Bonjour mes amies!!! Paris etait tres belle et incroyable. J'adore Paris!!! Je ne voulais pas partir.
Ok back to English, so you can actually understand me. I don't even know where to start with Paris. I have wanted to visit Paris probably since the first day of 6th grade when I had my first French class (which was during 4th period for those of you who would really like me to be specific). If I could have studied abroad here, I would have, so to say I had high expectations for Paris is the understatement of the year. Luckily, the City of Lights went above and beyond my expectations. And, I got to use my French, which was so fun.
Miriam and I stayed at a great hostel in the Bastille district right near about 5 different bakeries just waiting for us to eat every single one of their pastries. As soon as we were settled we walked across the street, and got crepes (which I ordered for us in pretty good French if I do say so myself). I had a banana and nutella crepe and it was pretty much one of the greatest things I've ever eaten. The crepes there are just so much better than anywhere else, the actual crepe is just light and slightly crusty and SO FREAKIN GOOD. After our tres delicieux crepes, we hopped on the metro (which is so fast and goes everywhere unlike the DC metro) and headed over to Musée d'Orsay to see all the beautiful, colorful Impressionist art that I have been dying to see. It was awesome to see all these paintings I learned about when I was little (especially the Monet picnics with all the big dresses because I was in love with them when I was little). After, we headed over to the Louvre, at which point I started to freak out because I was actually standing in front of the Louvre (!!!) and couldn't quite comprehend that this was real life (this was basically the overall theme of Paris, utter shock that I was actually in Paris). We didn't actually go inside of the Louvre, because we didn't feel like waiting online and we heard the Mona Lisa wasn't actually that exciting and its behind glass, so don't judge me. We walked through Jardins des Tuilleries and stopped for bread and cheese and got FREE WATER. The water was honestly the best part because you can never NEVER get free water in Italy (or anywhere else in Europe) so I was just a tad bit excited. We roamed around just enjoying Paris for a little while (and saw our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower on the skyline AHHHHH) and then headed back to our hostel. We had yummy French food for dinner, including amazing wine and creme brulee!!! Perfect first day in Paris :)
The next day was jam packed with all of the Paris must-sees. We hit le Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, and the Longchamp store, because yes, that is a Paris must see. The Eiffel Tower is so cool. I was kind of nervous I'd be disappointed after hearing about it for so long, but it did not at all disappoint...I loved it. Miriam and I took a thousand pictures in front of it before actually climbing it. After we climbed it we got cheese and each got our own baguette and went and sat in the gardens around the Eiffel Tower and ate lunch. We felt so Parisian (and the bread was so freakin delicious) and just loved sitting and absorbing Paris. After Notre Dame (where we kind of just joined a tour group for a little while), we played in a park, and that sat at a cafe on the Seine, enjoying the views and the atmosphere. Afterwards, on our search for a metro, we stumbled on the French Holocaust memorial, so we went in there for a little while. We wandered down Champs Elysees before picking up super cute (and so-much-cheaper-than-in-America) bags at Longchamp. For dinner we ate at the cafe next to our hotel during which I ran across the street to the supermarket to pick up a 5 euro bottle of wine for our rendez-vous at the Eiffel Tower later.
The Eiffel Tower at night is actually one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. We got there and took another million pictures and then plopped down in the grass and just stared at the sparkly tower. with our delicious (and super cheap!) wine...we even had music, but then my phone died so that failed. It was another one of those surreal moments where I couldn't believe I was there and just relaxing in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was a great way to spend the night and I even got to argue in French with some annoying guys selling mini Eiffel tower keychains because he wouldn't leave us alone. Parfait!
The next day was Versailles day!!! Wooooo! Versailles is really as gigantic as they say it is, who knew? To be honest, though I was a little disappointed. The palace was beautiful, but it was also filled with way too many tourists which made seeing everything a)annoying and b) really difficult (good thing I have no issues with pushing people). The gardens were gorgeous and GI-FREAKING-GANTIC. Unfortunately, they fountains weren't running and most of the flowers hadn't been planted, but we got the basic gist. After Versailles, I went and explored Paris on my own for a little and saw the Pompidou Center. It's a really cool, modern building with lots of colors on the outside and I had learned about when I was probably about 12, and wanted to see it in person. It was awesome and had a lot of cool stuff near it. I also went down to an area where lots of artisans make clothes, furniture, etc. Finally, I went back to meet up with Miriam and we headed to the airport for our flight.
Getting to the airport was an adventure in itself, because we took the metro system during rush hour and had our suitcase to drag around (not fun in the Paris metro--they don't have any elevators/escalators. I would love to know how a person in a wheelchair gets around there). So after being shoved and pushed through the metro system, we finally made it to the Charles de Gaulle, only to not be able to get out of the metro because we had the wrong ticket. We told the guy working there who started to go through the turnstile, so we just followed another person through and quickly walked away before the guy noticed. Again, we are so bad ass. We flew an airline called SmartWings, which we were very happy to find actually existed, and then we were off to Prague!
Sidenote: Parisians are not nearly as mean as everyone says they are. They were actually really nice.
I didn't know you were in love with Monet at a young age. Another example of a well-raised child! How have you never seem my pics of the Pompidou Center? And, of course, there is nothing like a nice parfait!
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