Paris

What can I say about Paris? I had never been before, and I don't think I knew just what to expect. As much as possible we wanted to walk and see the sites. For the most part I have to say that this is not completely unreasonable.

We started at Notre Dame. I have seen countless photos of Notre Dame and it's rose windows, but seeing in person was a completely different experience. Not only was the architecture amazing, but each nook contained chapels devoted to different saints and filled with gorgeous pieces of art in their own rights.And of course we had to visit the Louvre. No photography was allowed in much of the museum, but I did want to get a photo of the the Winged Victory which I had sketched previously from a photograph.
When I had sketched it originally, I remember wishing I was working from it in person as some aspects of the proportions and details were hard to figure out from the reference photo. Having seen it in person now, I am still pretty happy with my old sketch.
And where else can could we end our day but the Eiffel Tower. We stopped and I worked on the Twisted Flower sock a bit where we had a good view. Was the sock impressed? I am not sure; it is pretty hard to impress a sock. On the other hand, we discussed not just the cultural icon that it has become, but also what an engineering marvel of its day it was.