Thursday, January 10, 2019

PARIS: Day 4


DAY 4: The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, The Musee de l'Orangerie, and the rest of PARIS TREATS!!

Our last full day in Paris we filled to the BRIM again with so many things! We got up early in the morning to take some photos with the Eiffel Tower! As a photographer, I've always wanted to take some beautiful photos with that gorgeous structure in the background. The Eiffel tower is one of those things that really is as beautiful as it looks. From a distance it's beautiful, but as you get closer you truly see how huge and remarkable it is! I remember turning the corner in our car and gasping because we were right next to it and it was gigantic! I'll never forget my first time seeing it up close! After taking some photos in front of the eiffel tower we headed to The Louvre. We really didn't like the Louvre ha ha ha ha!! I mean, don't get me wrong! The art was stunning and the sculptures and statues were buitiful and the building was a work of art in itself, but MAN that place was confusing. Even with reading maps, looking up guides online and following signs we could NOT figure that place out. It took us forever to find the sections that I wanted to see and even then we were so frustrated and exhausted that we were happy to get out of there. I took a selfie with The Mona Lisa along with like 10,000 other people. But if I'm honest, I really did think it was beautiful. I thought all of the art we saw was beautiful! We also hit the last Museum on my list! The Musee de l'Orangerie is where Monet's Waterlilies are displayed. They cover two entire oval rooms and it's one of the prettiest things you could possibly see. The downstairs also features many contemporary artists and it ended up being our favorite museum we went to. The rest of our time was spent walking around the city, the parks and eating all of the bucket list food items we could! Croissants, begets, Chocolat aus pain, crepes and more! Paris was a dream and I'm so happy we were able to visit this city of lights!






































This was the courtyard of our little airbnb!! It was so darling! You had to enter through a giant door and then through another gate to get there. It was on the cutest Parisian street full of flower markets, cheese shops and cafes. We were there during a beget competition so we bought two. I also begged Tyler to re-enact an scene from Mary-Kate+Ashley's Passport to Paris for our video ha ha! Aka sword fighting with bread ha ha!









PARIS Days 2+3 VERSAILLES+DISNEYLAND PARIS


Finally catching up on the blog in the new year ha ha ha!! For days 2 and 3 of our Paris adventure we left the city to hit two places I've dreamt about going for the longest time. The Palace of Versailles and Disneyland Paris! First we are going to start off with the INSANELY intricate and beautiful, Palace of Versailles!

Extravagant. Opulence. Intricate. Detailed. Over the Top. Rich. Boujee. Breathtaking. Gigantic.
These are just a few words that describe the Palace of Versailles as well as its gardens. No expense was spared in creating this palace and every history book will tell you the same thing. If you've never seen the movie "Marie Antoinette" with Kirsten Dunst you should totally watch it! It gives you a good idea about how over. the. top. everything was with the royalty during that time in history. This palace is gigantic with details that can only be described as grandiose and breath-taking. Room after room after room full of furniture, art and the most insane architecture I've ever seen. Just look at the black and white patterned ground in the entrance/courtyard?! How amazing is that?! Tyler and I walked in awe as we explored the palace but let me tell you. The palace failed in comparison to how CRAZY HUGE AND BEAUTIFUL the gardens were. But we'll get into that in a second. 
















HALL OF MIRRORS
Central gallery of the Palace of Versailles. Ceiling to floor mirrors, walls covered in gold, giant chandeliers, windows that flood the hall with light that dances off of the mirrors and crystals. It is a true sight to behold!







BUCKET LIST ANGELINA!!!
Visiting Angelina has been on my foodie bucket list for FOREVER and for one reason only. The hot chocolate. And let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint. This hot chocolate is different than any you will ever try! It's thick, almost like drinking melted chocolate and it's rich! Almost like dark chocolate! If I could take a bath in a tub full of Angelina hot chocolate I totally would. This stuff is magic. Plane and simple. We also knocked another bucket list food item off our list and had the yummiest eclair! 











THE GARDENS OF VERSAILLES

I feel like the video does more justice to the gardens than my pictures do. These gardens are RIDICULOUS. And I mean that in the very best way. From the second we walked outside our breath was taken away from us. The grounds go on for what seem like miles. Full lakes, fountains and hedges cut into the most beautiful patterns. Statues line the paths and the grounds turn into various mazes where you can get LOST. I say this because WE DID GET LOST. In the GARDENS! We got lost TWICE HA HA HA HA! Once in the main gardens and then second in Marie Antoinette's Hamlet which I'll get to in a second. Tyler and I decided to just take a turn and explore the gardens and mazes on our own and something magical happened. We genuinely ended up by ourselves.

A couple hours earlier we were fighting against hordes of tour grounds to see the inside of the palace and at times it was very claustrophobic! But the gardens were so gigantic that it had the opposite affect. Tyler and I found ourselves amidst fountains within the maze and then happened onto a grove full of tall trees. In the video you can see us frolicking through the trees in our own private part of the gardens. It truly was very romantic and magical!









MARIE ANTOINETTE'S HAMLET

Ok, here comes my favorite part of Versailles! Marie Antoinette's small palace, Hamlet and other various buildings! Everything Marie Antoinette wanted, she got and it's incredible. Thank you Marie Antoinette for creating a real life fairytale village for us to explore. It was MAGICAL. King Louis basically built Marie her own village with pond, farms, animals, the cutest little houses etc. It was basically like the real-life fantasyland from Disneyland! The second time we got lost was when we were trying to find our way from Marie Antoinette's Hamlet to her personal palace. We found ourselves walking amidst the fields and horses and into more secret gardens that made my heart so happy! And once again IT WAS JUST US!! Even at the grotto we found (which was like a scene out of the little mermaid) I explored a cave which also had a spring inside. It was too dark for pictures but it felt like a beautiful fairytale in there! We also explored her other little palaces that were so intricately beautiful! And these little palaces had THEIR OWN GARDENS! You guys this entire place was ridiculous. I loved it. I loved every minute of exploring Versailles. 




 











DISNEYLAND PARIS!!!
We did't take too many photos of our time at Disneyland Paris! But it was a blast! Here are my opinions on Disneyland Paris ha ha ha! This park is STUNNING! When it comes to scenery this place has it down to a science. I think the castle is very beautiful and one of the coolest things about the castle is the fact that they have a DUNGEON WITH AN ACTUAL HUGE ANIMATRONIC DRAGON UNDER THE CASTLE. It breaths smoke and looks so freaking real. They have a full blown pirate ship and Skull rock by the pirates of the caribbean ride and they also have an Alice in Wonderland maze that is the cutest thing in the world! As far as rides go, I feel like they didn't have a ton. Most of the park is focused on the set-ups and scenery which is totally fine because they did it extremely well! We even ate lunch at a restaurant straight out of the movie Coco!! However Tyler and I LOVED their version of Thunder Mountain way better than in the U.S. You have to go under the lake to get to the mountain in the coaster and it goes FAST! And you speed back under the lake to end the ride which is really cool. Also, their space mountain is WAY DIFFERENT! It's an actual roller coaster. Meaning it has a couple loops where you go upside down! It was super fun! We also went to the Hollywood studios park next to Disneyland but we thought it was a huge let down. The only two things we liked were the tower of terror and the rockin rollercoaster. That being said, the rockin rollercoaster at Hollywood studios in Florida is WAY BETTER. We had a blast at Disneyland Paris and as disney fanatics we were so excited to check it off our bucket list!