Paris: Tour Eiffel

Day 2 of my trip finished with a long walk from Montparnasse over to the Eiffel Tower...  Very long walk, but very nice.  We passed a couple of landmarks and otherwise interesting things on the way. First was le musée de l'Armée.

And then this store in particular was amusing ^o^

I do not think they had in mind the implications of the store name in English... ^o^

There wasn't anything really Sioux about the products I could see in their shop window...  It looked like a pretty average cute baby clothes store.

In any case, with such amusement, the Eiffel Tower was finally reached!  I stopped at the far end of le Champ de Mars to get a pretty picture.

And then continued on my way to go up the actual tower.  Needless to say, there were hordes of street vendors with little Eiffel Tower shaped trinkets hanging on giant keyring-like things, trying to sell them for super-cheap (compared to the souvenir stores with physical setups).  It was like an obstacle course, trying to circumvent them...

As it turns out, there's a choice to take the stairs, or take the elevator.  You can only go to the very top of the tower if you choose the elevator option, although that seemed iffy, because half the time while I was looking at the sign, it said the top was "full" and therefore closed off at the moment.  It also cost more than twice as much.  I felt like just the observation deck was sufficiently high to satisfy my Eiffel Tower experience.  Soooo many stairs... but I climbed a lot of stairs in Paris, for some reason (maybe because I stayed with someone who lived on the 3rd floor?).  In any case, it was actually quite a nice walk up the tower, and the view from the observation deck was already plenty amazing, I really didn't need to crowd with the tons of people going to the very top (I hate crowds...).  I managed to snag a photo from two sides of the tower (the two most interesting sides).

Le Champ de Mars:

Trocadero:

And this is what the tower looks like, looking up from the 2nd observation deck:

WHEE!!  It was pretty awesome ^_^

And then of course we had to climb the stairs down... XD

Paris: Catacombes + Cimetière du Montparnasse

Day 2 of my trip started with a quick stop at the neighborhood bakery, where I picked a delicious pain au chocolat.  Somehow it was just more delicious than any chocolate croissant I've ever had in the US... maybe simply because it was nice and fresh.  Who knows, but it was delightful!

And then, I went to the catacombs...  I waited in line, in the burning sun, for almost an hour before I finally got in.  The tour is entirely self-guided, and goes through both a quarry section and a catacomb section.  There were a lot of pretty things in the quarry section, which I didn't quite expect.  For example, this lovely model:

We also walked past several wells, of which this one was the best lit and the prettiest.  My camera was not so good at taking photos in dark places without flash, so things in lighted areas were pretty much the only things that came out.

As we went from the quarries to the catacombs, we were greeted by this lovely entrance message:

The catacombs... they're so cool!  So many bones and skulls all piled together, complete with random concret slabs with morbid inscriptions on them.  Also, just generally dark and wet (there was water dripping from the ceiling).

There were also several interesting crypts and other structures, including this Sepuchral Lamp.

And as if I hadn't gotten enough of death, I stopped by the Montparnasse Cemetery after a quick lunch break.  The cemetery was very pretty, but pretty unremarkable - I mean, it's just like many other cemeteries.  There were some pretty crypts, but I felt sort of weird walking around being too obvious about taking photos.  I stuck to photographing really old graves, or more "famous" graves.  Including that of Alexander Alekhine, world chess champion!!

Next stop: Eiffel Tower!!

Paris: Jardin du Luxembourg

Last stop for my first day (I'm surprised I wasn't collapsing from jet lag or anything... yay malleable sleep schedule?): Jardin du Luxembourg!

I think I always had a very... childishly ideal image of this garden consisting of small children running around the fountain with their little sailboats.  Interestingly, it wasn't far off - there were in fact children playing with sailboats (complete with the poles you use to steer/poke at the boats)!  If only I was a small child and could engage in such play... T_T

The greenery was absolutely amazing (as was the case for every other garden I visited in Paris).  It's just too bad it was so hot and the sun was so bright - I probably would've enjoyed it more had the weather been a little bit cooler... alas, what can you do?

Here's the palace and the fountain all in one shot:

And the lovely lawn where we relaxed in the shade for awhile (did a crossword puzzle):

There were so many people there just hanging out (particularly in the nice shaded areas).  It was pretty interesting just people-watching and trying to eavesdrop on conversations.

