Paris, I absolutely fell in love with you.
When starting my study abroad journey, I knew there was a list of places that I definitely wanted to see and Paris was always high on my list. My parents and brother had visited three years ago and only raved about it. From other people, I had heard totally mixed reviews. The French are mean. Paris is expensive. There are way too many tourists. Well this weekend proved all of that wrong and I can honestly say that Paris has been my favorite city that I have visited so far.
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| heyooo Eiffel Tower |
This weekend I travelled with Laine and Mary - two girls I met through my program who go to Penn State. We left early Friday morning. Like 6:30am flight early. We flew into Beauvais (never again) and took a bus into the city where we figured out the metro to our airBnB. Their metro system rocks. We met Sylvain, our host, who showed us our place and then we were off to explore really not having a plan or expectations for the weekend. We decided to first go to the Arc de Triomphe which is at the very end of Champs Elysses - the famous street known for restaurants and high-end shopping. We picked a place to eat and realized the name of it was literally "The Place to Eat". Are you kidding me? With a name like that, we weren't expecting much but ended up all ordering bagels with cream cheese and roasted veggies with French fries...surprising so good. We then went to the Arc which was massive. We got in free with our student visas (such a perk) and climbed to the top where we saw incredible views of the city from all directions. After taking a few pictures, we headed back down and walked the street where we saw the famous multi-story Louis Vuitton store, the garden Abercrombie & Fitch store with 16 year old models posing and stopped into Laduree for macaroons and coffee. The chocolate banana one one. Two of my favorite things sandwiched into one double decker macaroon. Ugh, amazing. We then walked about twenty minutes to the Eiffel Tower and took pictures in the park right behind it. It was a beautiful day out and the area around it was so quaint and pleasant. We then headed to a sushi place for dinner (I know..why in France I'm not sure) which was surprisingly pretty good and went out in the Bastille area that night which has strips of bars and restaurants. Laine became best friends with the bartender Hugo while Mary and I met random French guys who bought us beer and called us "rich bitches". No clue why.
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| Champs Elysses |
Sylvain provided breakfast with us the next morning and for some reason we said we wanted it at 9am....so we got up, ate breakfast and headed straight to bed to catch up on sleep before starting Day 2. After showering and finally getting our act together a little after 1pm, we set out to a crepe place my roommate in Barcelona, Miranda, recommended. And. It. Was. Amazing. I'm not one for savory crepes especially after having a scarring experience in Austin, TX last year, but I ordered a crepe with prosciutto, arugula, mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil vinaigrette and it was the best thing I've ever eaten. After, we split a chocolate/banana/ice cream/whipped cream crepe...unreal. Pretty sure I'm in love with crepes. We then wanted to go to this shopping area called Le Marais and on the walk there, accidentally ran into the Notre Dame cathedral which was massive. Then, we looked across the water and happened to spot the Love Lock Bridge. The fact that we just accidentally saw them when we weren't even planning on it was pretty convenient and we knocked out two birds with one stone. We had to be touristy so we bought a lock and all initialed it with the date and locked it on, making our mark in Paris. There are actually two bridges now with locks because the first one was getting so heavy that they started boarding it up. We shopped, walked, and talked our way through the afternoon before stopping at a place in the Bastille area called Iguana Bar for happy hour drinks and wifi. After staying there a few hours, we decided to find a place for dinner. Well we walked down two streets and then headed straight back to Iguana Bar for dinner, more drinks and free shots courtesy of our new French friend James. We went out later in the same area and met some other kids who are studying in Barcelona. The night ended with us walking out into the pouring rain and desperately finding a McDonalds before waiting to hail a cab for 15 minutes.  |
| Love Lock Bridge |
Sunday our plan was to see the Louvre solely for the Mona Lisa. We had heard from everyone that it was a let down because it was so small and you had to stand really far away. Plus the Louvre was free on Sundays. Well, we got there at 11am and I have never seen a more ridiculous line in my entire life. I expected a long line but nothing like this. There were thousands of people. Literally, the line never ended. We finally made it to the back and found out it was a three hour wait and decided it wasn't worth it. I know I'll be back to Paris, so we were all willing to skip out this time. We ended up going to a falafel place that Mary's friend recommended and it was the best pita I have ever had. Not kidding, Paris has the best food ever. (Do I say that about every city?) We walked around and then took the metro way North to see Montmartre which has an amazing view of the city and a huge church and cemetery that are both beautiful. Eventually we headed back, packed up and went to the airport. I definitely was not ready to leave. Everyone was so friendly and willing to help us with directions or whenever we had questions and the architecture on every single building is so intricate. The other girls and I agree that we definitely lucked out on weather and were busy the whole time in a good way. You can go to any part of the city and see something new and it doesn't feel overwhelmingly big at all. This weekend was definitely needed and I'm not ready to go back to school at all.
Snewt and Annie are visiting Barca this upcoming weekend!!!!!!!!
