Bienvenue a Paris!

In front of the Louvre

Throughout my 3 years of high school French I didn't think I would ever be able to actually use it in real life situations, until our trip to Paris. I loved it! From what people in the program who have already gone said I expected it to be dirty and smelly, but honestly I didn't notice it with all of the other beautiful things. We left Thursday night via the train, super easy and quick, also got to experience the chunnell...it really was just a tunnel, we unfortunately didn't see any fish or sharks. We used the metro/RER system all weekend, which was easy to figure out after getting used to the tube system. Once we stepped out of the RER station the first thing we saw was Notre Dame...beautiful! Our hostel was located right in that area, which proved to be really nice and easy to navigate. We had a grocery store close by, along with restaurants, ATM's, an RER station, and souvenir stores. At first we were a little hesitant about our hostel. After walking up six flights of windy uneven stairs we walked into our room and the first thing we smelled was wet paint...great! haha. Aside from having to keep our windows open all the time to avoid asphyxiation the hostel was actually turned out to be really great. Thursday night we got some crepes, I got a nutella one that was soooo delicious! We walked around Notre Dame and the Seine River. Met up with my friend Ang who is studying abroad in Paris. And at midnight we went to the Latin Quarter (student area close to our hotel) to get a drink for Bre's 21st birthday.

L'arc de Triomphe

Friday was jam-packed with touristy things, good thing the weather was beautiful. We took the metro a few places, but ended up walking a lot as well. First stop was the Louvre, we stopped and took pictures at the pyramids...we didn't go in and visit Mona Lisa, because the museum was huge and it would've taken us all day to find her. We then walked through La Jardins de Touleries, filled with plants and statues of important people. We walked all the way until we made it to the Champs-Elysees road, where all of the big stores (Louis Vuitton) and clubs are located. By this point we were all starving so we stopped for some "quick" burgers...what an oxymoron, it took us like 45 minutes to get our food. Oh well, I went from starved to stuffed in 10 minutes. At the end of Champs-Elysess road rests "L'arc de Triomphe," looked just like it did in 'Passport to Paris,' and all of the other movies I've seen it in. On our way to the metro station we saw a wedding dress photo shoot, which was pretty cool. Next stop=Eiffel Tower! It was so much bigger than I thought it would be, and for some reason I thought it was silver, but it was bronze. We waited an hour to get tickets to ride the elevator to the very top. It's cool to say now that I've been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and it was neat to see all of Paris...compared to the London Eye I saw that London is way bigger and spread out than Paris, which appeared to be very close together. Once we were done we went across the way and bought crepes again...I had the best crepe I'd had all weekend, nutella/banana/and whipped cream...mmmm good! We made our way back to our hostel to get changed for dinner. We went to a restaurant called 'Hippopotamus' which Ang said is a nice chain restaurant in France. Good thing we had Ang with us, she translated half the menu for everyone...I could order food but that was about it. We got all dolled up thinking that we would be going out to a nice club for Bre's birthday...what a failure. After finding our way to this club we found out that it was a private club only....couldn't have put that on their website or said that when I called?! Urgh...we tried a few other places but didn't know where anything was. Eventually we gave up and called it a night.

Eiffel Tower & Crepes!

Me and my baguette in Luxembourg

Saturday was a "Holly-Ang date day." I met up with her at an intersection, that I found all by myself and didn't get lost!! We began our day with baguettes at a picnic in the Luxembourg Gardens...no big deal :) We took the train to Versailles, the old palaces and holiday homes of the French Royalty. Woah was it big! We figured that while we were there we walked around 4 or 5 miles. Inside was so beautiful! Every room was intricately decorated differently with a lot of history packed inside. We walked through a lot of the gardens until we found Marie Antionette's houses/palaces...as if Versailes wasn't big enough? Afterwards we took the train back to the 13th district. I wanted to see Moulin Rouge, which we did...took my pictures, not too much else to see. We walked to the Sacre Coer area with its many artists and different cultures. We stopped at a boulengerie (bakery) and got pain au chocolats, so yummy! We made our way up what seemed like 500 stairs we made it to the Sacre Coer Basillica, which sits at the highest elevation point in Paris. I really liked this area, we were able to walk around inside the basilica. We were able to look out over the entire city, in my opinion it was a much more beautiful view than that at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Exhausted, we made our way back to Ang's foyer...stopping at a French grocery store to get food for dinner. Her kitchen consisted of two hot plates and a microwave, much different than what I'm used to in Vandon. We made a delicious dinner of ravioli, green beans, and bread. She had some cheese and honey from a market that we devoured, again, so delicious! And of course, lots sand lots of wine :) We ended our date day by going up to her terrace and watching the Eiffel Tower glitter in the night sky...perfect end to a perfect day in Paris. It was great to catch up with Ang and spend time in her city.

Me and Ang in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles

Moulin Rouge

Sacre-Coer Basillica

Beautiful view of Paris from Sacre-Coer 

We left early Sunday morning. Almost missed the train because I had to run to the bathroom to get sick right  after getting through customs..but hey, I couldn't make things to easy could I? :)

I really loved Paris. It was everything I always imagined it would be, which sounds corny but is true. One of my favorite memories is from Friday night when I had a conversation with our taxi driver in French. Although I was able to speak a little bit throughout the weekend I had a big sense of accomplishment when this happened. I think the fact that I knew enough French to get around and understand the monuments helped enrich my time there. I would definitely want to go back and spend more time en Paris!