February 10, 2007 :: Paris at Night

One Saturday Evening...
...in early February, my colleagues and I decided to see the some more sites of Paris.   We started our adventure around 4p by taking the train over to Notre Dame et Blvd St. Michel.  After an awesome meal in a little restaurant called "Maison Blanche" (where we had real French fromage fondue for the first time!), we took to the streets to see what we could see.  (Click here to get the full album of pictures)

Notre Dame Cathedral
Our first stop was the famous cathedral Notre Dame.  There were tons of people there, including one couple who had just gotten married!  We took a plethora of pictures outside before going in to check out the ornate interior.  There was actually a service in session when we walked in, so we blended in with the many other tourists who were being as quiet as possible while gawking at and taking pictures of the artifacts inside.  (Check out this video I took while inside)

After our silent observations of this Catholic marvel, we went outside again to get some night-time shots of the cathedral lit up.  It was spectacular!  We also saw "Point Zero", which is the center of Paris and is marked by a seal just outside of Notre Dame.  (Check out this video I took while outside) 

A Winter Walk
As dusk surrounded us and the chill of the late winter night-time air joined our trio, we decided to take a walk, yes, walk to the Eiffel Tower.  Although we didn't know it at the time, Google Maps would tell us later on that it was a 5.3 km walk (almost 4 miles for those of you in the US :-).  Not a bad way to spend the evening after the huge, yet inexpensive, meal we had earlier on.  All along the way we took pictures of various sites, such as the one on the left.  I'm not sure exactly which building this was, but it said something about being a basilica and a gymnasium across the top, so I was confused :)

The Eiffel Tower (Le Tour Eiffel)
The Eiffel Tower has two spot lights at the very top that swoop around the city at night kind of like a lighthouse.  Our strategy to finding our way there from Notre Dame was simply to follow the light and hope we got there without any major road blocks.  Low and behold, it turned out to be a great strategy, even though our walk criss-crossed all over the 5th, 6th, and 7th arrondissements (or as I like to call them, "kingdoms" :-).  We got to see a lot of interesting sites, and take a lot of interesting pictures along the way! (Like the one on the right)

Finally there!
At long last we finally made it to Le Tour.  As we approached, she was lit up very nicely and standing tall and proud.  However, after a couple moments, she started to sparkle!  Yes, sparkle!  It was so amazing!  I took several pictures to try to capture the affect, but check out this video to really see what I mean. 

Partying in Paris...a full day well spent
My friends and I took several more shots from all around the Le Tour before heading back home.  Our game plan was to go out to a night club and party away Parisian style.  We got all dressed up, took a few more pictures, and headed out to Le Champs-Elysées (which is basically Paris's version of 5th Avenue in New York City).  We didn't arrive back home until almost 5a, more than 12 hours after we started our grand adventure.  Quite satisfied, I went to bed happily knowing that I had one more day to sleep in and relax before going back to the grind. 

Next week our whole crew is heading out to Brussels, BE.  Tune back in for even more pictures and hopefully another great story to go with them.  Cheers for now!

M@