembered the umbrellas today!
We left the museum and had a quick lunch at a nearby restaurant by the name of Royal Orsay. We had our first savory crepes, which included ham, egg and cheese inside of a buckwheat crepe. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting, but warm and filling. We also ordered a plate of fries and finished it up with Nutella and banana crepes! Yum! From here we journeyed back to the apartment, but not before a stop for a fresh ninety cent baguette! It was amazingly crunchy on the outside but warm and soft on the inside. It rained from five till nine pm which helped us to relax and take a much needed break back at the house. We decided now was a great time to take a short nap, since it was New Years Eve and we planned to be out quite late enjoying the festivities.
Around nine pm, we woke feeling refreshed. A mini dance and sing along party to Jay Z and Kanye west songs took place while we wrapped ourselves in layers for the cold and pounded a Red Bull for an extra boost of energy to help us make it through the night.
We spent the next hour working our way towards the Eiffel Tower, stopping a few times to time-lapse and photograph the amazing views. At 10:30 we claimed our spot for the count down! With some work, we managed to snag a spot right behind a roped off section of lawn, which meant nobody would be in front of us and our camera would have a great view of the midnight light show. During our wait, we shot a few stills of the tower and finally set the camera up for our midnight time-lapse… we were expecting quite a show and didn’t want to miss a second of it!
At the stroke of twelve, the Eiffel Tower sparkled with its five minute light show and several people around the city set off their fireworks. The city of Paris doesn’t actually provide any sort of additional entertainment for New Years. In the past they have done both lasers and fireworks, but now they choose to save up their money and put it all towards an amazing display of light on Bastille Day. The purchase of fireworks is legal in the city, so a lot of people just bring their own and set them off. The mix of projectiles and alcohol with probably already dimwitted people doesn’t add up to great safety. We spotted one rocket go straight up and then right back down into the crowd of people to our left. As far as we could tell nobody was hurt, but we still took that as our cue to move along. We meandered closer to the tower and along the way met a couple from Portugal who gave us raisins. It’s custom for them to eat twelve at midnight and make a wish for the new ear on each one. We also met tourists from Peru and Belgium. During our time at the tower we heard dozens of languages and enjoyed just taking it all in and being a part of this truly crazy experience. We worked our way closer and closer to the tower until the one am light show. By this time we were freezing, people were becoming more inebriated and the rats were coming out to scavenge (we named one Ratatouille). The tower lights went out at we decided to pack up and head home from this awesome evening in Paris!
On the left see the 20,000 lights of the Eiffel Tower illuminated at the top of the hour and on the right is the Eiffel Tower turned off at one am to conserve energy as part of France’s Illumination Ban. I thought it was really cool to see how different the tower looks at different times of day and night!
This is just one day from our week traveling around Paris! Be sure to check next week for Part 3 of this blog series. I’m loving reviewing my images and sharing all of the fun I had, I hope you are enjoying reading about my traveled. Leave a little comment to let me know your favorite part so far!
//Lyndsay.
