Paris, Je T'aime

We left for Paris on Thursday afternoon- took the bus to Madrid and then a two hour flight. We got into Paris at around 11:30 pm, and were all too tired to do anything except go to sleep. I still can’t figure out why traveling is so exhausting- you just sit there! I think it was the first time the program had booked this particular hotel because it was not what we were expecting. It was pretty gross, actually, and very sketchy but we didn’t spend much time there anyway so it was fine.

On Friday, we had breakfast at the hotel and put our museum pants on. First we went to the Louvre, which I was excited about because it’s one of the most famous art museums in the world and the Mona Lisa is there! The building itself is HUGE (it used to be a royal palace) and so gorgeous. There we saw a ton of classics, and Jesus (our program director and tour guide) wasn’t really allowed to show us around, so we got to see exactly what we wanted to see and take the museum at our own pace, which was nice. We had break for lunch, and I had an amazing to-go crepe with mushrooms and cheese (yes, I now like mushrooms). Jesus told us that there was a garden nearby where Monet painted, so we were all freaking out and walked a pretty long way to find it. And even taking into consideration that it was a garden in the winter, I don’t think Monet painted there. It definitely wasn’t what we were expecting, but it was nice to walk through Paris more. After lunch we went to the Museu d’Orsay (I think that’s how you spell it in French?) I’m more interested in contemporary art, so this was my absolute favorite. This building was awesome too- it was built in an old train station.. So cool! I got to see a lot of the artists I studied in Caff’s class in high school like Van Gogh, Degas and Monet. Exciting stuff.

We finished with the museums and had a whole evening of free time! Which was amazing because they usually have things planned from 9am-11pm, no exaggeration. So a few of us had planned to go on a bike tour, and we had just enough time to find the place. Fat Tire Bike Tours- I highly recommend it if you ever go to Paris. We took a night tour, and it was such an amazing feeling to ride a bike through Paris. It was a little scary. Actually a lot scary, because we had to ride in the streets with the cars and their aggressive Paris drivers. We rode past a lot of the major sites, and it was really cool to see them at night. We stopped on the island that was the original Paris, and got ice cream from a place that’s apparently really famous. They had a really good apricot flavor, I need to find that again! We stopped on a love lock bridge, where the tradition is to write your names on a padlock, attach it to the bridge, and throw the key in the water. It was actually really pretty and cute. After about 2 hours on the bike tour, we went down to the river to take the boat tour which was included! Our tour guide brought wine for everyone to share, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Everything that you’ve heard about Paris is true, it has to the most romantic place in the world. Like almost ridiculously romantic- everything. Anyway, after the tour, we went back to the hotel and just went to bed.

On Saturday, we went to Notre Dame in the morning! Yes, THE Notre Dame. Needless to say I fantasized about being Esmeralda all day. It was very beautiful and extravagant, as are all the cathedrals we go to. There was a mass actually going on while we were walking through it, which was cool to see. Imagine having that life- “Oh, yeah I’m just going to the mass at Notre Dame.” or “Meet me at the Eiffel Tower to go out!” Crazy. Next, we went to the Sainte Chappelle cathedral, which pretty much just has like walls and walls of stained glass. Each big section had scenes telling the stories of a whole book of the Bible. It was breathtaking, to say the least. We had a break for lunch, when I’m pretty sure I had another crepe (I actually don’t think I ate anything but crepes the whole weekend). After lunch we went to the Eiffel Tower! It’s freakin unbelievably gorgeous. And we went up! It was actually really freaking scary on the way up- we took an elevator that has windows, and it moved pretty fast! We got to the top, and even though it was extremely cloudy, it was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe how lucky I am.

Afterwards, we walked around a little to try to find something to eat, and stumbled on the Arc de Triomphe, which is another really famous landmark. We looked at it for a little while and then found the metro to go back to the hotel for the sole purpose of getting crepes from the place across the street. I think the guy who worked there knows all of our names, we went there so much. A few of us went back out to a few bars, and we tried talking to some of the people there. That’s another thing- it was the weirdest feeling ever not knowing anything that these people were saying. I’ve never been in that situation before- when I came to Spain, I knew enough Spanish to get by. But the words I know in French are bonjour and merci and that’s about it. So it was interesting trying to communicate- all of us would accidentally speak Spanish, which was pretty hilarious. We got a little bored with the bars- we didn’t really know good places to go, so a few of us just got a bottle of wine and sat by the river and just talked. It was really, really beautiful and fun.

On Sunday, we walked to the Sacre Cour, which is apparently a famous cathedral. I didn’t go inside because they were having mass when we got there, but the view of Paris from the front of it was really pretty. The coolest part was the plaza full of Parisian painters. There were like 50 artists there with easels, painting and selling their work. I wanted to buy something, but it was all pretty expensive and would’ve been hard to transport. But so cool, and amazing artists.

We left Paris on Sunday afternoon, and got back to Salamanca at around 11, all of us half dead from exhaustion.

My whole weekend was pretty much a movie. Paris is definitely going on my list of places to go back to, but hopefully next time it will be with my husband or something, cause that place is just too much to be there with friends. Seriously so romantic. Paris, je t’aime <3

 

 ^Fraaandss- Veronica, me, Katelynn, Emma, Jamie

 

 ^^ On top of the Eiffel Tower!