We also saw the Medici Fountain, which was in a lovely tree area, except that ducks in the trees kept either dripping (from the fountain) on us or peeing on us (we couldn't tell).  We didn't hang out there long...

Paris: Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris

The second landmark was the Notre Dame Cathedral!  I didn't end up actually going inside...  There was a huge line, and I didn't realize that was for going to the top of the bell tower, not just walking inside the cathedral.  Oh well, now I know?  I would've liked to see it from the inside, but it was nice from the outside too!

Here's me with the cathedral:

I also walked around to the back of the cathedral (there's quite a nice little riverside park around the cathedral).

So there you go! That's Notre Dame ^_^

Paris: Pont Neuf

The first landmark stop of my trip was the Pont Neuf!!  Ironically, since I was *on* the bridge, I didn't actually get any landscape shots of the bridge itself... oh well XD

Here's the commemoration plaque:

I did remember to take a couple shots of the river from the bridge though!  Here's the nicest one, of a neighboring bridge ^o^

And here's me with the bridge, sort of!

This was coincidentally the day of the gay pride parade in Paris, and while we were wandering across the bridge, this awesome person offered to take a picture with me:

So there ya go! That was our adventure on the Pont Neuf! ^_^

[Outfit Post] Paris + London

Long hiatus was long... I didn't mean for it to be, but I've been lazy about posting T_T  End of quarter + Europe trip franticness = frazzled Kyttyee.

In any case, I recently got back from a trip to Paris and London.  And it was such a lovely trip, I kind of want to still be in Paris.  In any case, I discovered that my French abilities are still vaguely functional, and probably better than I think they are (yay lack of confidence).  In any case, I had a lot of fun over the Atlantic and met some great new people (and old acquaintances). ^_^  If only I'd thought ahead to meetup with my Sekai no Melody girls, but oh well >_<

My goal was to pack light, and I apparently managed to do 9 days worth of outfits all in my little carry-on-sized rollaway.  Which incidentally is now broken, and I had to get a new one just a few days ago T_T  But yes, all in one small suitcase, with room to spare (good thing too, since I ended up doing a bit of shopping).  My strategy was to pack 3 JSK/SK and then a bunch of shirts, tights/socks, and accessories to mix and match.  Plus one cardigan and one light jacket.  And one (yes, only one) pair of shoes that were comfortable for walking, but also dressy enough in case I went to a fancier venue.  I ended up bringing my ETC Victoria Print JSK, Metamorphose Music Notes JSK, and my new BTSSB Fairy Night skirt.  And then some shirts and my random pink shift for my traveling/rough-and-tumble clothes ^o^

Here's an outfit dump, sort of.  I didn't bother taking real outfit shots, nor do I have one from every day, but you can sort of get the idea.

These were my airplane clothes...

Catacombs day.  Didn't want to risk messing up nice clothes.

JSK: Metamorphose

Hairbow: made by Oli, my Lolita mentor

SK: Baby

Halter: AP

JSK: ETC

JSK: ETC

It was soooo hot in Paris for the first four or so days, so I basically stuck to wearing ankle socks rather than tights.  The last day, when we went to Versailles, was the only really nice day (in my opinion).  I apparently have a different definition of "nice" than most Parisians? Or at least than our host?  The only day I actually wore a petti was when I wore the BTSSB skirt, because it kind of needs it to not look weird XD

I didn't actually do that much shopping in Paris, and even in London most of the things I bought were little  souvenir gifts for other people, or stuffed animals.  Haha yes... stuffed animals >_>;;  I did buy an amazingly cute pair of shoes from the Galleries Lafayette though!  They're made by Geox, and they're just so dainty.  I think I'm sold on European shoes, all the ones in the shoe department were just so dainty and nice, almost like wearing dance slippers or something.  And they're not at all flimsy, they're perfectly sturdy and even have sufficient padding/support on the insides. They're just not clunky!  I love my Stride Rite shoes, and they're cute in their own right, but really, the new Geox shoes just totally crush them in daintiness XD  I need more European shoes!!  Also, they're pink and have flowers on them :-D

Anyways, that's the fashion-related portion of my trip!  The next posts will focus more on the actual places I went and saw, and of course there will be pictures ^o^