Daily Details: July 16

The day began with a trip outside of Paris to visit Villa Savoye, the home of the famous designer/architect, Le Corbusier. The home is ultra minimalist and very modern, but has some absolutely spectacular features. Corbusier uses a mix of ramps and spiral staircases in his home, creating a unique blend of architecture. The spiral staircases are incredible and the yard surrounding the villa is absolutely wonderful. It’s nothing amazing like a manicured garden, but it was so peaceful out there with the lush green lawn and the surrounding meadow. My favorite part of this visit was being able to see his furniture designs first-hand and being able to try them out. His lounge chair was quite possibly the most comfortable thing I have ever sat in. It, and the petit comfort chairs have always been two of my favorite pieces, and I got to sit in them both! In my opinion, Corbusier’s strengths are definitely more in furniture making as opposed to architecture. He is genius with furniture!

After getting back from Villa Savoye, we were absolutely FAMISHED. We decided to go to Kong, a restaurant designed by Philippe Starck, a famous designer. It’s at the top of a very fancy building in Paris that houses other designer stores. In the restaurant, we were on the top floor in sort of a glass dome. The views of Paris were really neat from there, and I finally got to sit in Starck’s famous Ghost Chair. I always wondered how comfortable it would be, seeing as how it’s just a plastic chair, but my expectations were exceeded. It was the most comfortable plastic chair EVER! I felt very fancy at the restaurant, and the servers were all impeccably dressed. I ordered a club sandwich—it was delicious! The best part of the meal was the fries though. Words cannot describe how incredible they were!

Next, we were off to see the inside of Notre Dame. Once inside, I was blown away by how tall the cathedral is. It certainly was not the tallest cathedral I’ve seen, but the impact of the height, combined with all of the stained glass is indescribable. I am continually amazed by how much detail is in each piece of stained glass. I guess I always thought it was just shards of colored glass, but every single inch is full of meaning and biblical stories. They even paint individual strands of hair on figures! Conversely, I was also blown away by how dark the overall interior still is. Although the stained glass is breathtaking, I could never imagine myself going to church here. The stone and architectural style makes the space so austere. I am amazed by the contrast of this and the LDS temples where everything is bright, white, and impeccably clean.

The next stop was the Musee d’Orsay. It was one of my very favorite museums we’ve been to. The museum itself was once an old train station. It was an exquisite building on the outside, and every bit as exquisite on the inside. The art it houses is equally incredible. Amongst my favorites were Cezanne, Renoir, Monet, and Degas. I was able to see first-hand the marvelous sculptures and paintings that Degas has done of ballerinas. It was absolutely incredible! Another neat thing the museum had in addition to all of the art was a model in an area where you stood on a glass floor, looked down, and saw a bird’s eye view of Paris. The models of all of the buildings were so awesome and incredibly detailed! In the same section was a cross-sectioned model of the Paris Opera house. It made me VERY eager to see the real thing in person!

The last event of the night was a trip up the Eiffel Tower. The line to get up it took about 1.5 hours, but it was absolutely worth it! There are 3 different stops on the way to the top. On the second terrace, we got out of the elevator and looked at the views of Paris. You wouldn’t think that the second terrace would have that great of views, but that is when the enormity of the Eiffel Tower hits you—the view are incredible, and you’re only a third of the way up. Dusk was approaching as we shot pictures of the city and we could see lightning on the horizon. After taking another elevator to the top, we found ourselves in an observatory that had facts about the Eiffel Tower, but the views were all obstructed by glass windows. Thinking that we wouldn’t be able to go outside on the top of the tower, we were pretty bummed until we saw another short staircase. We ran up it and BAM! We were outside on the very top of the Eiffel Tower! What a rush! Everything that had once had shape was so far beneath us that lights were the only thing really discernable. We had been out there for only one minute or so when my friend Beccah asked if it was raining. I didn’t feel anything, but then she pointed out that you could see the rain falling in the spotlights that shine down onto Paris from the top of the tower. All of the sudden, fierce winds started howling, thunder started clapping, and we were met with an ENORMOUS deluge of rain! Should I have been surprised? No…we’ve been rained out on EVERY monument we’ve been to. Was I? Yes. I didn’t think rainstorms occurred like this in Paris in the middle of July. We, and everybody else out there tried to seek shelter under the 2-foot eaves of the Tower, but getting there was a bit of a challenge because the whole Eiffel Tower was SWAYING! Yes…you heard me right—swaying! I thought turbulence on an airplane was hard to stand up in. I also thought trains were hard too. This was even more difficult than the other two combined. I really thought I was going to tip over! It was quite the adventure as all of us crowded back into the observatory and waited another 1.5 hours to get down. At the first level, the elevator operator asked if anyone would like to stop and see the view from there. There was a resounding, “NO!!!” shouted from the whole elevator and many chuckles since we all commiserated with each other over the long wait to get down. I had many people ask me if my experience at the Eiffel Tower was ruined as a result of the storm. I tell them absolutely not—that is going to be one of the most memorable experiences I’ll ever have from Europe and I’ve always wanted to be in Paris when it rained. I got my wish! 