Architectural Beauties of Paris

Montmarte

June 12, we took a tour up this famous hill where we saw many landmarks on the way and an extremely amazing view of the city at the top. On the way up, I saw the place where Vinent Van Gogh lived and views from which he painted, as well as a location for a popular French short story and its monument, as well as vineyards. The walk up the huge hill did not seem too bad because of all of the interesting stops on the way up. Once we did reach the top, however, I got to see the inside of St. Pierre de Montmarte, one of the churches that claims to be the oldest in Paris due to some of its extremely old pillars inside. After seeing this church, I climbed many stairs and entered another church, the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris. This was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen, from the inside and out. The wait to just get inside took about fifteen minutes! And on the way down the hill we got to see Moulin Rouge.

Vincent Van Gogh's home

Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Paris

View from the top of the hill

Arc de Triomphe

The best view I have seen of Paris, considering I never did go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, was from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, or the Triumphal Arch. It was built to honor soldiers who fought in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Too bad we didn't get the subway quite right because we had to walk more than half an hour down Avenue des Champs-Élysées, a long, seemingly never-ending, street of luxury shops, including a glamorous Abercrombie & Fitch, go figure. Because after that walk, we had to climb up almost 300 steps to get to the top. But it was worth it, as you can see the gorgeous 360 degree view of the city.

Arc de Triomphe

View from the top

Palace of Versailles


We took our own day trip to this city, expecting it would take all day to walk through, but it only took a couple hours. Oh and there was basically a monsoon that day while we had to wait in line outside, making us each completely soaking wet. You can tell from the gigantic rain cloud in the picture just about how bad it was. However, we didn't let this ruin our day since the entire palace is filled with glamour and gigantic paintings. And of course it would be since it was once the center of politic power in France, built by Louis XIV.

A room inside the palace

The gardens of Versailles are just as beautiful and large as the palace itself.

Gardens of Versailles

We also tried to visit Marie Antoinette's quarters, but they are located so far from the palace itself, it would have taken over half an hour just to walk there.


Notre Dame Cathedral


This is a gothic style Catholic cathedral my friends and I visited. The outside and inside are equally magnificent. There was stained glass covering the inside, and a clearly very tall cieling. Many people were visiting, while others lit candles and had a seat to pray. Visiting this monumental cathedral was very touching.