Je Taime… Paris. Oh Paris. What a beautiful and amazing city. I’d been looking forward to this trip for so long, as all of my friends and family told me I’d love it. Sure enough, they were right. Since we were only there for 3 days, we weren’t able to do everything we wanted, but we hit most of the major hot spots and took advantage of every moment. Lets see….
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| FORESHADOWING: me outside of the Lourve |
Due to a train strike in Florence, our plan to get from Florence to Pisa by train fell through suddenly. After a minor heart attack, we were luckily able to hop on a bus at the last minute and the rest of our travel went very smoothly. After quite a few metro rides and metro line changes we finally made it to our hostel, Young and Happy, located in the Latin Quarter/St. Germaine district [5th arrondissement for those that are familiar with Paris]. The hostel itself was fantastic: the room was a bit small but it had its own toilet and sink, as well as free sheets and breakfast. We were tucked away in a very popular area of Paris, with the streets overflowing with people our age and restaurants and bars galore! We dropped off our stuff and walked 2 doors down to check out the cute French restaurant that we had been recommended. For a set 17 euro, you could indulge in an appetizer, a main entrée and a dessert.
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| chocolate mousse- yum! |
Don’t mind if I do! I started off with French onion soup, which was so cheesy and delicious that I never wanted it to end. I followed it up with steak and homemade potato wedges, both of which were incredible. Already stuffed, I stretched out my stomach a bit and got ready to take on my dessert: chocolate mousse. I can still taste the rich chocolate when I think back to it…such a good decision. We said our au revoirs and headed back to our hostel to rest up for the next day’s adventures.
The next day we got up early and set off to begin conquering Paris. First stop…The Lourve! What is there to even say? I feel like I could have spent a whole week in this massive museum and STILL wouldn’t have seen everything. We spent about an hour and a half wandering around, making sure to hit the major exhibits [ie. the Mona Lisa, the Sitting Buddha, Venus de Milo, etc] along the way.
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| hallway in the Lourve |
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| mona lisa! |
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| venus de milo |
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| Devon and I being tourists |
We exited the building and took the typical tourist photos, posing with the huge glass pyramids and fountains that decorate the piazza outside of the museum. After the Lourve we headed to the Musee D’Orsay- a more contemporary art museum filled with paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Matisse. Photography was sadly not allowed but….that didn’t stop me. I couldn’t resist snapping photos of some of my favorite pieces and I knew I’d want to be able to share with yall some of the artwork [now if that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is!] I absolutely loved this museum and was so glad we were able to go.
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| a diptych by Monet |
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| Whistler's famous painting |
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| Self Portrait by Van Gogh |
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| Toulouse Lautrec paintings- a bad photo due to security standing nearby, grrr. |
SIDENOTE: one thing I forgot to mention about Paris! If you have a student Visa, almost ALL of the museums are free to enter! Even Versaille [spoiler alert!] was free entry, which I found unbelievable.
So anyways, after we finished the Orsay we began the hunt for ‘the best falafel in the world’ at a restaurant called “L’as du Falafel’. To make a really long story short, we ended up getting incredibly lost and spent about 45 minutes walking in circles trying to find the place. And since none of us speak French, it made it increasingly more difficult to figure out where we were. Turns out, we were in the completely wrong section of town. Somehow we got tres confused and after about 30 more minutes we FINALLY arrived to the Jewish Quarter and found the restaurant.
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| Jewish Quarter- I spky kippot and hebrew! |
Although not quite as good as Israeli falafel [although what is?!], it really was fantastic. I could have eaten about 3 more sandwiches but I decided to save my appetite for crepes, which I was sure we would stumble upon sooner rather than later. We said our goodbyes to the Jewish Quarter [and all of the Hebrew that accompanied it] and got on a metro towards the Montmarte area. We were on another hunt, this time for a bakery called Rose’s Bakery that my cousin Olivia had recommended. We finally arrived and, much to our vast disappointment, it was CLOSED! Grrr. Oh well. Since we were already in the area, we decided to explore and, after wandering in and out of fabulous little boutiques for a few hours, we climbed up about 2938 stairs to reach Sacre Coeur.
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Sacre Coeur
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| overlook from Sacre Coeur |
Sacre Coeur is a fantastic church that sits up on a very high hill, fully equipped with an on open amphitheater to sit and enjoy the view. We welcomed a chance to get off of our feet for a bit and we plopped down on the steps, listening to the street performers, enjoying our banana and nutella crepes and taking in the beauty of Paris. Around 7 pm we headed back down to Montmarte in order to be on time for our 8pm dinner reservation at la refuge des fondues.
This eclectic restaurant is apparently a huge hotspot in Paris, as the line was out the door to get in! Picture this: pots of cheese and oil sit atop every table as the patrons sip wine out of baby bottles and eat endless plates of cheese and beef. Sound strange? It was definitely an experience. Ever stranger is that in order to sit at your table, you have to step onto the chair and OVER the table! It was a riot and a really fun way to end our first day.
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| baby bottles of wine? don't mind if i do! |
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| inside the restaurant- madness! |
Well rested and fed, we woke up early the next morning and went to Versaille. Oh Versaille – I could probably write a whole blog JUST on it, but for your [and my] sake, I’ll just mention a few highlights. The palace itself is, as expected, unbelievable. Each room is more ornate and beautiful than the next and I spent the entire time gawking at its grandiosity.
