Photo Source:
Cristian Alexandrescu Photography 2014 is so close!!! I hope you'll have a marvellous time and that you already have you resolutions list prepared. I'll be spending the New Year's Eve with some lovely people and a special dress code:
denim! I know, wearing jeans is so weird on this occasion, but if we are to be honest, I think it's pretty awesome I start a new year wearing what I usually choose on a regular basis. All I want for 2014 is to be just as fabulous as 2013 has been: I finally chose the college that's right for me(hopefully I will get in there in July), I took my driver's license,
I turned 18, I received the most incredible gifts ,
I had the opportunity to visit Paris!
Back to Paris, this is my second post about it, where I promised to tell you the story about what I visited on my first day there.
After we saw Pont Alexandre III and Place des Invalides, we took the RER and arrived at the
Orsay Museum. I'm totally in love with
impressionism, so you can imagine this museum was simply heaven for my eyes! You might know from my old posts I read a lot of books about
Vincent Van Gogh's life and art and seeing so many paintings in the same room almost brought tears to my eyes. Never have I felt so connected to a form of art, his technique is flawless and I always get so emotional when I think that the only one who supported him while he lived was his younger brother, Theo. Then there was the
pointillism dedicated room, obviously filled with painting from the emblematic master
Georges Seurat. Other cool thing is that now I can tell the difference between a
Monet and a
Manet and I can understand the hype around
Cezanne's apples. The architecture of the museum is incredible, as it used to be the first train station in Paris (are you familiar with the movie
Hugo?).Overall, the Orsay Museum was one of my favourite sights, and should I ever return to Paris, I will spend a whole day there because we were in a severe lack of time when we visited it.
After the museum, we took the RER once again and went to
Île-de-France, where there are so many sights it overhelms you! One thing about the RER: You save a lot of time, which is amazing, but the system is confusing, unlike the METRO. Knowing French really came in handy because we had to ask a couple times to make sure we were at the right line. First we went to
Notre Dame de Paris, it's definitely worth seeing at night because the lights are magical. It's a truly imposing building, with an incredible architecture. We walked by
Palais de Justice but unfortunately weren't able to see
Saint-Chapelle as it was late at night. We also walked on the impressive
Pont Neuf and saw the
Conciergerie. It was one of my biggest wishes, as I first discovered Conciergerie on Miss Pandora's blog and thought : "what a pretty castle". Then, I did some research and I was shocked to see the building had actually been a prison for centuries!
We left "the island" and walked on the right side of
Seine until we reached
Pont des Arts, the famous bridge where you leave a lock. Of course, I forgot mine in the hotel room because we left in a rush. You have to see it with your eyes, we weren't expecting actually that many locks, the amount is just insane! Then it was
Louvre time! We first saw the Carousel and
Jardins des Tuileries. Before we left for Paris, there were many people who told us the gardens would be disappointing: completely false! It was like autumn, the trees still had their leaves and the grass was greener than ever, so December really is a great time to visit Paris, because you also get to see all the Christmas decorations.
The Louvre Museum was an interesting experience, totally different from Orsay as it mostly has classic paintings. Maybe you'll think I'm weird, but I wasn't impressed with
Mona Lisa most. The painting is so small and the tourists crowded to see her just make you anxious and eager to see other things. My favourite section was the wall with a few paintings of
Leonardo Da Vinci like 'Lady with an ermine' or 'St John the Baptist'. He is a genius, I just feel that 'Mona Lisa' isn't his masterpiece. We were stuck in the museum for a lot of time due to unexpected rain and we got to visit the most of it, and also got to explore the intricate details of the ceilings, mirrors, furniture etc.
When we were finally able to leave the museum, we went to
Rue Saint-Honoré, a big dream of mine, where I got to admire all the famous brand stores (oh God, the Miu Miu store shines just like a diamond!) and then we visited
Place Vendome. This particular place will stay in my heart forever, because it has another level of beauty, combined with luxury, high fashion and really classy Christmas decorations. I just wish that someday I'll be able to actually walk in a Dior or Chanel store, they all looked so magical! We also got to admire
Palais Garnier, which is their National Opera and the
Galeries Lafayette (best window of the store goes to Roger Vivier). Looking back, I'm pretty proud we managed to visit all these incredible sights in just 8 hours and I can't wait to travel abroad again!