samanthamichele

Just a quick video I shot before leaving for the cafe this morning.

We saw so many windmills and people riding bikes on that train ride. It was ridiculous.

*shrug*

It's pretty easy to see how disappointed I am. Versailles was gorgeous, but it definitely didn't live up to my high expectations. The crowds were just too much, and we didn't get to see any of the gardens because of rain. It was just a bad day to go.

This was the bedroom of three queens of France, and multiple rulers were born on that bed.

We weren't enjoying the trip that much by this point, though... the crowds were absolutely insane, and we couldn't get close enough to get a good view without being pushed on all sides.

A video shot in the famed Hall of Mirrors. Absolutely stunning, but the crowds were stifling and took away from the experience. Lesson learned: go to Versailles on a sunny day in the off-season.

I'm starting to think that French rulers have an obsession with ceiling art...

By this point, the massive crowds are really starting to get to us.

We're pissed at the fact that it is pouring rain and that our audioguides suck (you should have seen the ones at the Louvre--they have touch screens and everything!) The day is not starting off well.

I really don't have anything to say about this.

A video shot outside of the legendary bookstore.

I ended up purchasing a copy of Ulysses here, but I still haven't found the courage to start reading it yet. War and Peace and Les Mis are nothing compared to that monster.

Whitman describes this place as a "socialist utopia masquerading as a bookstore," and a sign above the second floor reads "Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise." In fact, struggling writers can always find a free bed amongst the stacks of books--the only price for staying at this literary landmark is reading a book a day and helping to run the store.

If I should ever visit Paris without Jake, this is where I would stay.

This was one of my literary pilgrimages that I had to make, especially since I didn't manage to get to the Pantheon while I was in Paris. Shakespare and Co. originally opened in 1919 and was a hangout of numerous luminaries, including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Joyce. In fact, it was the first owner, Sylvia Beach, that first published James Joyce's novel Ulysses when it was declared too scandalous by both French and American publishers. The original closed during the Nazi occupation of Paris in World War II

This is a video of the Upper Chapel of Sainte-Chappelle, which was built to house several important religious relics and also as a place for royalty and important nobility to attend services. It is widely considered one of the most beautiful displays of stained glass in the world--so much that it has been removed during various wars so that it would not be damaged. Due to poor lighting conditions (yeah, yeah, and my horrible cinematography skills), this is unfortunately not the greatest video--it's yet anot

Sainte-Chappelle is a church that sits in the shadow of Notre-Dame de Paris. While Notre-Dame was built as a grand Cathedral, Sainte-Chappelle was built to house the supposed Crown of Thorns and a piece of the Cross, purchased by the King of France in the 13th century from the Byzantine emperor. This video is of the Lower Chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where the church's parish and the servants of the royalty and nobility worshiping in the Upper Chapel could go to attend Mass.

The Coronation of Napoleon. This is another highly iconic painting, and it's absolutely massive in person. It was made by Napoleon's official painter, and it depicts his crowning himself, separating himself from the Church. It's a poor video--I recommend taking a look at the painting itself online. The painting is massive. There is a replica by the artist's hand in Versailles as well.

The Mona Lisa, shot when I managed to squeeze a bit closer.

There she is... I don't think this painting needs any introduction. The gallery that she is kept in was insanely crowded--there were probably two hundred people crowding in to get a look. Believe it or not, the painting is actually a bit different in person. I didn't go in expecting much--who hasn't seen two thousand replicas of the Mona Lisa?--but there is a certain mystique to the painting that perhaps explains its timelessness. I'm not sure I would go so far as to call it one of the grandest masterpieces

Another video of the ceilings.

The Louvre itself is just as much of a work of art as the pieces contained within! The interior of the building, from the paintings on the wall to the architecture itself, is gorgeous. This video is taken of one of the paintings on the ceiling--there were paintings of this caliber in nearly every room that we visited.

Most of the statues shown in this video are ancient Roman replicas of ancient Greek statues, and most of them are nearly two millennia old. Absolutely stunning--this might have been my favorite room in the Louvre. It definitely gave me the itch to go to Italy!