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| the king's bedroom! it was crazy! |
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| king's bedroom again |
We decided to purchase audio guides to help us understand the history a bit better and they were very interesting and helpful! I learned so much about Louis the 14th, Marie Antoinette and the rest of the clan – it was so great! My personal favorite room was the Galerie des Glaces, aka the Hall of Mirrors. It was breathtaking. After we finished the actual chateau we headed out to explore the gardens. The weather was absolutely perfect and we spent a good portion of our afternoon there. The gardens are expansive and it would have been nearly impossible to walk through every nook and cranny. But, having said that, we covered a lot of ground and made good use of our time. We stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants in the gardens, which ended up being surprisingly good.
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| uva girls in versaille! |
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| pretty lake inside the gardens |
Afterwards we decided to rent a rowboat and spent 30 minutes out on “le grand canal” paddling away. The beginning of our boat ride was interesting to say the least. I thought I knew what I was doing but after crashing into the side of two walls, I finally surrendered one of the paddles to my friend and we made it out onto the water. Whoever said rowing a boat was easy, lied. We all got quite a good laugh out of it though, as I’m sure all of the spectators around us did as well.
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| successfully rowing!! |
After Versaille we headed back into the city to go to the Eiffel Tower. First of all, it is HUGE! I knew it was big based off of photos I’d seen but holy cow this thing was large and in charge. A bit put off by the incredibly long line, we waited patiently for our turn to go up to the top. Once we finally made it, it was well worth every second that we stood in that line, subsequently inhaling the cigarette smoke coming from the 3 girls in front of us [ew].
The view from the top was unreal. You could see gardens and parks and museums and…wow it was just amazing. We ended up timing our trip to the top perfectly, as we were able to catch part of the sunset once we finally made it. We took a million photos, waved our goodbyes to the panoramic views, and headed back down to the ground.
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| view from the top of the Eiffel tower |
By this time we were all fairly tired and hungry so we headed back to our hostel to get some food and rest. We stopped at the crepe place next to our hostel for dinner – it was delicious. The line was out the door [sign number 1 that the restaurant is good] and after a 45-minute wait, we finally were able to sink our teeth into our personalized dinner crepes. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and also purchased a dessert crepe – chocolate, nutella and banana. MMM. Believe it or not, we got back on the metro and headed to the Eiffel Tower for round 2. It was well worth the trek, as we not only got to see it entirely illuminated, but also got to see it sparkle [as it does once every hour for a few minutes]. We sat down in a park and spent almost an hour gazing up at this beautiful monument, perfectly relaxed and happy. As the time passed slowly, fatigue began to set it and we headed back to our hostel for our last night in Paris.
The next morning we got an early start, as we still had quite a few things left to do! First thing on our agenda…The Tuileries. The Tuileries have been described as the quintessential Parisian park, as they are overflowing with flowers, trees, people and outdoor chairs. Sadly, the weather wasn’t very cooperative and we didn’t get to enjoy the full beauty of the garden, but it was still such a great area to walk through. After the park we went to the Musée de l'Orangerie, an impressionism museum that showcases Monet’s water-lilly paintings on the main floor. What an incredible experience.
Monet is one of my favorite artists so to be able to see untouched and completely preserved panoramic paintings was quite a moving experience. Tears even began to well up in my eyes as I walked around the circular rooms that displayed his paintings. I could have spent all day in there, just sitting down and taking in the beauty. Sad to say goodbye but excited to continue on, we exited the museum and began walking towards the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. Along the way we stopped at a very famous bakery called Laduree. Considered to be the inventor of the double-decker macaron, this place was a sweet tooth’s heaven. The line was long, but well worth it, and the macarons were ineffable. Although there were 17 flavors, I only bought 8 [half of which were gone in about 2 hours] and I may have found my new favorite dessert. Unlike American macaroons, which usually contain coconut, these little sweets are basically cake/cookies filled with a butter cream icing. My close family and friends know that I’m mildly obsessed with butter cream, so you can imagine how excited I was.
Anyways….we finished walking down the Champs Elysees and got a good view of the Arc. Due to the nasty weather, we didn’t make the trek up to the top, but I figured no view would ever be better than the one from the top of the Eiffel. With only a few more hours left in Paris, we headed back to the metro for our last stop…Notre Dame! Although we didn’t go in, we spent a good 45 minutes sitting outside of the famous cathedral, gawking at its beauty. Not quite as impressive as the Duomo [I’m biased, J], it was still very beautiful and definitely something well worth visiting!
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| Notre Dame |
After the last stop we headed back to the hostel to collect our bags and pit stopped along the way for one last crepe. As we arrived to the airport, we realized how epic this particular trip had been. Clearly we weren’t able to do everything we wanted, but that just means returning will be even more exciting. All in all, Paris was fantastic. The people, the food, the shopping, the sites…What a great place to spend a semester and an even better trip to take.
Quick update on Florence, since I feel like all I do is write about my weekend escapades! The weather here in Firenze has been absolutely perfect. High 60’s, cloudless skies, blooming flowers and trees…what more could you ask for! BUT, with the great weather also comes…TOURISTS. There are so many people everywhere!! What has become of my small little city?! Now, navigating through the Piazza del Duomo and Piazza de Republica has become a nightmare. Riding my bike is even more treacherous [I actually crashed into an Asian tourist earlier last week, woops] and the lines to get into the famous sites have become almost unbearable. Oh well – at least Florence’s economy is booming! Now if only America would catch up so the Euro wouldn’t be so expensive anymore…..:) I've been going on long runs up and down the Arno, trying desperately to take in this gorgeous city while I still can. I'll be home in exactly one month from today....so bittersweet!!!!
I’m off to Cinque Terre and Milan for the weekend! I’ll update more when I return! Thanks for reading, as always!
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