Hello, University! Part 1

To everyone applying to university: love yourself! Respect yourself!

Take care of your physical and mental health!

Without your mental health, nothing else really matters.

Good luck!

Travel usually begins with booking flights and hotels and packing suitcases. This journey, however, began several years ago and was more like a TV series, with its twists and turns, drama, romance, and—hooray! —a happy ending. The series was called “The College Application Process.” And its current, final episode is the journey to university in the most literal sense: across the ocean and all the way across the country to the edge of the world.

What more could you ask for?

Of course, after the huge apartment in Scotland, the tiny room in our Paris hotel felt so small that there was barely enough space to turn around. But the location was absolutely worth it.

That evening, we only had time to check in and have dinner at one of the local restaurants.

Day 1.

I had really hoped that Paris would be less crowded with tourists in the winter—that the lines at the major attractions would be shorter and that visiting the museums would be a more pleasant experience. And, for the most part, that was exactly the case everywhere… except at the Louvre.

The last time we visited the Louvre was in July, and honestly, the crowds in January were no different from the summer ones. So yes, it’s still essential to book your tickets online; otherwise, the whole business with the lines will drag on forever (good thing I did!). Fortunately, the weather was very much like Seattle’s—far better than Scotland’s—so standing outside for a while wasn’t too bad.

We wandered through the Louvre to our heart’s content, staying there from almost opening time until lunchtime.

We had lunch nearby and then headed to Sainte-Chapelle. I love this place so much that I can never bring myself to skip it, and I wrote about it during my last visit. It is a true treasure—a crystal jewel box.

It was built in just a few years—an astonishingly short time for such a masterpiece.

The reason was extraordinary: it was intended to house some of Christianity’s greatest relics, including Christ’s Crown of Thorns and other sacred treasures brought from Jerusalem. Its enormous stained-glass windows make the chapel seem almost entirely transparent, filling it with brilliantly colored light.

And despite all this, the construction of the chapel cost less than the purchase of the Crown of Thorns itself.

The stained-glass windows are made up of 1,113 colored glass panels.

Together, they tell the entire story of the Bible in color and light—from the Creation of the world to the Passion of Christ. King Louis IX even included himself in the story: on one of the windows, he is depicted receiving the sacred relics.

But here’s the irony: not a single one of the relics for which the chapel was built remains here today. This jewel box now stands empty. The Crown of Thorns was kept here for more than five centuries, but during the French Revolution it was first hidden in a library and later, under Napoleon, transferred to Notre-Dame de Paris. By then, Sainte-Chapelle was no longer an active chapel and had become simply an architectural monument—dazzlingly beautiful, filled with light and history.

After visiting the chapel, we headed to Notre-Dame de Paris. The last time we were here, the restoration work had not yet been completed, and before that I had last visited the cathedral many years ago, in 1996 and 2000.

Today the cathedral feels so much lighter and newer, as if it has become an entirely different place.

We also had our tickets booked in advance, but—there was one problem! I hadn’t bought tickets ahead of time for the climb up the towers, and they can’t be purchased on site. So this time, we weren’t able to go up to the bell towers and see the gargoyles. It’s definitely something to keep in mind when visiting.

The Crown of Thorns itself is now kept here, in the treasury, but it is only shown to the public on very rare occasions.

They didn’t show it to us. Obviously, the chances that this Crown of Thorns is authentic are practically zero, but who cares? I love humanity for these games we play.

After Notre-Dame, we walked down to the very tip of Île de la Cité. I subjected my mom to some Templar history, and that was the end of our cultural program for the day.

Two hours or so were spent in a wonderful little restaurant with delicious food. Then we bought some unfamiliar desserts to try that evening and headed back to the hotel to relax.

Day 2

For the morning, I had planned a visit to the Museum of the Middle Ages and had already bought the tickets. When we arrived at the museum, we found a crowd of people and a note on the door informing us, without any explanation whatsoever, that the museum would open late.

