Paris, je t'aime.

Tuesday night, Claire, Sam, Steph B, Katie, and I decided to go on a picnic on the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower. We walked there together with our baguettes and our cheese and our sandwiches and fruit. Yeahhhh my friends are pretty damn cute.
And Steph and I bought the same sandals the other day. Here is a picture of both of our feet. We're awesome.
From what we had heard, the Eiffel Tower is supposed to sparkle on the hour every hour for 10 minutes as soon as the sun has set to celebrate the fact that the French President (Nicolas Sarkozy) is the current head of the European Union. So, we thought it might be cool to take a peek.
The Eiffel Tower, while magnificent during the day in the sense that it is an impressive industrial-looking structure, was not as breathtaking as I imagined it would be during our bateau-mouche tour. However, the Eiffel Tower at night, as is the case with the entire of city of Paris at night, was a whole different story. To the left is a picture of me in front of the base of the Eiffel Tower at dusk. At night, the Eiffel Tower is illuminated in blue light, and it glows against the sky, visible from almost anywhere in Paris where tall buildings aren't obstructing your view. We picked a spot out by the Champ de Mars (a huge long lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower) and pulled out all our food and begin eating a lovely dinner on the lawn. As the sun set lower and lower in the horizon and eventually left us in darkness, illuminated only by an old-fashioned black cast iron street lamp, the anticipation and our excitement for the light show augmented.
Finally, at 10:00pm (or 22.00), in the pitch black night sky above Paris, the glowing blue Eiffel Tower burst into a million stars. For 10 minutes straight, the sparkling lights continued, the entire Champ de Mars and area surrounding the Eiffel Tower silenced or rejuvenated by the magical nature of the event.

It was during those 10 minutes in which we sat immobilized, entranced by the beauty of the Eiffel Tower that we each decided silently to ourselves that, "Paris, je t'aime". Looking around, we could see groups of young academics like ourselves sharing bread and cheese on the grass, romantic couples of all ages holding each other, their mystified faces lit up by the glow of the tower, small children with their parents silent for just a few minutes while they stared up at the evening sky, and we couldn't help but push aside any frustration, boredom, or homesickness that any of us held within our hearts. For just 10 minutes, we forgot that our feet hurt from having to walk a mile every time we need to go get groceries. We forgot that struggling to communicate in a foreign language each day sometimes made us want to scream and hop on a plane back to the United States. We realized that though we were far away from our parents, siblings, boyfriends, girlfriends, and just plain old friends, there are still beautiful things in the world left to see.

After the lights stopped, our eyes adjusted to the night and we could see the shadow of the Eiffel Tower upon the purple, red, black, and blue clouds in the sky. The whole experience was like something from a movie (even the part where I realized I forgot my ticket for the metro and had to hop the barriers into the station and out of the station) and I don't think I could ever adequately explain what it felt like without physically taking you there, but I hope this photos give you just a little idea of how amazing and surreal it was.
Yeah okay, so I went to bed by midnight, but I'd say it was all in all an absolutely beautiful and perfect evening.