Aka. "Destination Anywhere", "The Boy and Girl from County Bavaria"... After a very intense year in Würzburg (Germany), I'm back in Salamanca. I probably won't have that many experiences to write, but there's always an excuse to post a new entry!

July 16th. Much to my sister's dismay, we started the day at another important museum in Paris: The D'Orsay Museum. The building, a former train station, is again truly beautiful and scenic, which already gets you more in the mood to have a look at all the paintings and sculptures it houses. I couldn't describe all the things we saw, since it'd take me ages, but to give you an idea - the paintings are mainly by impressionists, such as Gaugin, Cezanne, Manet, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec and good old Van Gogh (bringing back good memories...) Besides paintings, you can also see lots of nice sculptures (my sister hit my dad whenever she saw something signed by Rodin), probably one of the most interesting for me being a statue of Sappho. What I didn't know is that there were also decorative items and furniture, as well as some jewels and a miniature of the Paris Opéra. It is forbidden to take pictures on the inside, so unfortunately I can't show you. On the other hand, here are some shots of the outside:

As you can imagine, we needed some good lunch to get our strength back. The D'Orsay Museum is close to the Seine River, so we made our way there to take the famous Batobus - a small boat special for tourists that takes you along the river, stopping at some of the most popular monuments, such as Notre Dame, which was our destination.

Leaving aside my opinion of the Catholic Church (or any other church, for that matter), I must say that this cathedral is not that impressive. When you see it from the outside, standing majestic in front of you, it is indeed beautiful, but its interior is way too crowded, which kills most of the charm. Another funny detail are the vending machines, from which you can get some medallions commemorating your visit, which we had also seen in the Sacré-Coeur Basilica. Sure those priests know how to make money, huh?

Then we took one more trip in the Batobus, this time stopping by the Eiffel Tower to see it in daytime. As I mentioned in one of the previous posts, although it was just as crowded as in the evening, the tower itself is not even half as beautiful without the shining lights. Once seen, it was time for some souvenir shoppin in the little stands close to the tower area... and then back to the hotel.

On July 17th we visited Versailles, which occupied our whole morning and part of the afternoon. When we got there, we were advised to see the gardens first and then the palace in order to avoid queuing for too long. And that's what we did.

If you know me well, you'll know that I'm a huge fan of parks and gardens. In fact, my ideal city would probably consist solely of parks, gardens and cafés. The Versailles Gardens were absolutely breathtaking. As it is a long walk, I recommend you taking the small train that stops at the main attractions, having a look and then continuing it by train. To the fact that green is my favourite colour, add nice weather and some other obsessions of mine, such as fountain and statues (even dragons!), and you'll get... well, heaven :D

I simply loved it. I loved it so much that the palace wasn't such a big deal after the gardens, which doesn't mean it wasn't amazing. As it was to be expected, it was full of luxury, the decoration being similar to the greatest churches in Paris and often in gold (no wonder the French people started a revolution, huh?)

But being an esoteric freak like me, what caught my eye most in the palace were some statues representing the four (or five, in this case) elements - Flames, Water, Air, Earth and Night. Here's a picture of me with the Water :)

Coming soon: the day I almost died of a beauty overdose ;)