How late? Why? No idea. We waited for half an hour, the crowd gradually thinned out, we got cold, and went to see Napoleon’s tomb instead. He wasn’t going anywhere without us anyway.

The Invalides is quite a long walk, but it’s a great chance to stroll through Paris and warm up along the way.

The tomb itself is located in the Royal Church, part of a large complex of buildings built for veterans of various wars.

And there it was before us—Napoleon’s tomb:

His sarcophagus is made of rare dark-red stone—Karelian quartzite, quarried in the village of Shoksha in Karelia.

The block of stone, weighing around two hundred tons, was a gift to France from the Russian Emperor Nicholas I. According to legend, he said, “Nothing is too much for the tomb of an enemy.”

But the most astonishing thing is what’s inside.

Napoleon’s body rests in no fewer than six coffins, placed one inside another, like a matryoshka doll:

tin, mahogany, lead, ebony, lead, and oak (the details vary slightly between sources, so I’m not 100% sure).

And only then comes this enormous stone sarcophagus.

When the coffin was opened on the island of Saint Helena in 1840, the body was found to be almost perfectly preserved—nearly twenty years after his death in the island’s humid climate.

His contemporaries spoke of a miracle. Later, historians suggested another explanation: perhaps Napoleon had been slowly poisoned with arsenic. Today, the prevailing theory is that the climate on Saint Helena can sometimes promote mummification rather than decomposition.

What was a revelation for us was the extent of Napoleon’s cult in France, and how deeply he is admired and loved by the French people. The grandiose tomb itself is proof of that. I hadn’t been here since 1996 either—wow, that’s a long time!

After walking around the complex, we decided to head back to the hotel, grab a bite at some café nearby, and take a rest.

We had some absolutely heavenly crêpes with a raspberry, chocolate, and cream sauce.

By 4 p.m., we set off again, heading back in the direction of Les Invalides, but continuing farther, toward the Eiffel Tower. Tickets for the Eiffel Tower are also sold for specific time slots.

Here, compared to summer, it was practically empty. We walked straight in, went up almost entirely by ourselves, and took our time looking around from the different levels.

We had some hot chocolate at their café (which, by the way, has gone from heavenly and ethereal to just ordinary, overly sweet American hot chocolate. So sad).

And by the time we came back down, dusk was already setting in, so we decided to wait for sunset and watch the light show, which takes place on the tower every hour after dark. Because it is pure magic—a spectacle you remember for the rest of your life.

Had a fantastic dinner, and then it was time to head home.

Day 3

Every morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, in a very cozy atmosphere.

Today is our last day, and we’re just going for a long walk. We’re walking from Saint-Germain to the Palais Garnier.

Finally, the sun came out, and our mood was excellent. Last time, I wasn’t able to get on the theater tour, but this time we had tickets in our pockets. We had read all about Chagall, the Phantom of the Opera, Napoleon III and his wife.

And yet, once you step inside, all those thoughts disappear, leaving nothing but pure awe.

It is unbelievably beautiful inside! I’m sure many people find all this Neo-Baroque extravagance excessive and over-the-top—there isn’t literally a single square inch left undecorated.

But I absolutely love this kind of thing—all those nymphs and cherubs, the different kinds of marble, the gilded columns, the heavy chandeliers, and the velvet. It’s like an explosion of luxury.

I was secretly hoping that the tour would include a visit down to the underground water reservoir, but nope. No such luck. They don’t let you in.

We took some pictures of ourselves surrounded by all this opulence and headed to Galeries Lafayette to see Paris from above and have lunch.

Their café is quite simple, but the desserts are still absolutely delicious. Well, we’re not exactly spoiled. We like all the desserts here anyway.

From the department store, we walked back to the hotel—via Place Vendôme, the Tuileries Gardens, a little souvenir shopping, and across the bridges. A long, wonderful walk through the heart of Paris.