France Trip: Day 4

Today we spent our last couple of hours in Paris on the Eiffel Tower! We took the stairs to the first elevator (which was quite a trek) and then decided to pay for a ticket to the top. Why not, right? You only live once. So we waited and finally got to the top. Emily was freaking out. haha. We were all laughing so hard because she could barely move. It reminded me of my dad. The last time I was on the top of the Eiffel tower my dad was freaking out. Emily and my dad would get along great. I have to admit, I am so terrified of heights as well. I get it from my dad. I wasn't as paralyzed as Emily, but it definitely took strength for me to move around. We debated asking some random guys to kiss us so we could say that we had been kissed on the Eiffel tower... but we chickened out and didn't. Too bad. It would have made for a good story. We played around and took some pictures and then headed to the elevator for the long ride back down.

So This whole time of climbing stairs, and riding elevators I had one earphone in with my ipod playing french music. It was fantastic. I wish that we had background music to our lives. How awesome would that be. I'm a hopeless romantic so I actually have music playing in my head in a lot of situations of my life. So retarded I know but it just comes to me! haha.

After some girls headed to get a crepe but me and Emily wanted to go see Sainte-Chapelle. We walked through the streets of Paris stopping to take lots of pictures. (something me and Emily do... a whole lot!) I am SO glad that we decided to go to this small chapel. It is famous for it's stained glass and it was B-E-A-Utiful!

We walked around and just soaked up our last little taste of Paris and then headed back to our Hostel to get on the bus for our next adventure. We all bought some snacks for the road in a small grocery store and the headed to AMIENS!!

So I absolutely adore this town. It is so cute and pretty much picture perfect. We wanted to get to the Amien's Cathedral (The whole reason we came here) before it closed and we came into town with only about 20 minutes to spare. All the girls were too tired but Emily and I just didn't want to miss any opportunity so we ran and found the cathedral and boy am I glad that we did! It was only us and the professors that made it into the cathedral before it closed. It was the most beautiful cathedral I have ever seen. And I have seen more than I can even count. I can honestly say it is my favorite cathedral. The ceilings are amazingly high and are so because the people who built it wanted the high ceilings to represent heaven. I walked around in amazement for about 15 minutes. I wish I had longer to admire the art and architecture, but unfortunately they kicked us out. I saw the most wonderful sculpture in this cathedral. It is special because normally people sculpt Mary holding Jesus as a baby but this one is of Joseph holding Christ. It is such a sweet statue and I teared up a bit while admiring it. A very sweet experience. I am so grateful I was able to see this particular cathedral. I have seen so many cathedrals that I have seen and forgotten about, but I will never forget this one. I walked around it a couple times trying to memorize every painting, sculpture, and aspect of the architecture. I didn’t leave until I absolutely had too.

After we walked and met up with a bunch of other girls for dinner at a café. We had a lovely dinner and then headed back to the hotel. On the way home Emily and I ran into some LDS missionaries! We were so excited! Haha. I just love that we always seem to run into missionaries no matter where we are in the world. I we chatted with them a bit about the church and the members in that area and then headed back home.

Now this is probably the best part about Amiens and just made me love my Cathedral ever more. Every night they have a light show where they project lights onto the cathedral the colors that they originally were painted way back when. People gathered in the town square and sat on the pavement while music was played and a story about the cathedral was read in French for the whole town to hear. It was incredible. And quite magical really. I sat there next to my professors and their wives and just tried to soak in this amazing experience. Truly one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life.

That little angel on the bottom is a famous WWII symbol. And this Statue of Joseph and Jesus is one of my all time favorite statues. It is so sweet and it is one of the very few that actually show Joseph with the baby Jesus. I experienced something very special while looking at this statue and it will always hold a special place in my heart.