The Arc de Triumph, the Left Bank and the Eiffel Tower were what I knew of Paris, and we drove by the Arc de Triumph on our way in, saw the Eiffel Tower from a bridge as we were returning our car to the rental agency and our hotel was near the Left Bank or maybe in it so, besides touring Versailles, which really isn't in Paris, and visiting a WWI battlefield, which would have involved intricate travel plans to get to and return in the same day, I was a blank slate on what I wanted to see and do.
I booked a tour of Versailles because I well remember from tenth grade history the phrase of L'etat c'est moi from Louis XIV's reign as signifying that king's godlike power and the teacher's discussion of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles reflecting France's greatness at the time, and perhaps we discussed the gardens at Versailles signifying the Sun King's opulence, heady stuff for a 15 year old about to break out in a love of history that led to a history major in college (that's why I ultimately became a lawyer). (The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.)
As I waved goodbye to my two friends Eric and Rhea as they disappeared into the Metro station to depart for the airport, they pointed to a structure 400 meters away across the Seine and said, "That's Notre Dame." I took that wonderment in during the next few hours and the next day I tramped from the Eiffel Tower to the Paris Opera, exploring the Place de Concord along the way, and took a tour of the hilly neighborhood of Montmartre and visited its Sacred Heart chapel overlooking Paris. My last day in Paris I viewed the beautiful art in the Musee d'Orsay and took my tour of Versailles, which I think I will always remember as the highlight of my trip to Paris (that, and visiting Notre Dame because, horrifyingly, it burned extensively a mere two weeks later) and the next day I returned to the US and finally had my first cup of satisfying coffee in two weeks at the local McDonalds. (Les Quatre Parties du Monde Soutenant la Sphere.)
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