5 Days in Paris

Well I'm in India now - have been for a couple of days...but first some highlights and lessons from Paris.

Paris was absolutely spectacular! The city, its monuments, museums, architecture, culture and its citizens were the epitomy of highly refined taste, style and aesthetic beauty. The land of intellectuals & philosophers, it is no wonder that Descartes (I think, therefore I am) is from there.

The first three weeks of my journey are being spent travelling with a wonderful friend, Don McIver. We got into Paris on Saturday, Dec. 29th, dropped our bags and met up with Calgary friends, Dallas and Eva for some lunch and a tour of the Sacre-Couer (Sacred Heart church) and a Dali exhibit. The Sacred Heart church is likely the most impressive sacred space I've ever been in - not for its age (only about 100 years old) or for the ornateness of it - but rather for its space. The main worship space was friggin' enormous! my god... if we as humans had to build something to represent the vastness of what 'This' really is, the Sacred Heart church is as close as it gets. Awe inspiring with four gigantic (red wood in size) pillars supporting the spectaculat ceiling over space itself. And really, all the cathedrals/churches that we visited had this enormity to them. Paris is the land of Monolithic architecture. Huge. Not even close to small. crazy.

The Musee du Louve was another prime example of the french living large. Housing one of the most exquisite art/relic collections in the world, Don and I got to check out the Mona Lisa, a couple of Michelangelos sculptures, the Winged Victory of Samothrace (one of the most beautiful sculptures I've ever seen), Venus de Milo, etc...tonnes of religious artwork to be had. We also checked out Musee d'Orsay (what an incredible art collection! Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Munch, Rodin, and many many more!), Musee Picasso, Musee Rodin (beautiful, moving sculpture - the Thinker, the Gates of Hell, etc) and the Dome Church where Napolean's Tomb is - and it's HUGE. Go figure.

Also HUGE in Paris - the Eiffel tower (light show and all), the Arc de Triomphe (i know it's a little old but all i could think about while i was there was European Vacation), Notre-Dame (an 800 year old gothic cathedral - huge, beautiful, gargoyles and strangeness to be gazed upon), Chartres Cathedral (another HUGE, BEAUTIFUL 800 year old church that was sooo ancient feeling - this is the one place where it FELT like incredible worhip was still happening - the place felt amazing. All the other cathedrals/churches were heavy tourist spots), Saint-Chapelle (a church that is wall to wall stained glass - very ornate), St. Germain-des-Pres (the oldest church in Paris although most of it has been replaced at one time or another, Cimetiere du Montparnasse (wow! even a cemetery in paris has style - some of the tomb stones were massive pieces of art), and La Defense (a massive shopping and business complex with this HUGE box of a structure that the Notre-Dame could fit in the middle of - straight out of a sci-fi movie for sure).

Five packed days. And we didn't even come close to seeing it all. Paris was amazing - it is a romantic hot spot for sure (the name of the game is 'couples' as far as I could tell in Paris). I'd love to head back someday to take it in again - it was quite overwhelming.

Love