And of course leading down the gardens are plenty of statues. These statues are everywhere. I just got used to them but its astounding to think that they're all hand carved out of marble and of course they're all pretty big. The one below was one of my favorites...
And after the fountains is a series of modern balls that extend down the lawn. For some reason there's modern "art" at Versailles that I think is pretty ugly and out of place. But the balls on a stick made for a good picture...
And after that was another fountain, with this fountain being extremely significant. The way the palace is built this fountain is exactly in line with the middle of the palace which of course is Louis' bedroom. This means that the sun sets on Louis' bedroom before it sets on this fountain. Well what do u know the fountain is of Apollo, the god of the Sun. I think its pretty cool to do that because that required a huge ego and tons of money and power of course...
And the view with ducks completes the set of photos for this fountain (which wasn't on because the Gardens weren't officially "open")...
That's pretty much all I saw of the Gardens even though there were infinite number of pathways and shrubs and trees and statues. Some of the major attractions were closed that day but what you see above is the jist of it.
After that we went to the Eiffel Tower again, this time to climb it. A lot of steps. Something like 1000 steps. And those are just the steps to get to the elevator. Here we go with the ascent to the top! Here is the first floor which I got to after climbing too many steps. When I started I said I wanted to run up the stairs like Rocky Balboa and then hold my arms up in celebration. Yeah that idea changed. And each floor has a lot of posters and visuals explaining the history and building process of the Eiffel Tower...
I got many different views as I ascended the Tower. Here they are...This is one view of the Seine River which runs through France. Its hard to say whether I prefer this river to the Thames River or the river I live next to the Tiber River (although I prefer its Italian name il fiume Tevere) because they're all pleasing to me. Let's just say its a three-way tie.
Here's another view of the rive Siene with more of the city surrounding it. The view gets better the more you ascend...
More view. This is the park area that is in line with the Eiffel Tower. And it leads to the one skyscraper which is not centered. Whoever thought of that wasn't too bright...
I'm not going to describe climbing all those stairs but instead lets go straight to the top. This is Paris from a bird's eye view atop the Eiffel Tower (just like the view from my backyard). Here's the famous fountain next to the Eiffel Tower. At the stairs leading down to the fountain there were people who gained speed on their BMX bikes and then rode down the stairs at high speed. I'm surprised they didn't crash and die. They also jumped over people who were lying down and then rode down the stairs over there. For those of you who saw Rush Hour 3 Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker parachuted from the Jules Verne restaurant and landed in this fountain. Then they shot someone...
Try and see why I took this photo. Can you find out why? (Ok its kinda obvious)
It turns out I was really too close to home after all! Its only a couple of minutes away...
After that the next couple of days I went to some museums (including the Louvre) and inside the Palace of Versailles and walked around Paris at nighttime. Here's some pics of all of that..
At the Palace at Versailles there were room to rooms (literally, antechambers galore) and every wall was decorated. It was all very aesthetically pleasing but it all blended toghether at one point. But what I did want to see was Louis XIV's bedroom and his royal bed. His entire room is decorated with gold. Quite a grand motif...
The ceilings and wall are all filled with paintings like this. You just get used to it because they are everywhere, but its still astounding to think that these fine artworks were all done by hand on walls and cielings. No small task...
This is the Louvre, only the world's best (or one of the best) museums. For those of you who saw the move The Da Vinci Code (pretty much everyone) this should look familiar. This in the internal courtyard and the museum is a chateau converted into a museum that surrounds this pyramid.
Of course there was the artwork. From what I heard there is more artwork in the Louvre than any other museum in Paris. Its huge. Art is everywhere you can imagine and in some places you probably didn't even think of. And I also visited another museum, but I forget the name of it now. After a quick google search its the Museo d'Orsay. Here's what I saw in both museums...Van Gogh of course. From the internet it says... " "Chaumes de Cordeville" 1890, olio su tela cm. 73x92, Museo d'Orsay, Parigi.". So there you have it. For anyone who goes to the Museo d'Orsay, skip the initial statues and sculptures they show you and go straight upstairs to the impressionist paintings. That's where all the good stuff is.
Monet is always one of my favorites. If anyone knows what this is called, please let me know. I just know that Monet liked to paint the same scene many times in different times of day and thus different light patterns, and this is one of those paintings. In real life its pretty big too. I want one of these in my living room...
Some of my favorite artworks from the Louvre are this....
and this; it's Winged Victory of course (in my spare time I have B.A. in art history). I liked this so much I bought a magnet of this as my souvenir from the Louvre. 
There was way too much art in the Louvre. I was all arted-out by the end. But wow, now I feel bad when I draw shapes in my notebook during class and think its art. Its not even close. Good art is hard to make. To conclude Paris, a typical Paris vacation wouldn't be complete without seeing the one and only...
And of course the Eiffel Tower when it sparkles at night every hour on the hour for 5 minutes. I just happened to be there when it did. One of my favorite sites ever. I loved it...
No description necessary...
Well that about does it for Paris. I took the chunnel to London and continued my vacation there. I'm all blogged out (this took a long time) and I have to say au revoir to Paris. Next up... London. Cheerio good ol' chap!
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