The City of Lights!- Paris, France

After getting back from our 10 day we quickly realized we should have had some sort of plan for the first weekend back because we had no idea where we wanted to go and only a few days to plan it all out.  We decided upon Paris, but after searching and searching we could not find any hostels that had room for all of us!  Finally, just two days before we would leave, we found a hostel—The Loft.  The rest of the week flew by and before we knew it we were literally running from our final Italian exam on Friday morning to the train station in order to catch the only train to Paris requiring no reservation.  Luckily we all made it!  

 10 hours and 5 connections later we arrived in Paris!  Our hostel, although a little on the outskirts of the city in the Chinatown district, turned out to be pretty nice—with the exception of them accidentally assigning someone else to our room and being startled as a small Asian girl starts unlocking the door with a key to room 5… insisting that she was staying there.  The receptionist (a rather strange French guy with a really dry sense of humor) laughed and said “Don’t you like surprise guests?” but then apologized for the mix up and the rest of the weekend went pretty smoothly.  After getting settled we tried to find somewhere nearby to go to dinner because it was getting late and we were pretty hungry.  We settled on this relatively cheap looking pasta place right down the road.  The owner seemed very happy to have us but was a little startled to have a group of 12 walking into his small restaurant.  Most of us just ordered pizza (we can’t seem to get enough of that stuff here-- probably because its always the cheapest thing on the menu) and a glass of wine.

 By the time we finished eating it was pretty late so we walked down the street to find a place to have a few beers and relax after a long day on the train.  Most everywhere we passed was too crowded for us to try and fit inside so when we stumbled upon this bar with fun music and not too big of a crowd we decided to go inside.  Everyone looked at us kind of funny but we thought nothing of it (we’re pretty used to the strange looks by now), ordered a beer and found a table where we could all fit.

A guy at the bar started to ask Mitch about us (the usual what’s this big group, where are you from, etc.)  and told him all these places we should see in Paris and clubs we could go to the next night that were fun.  Mitch came back and was excited that the guy had been so nice to him, its so unusual for guys to be so nice to other guys at the bars… at least it had been until then.  So we all started chatting and keeping to ourselves but slowly began to notice that our group was the only group in there with girls…. And there were a lot of coupled off men in the bar…. We had stumbled upon a gay bar.  After coming to this realization it was blatantly obvious and the girls thought it was hysterical while the guys suddenly got really uncomfortable.  We all decided that we would just finish our beers and head back to the hostel, calling it a night.

The next morning we woke up early knowing this was our only full day in Paris to see EVERYTHING! We decided to go on a free tour so we made our way to St. Michel where the tour would start.

Our tour didn’t end up being quite what we would have hoped.  Our tour guide, Filipa, was adorable but I cannot even explain how cold it was outside that the whole thing was just unbearable.

 None of us could focus on anything that she was saying because we were so cold and hadn’t gone inside any of the churches, etc. to warm up.  When we reached Starbuck’s at the halfway point in the tour we apologized and tipped our guide but said we were just too cold to go on.   She understood and thanked us for letting her know and tipping rather than just leaving.  That Starbucks stop was just what we needed.  We warmed up, pulled out our maps, and figured out a plan for the rest of the day. Apparently the Parisians think my name is Richard…

Filipa had taken us to the River Seine, outside of the Notre Dame, a statue of Henry IV, the Lover’s Lock Bridge, and outside the Louvre.

 

We decided to back track and go to the Notre Dame so that we could go inside.  It was beautiful.  My favorite thing about all of the churches is the stained glass.  I wish we didn’t have to pack our day so full of sites and could have had more time to look around in the church but after a quick walk through we were back out and on our way.

Next stop- Sainte Chapelle.  Pictures do not do it justice.  Wall-to-wall stained glass—it was absolutely phenomenal.  There are 7 TONS of stained glass and each different section tells a bible story.  It was all so detailed and beautiful.

 

 Finally we made our way back to the Louvre.  We lucked out and got in for free with our student visas! 

The Louvre was amazing.  Again, my favorite things were the sculptures and the paintings.

Mona Lisa got her own separate wall!  She was separate from everything else and you couldn’t get closer than about 5 feet away because there were barriers.

  

After the Louvre we made our way to Arc de Triomphe.  We didn’t stay long because we wanted to make it to the Eiffel Tower before sundown, but it was great that we got to see it!

 Next, we finally got to the Eiffel Tower! It was perfect timing, we got there just before the sunset and then got to see it light up once it started getting dark.  We were also there at the right time to see the light show, it was a perfect end to the day.

 After the Eiffel Tower we stopped for a quick snack—crepes.  Mmmmmm delicious.  I knew I had to get a crepe in Paris and I sure am glad that I did.

  Afterwards we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night.  We all decided to get dressed up and have a nice dinner…. But we didn’t realize that because we’d packed our day so full that it was already really late—that’s the thing about our weekends we have absolutely no sense of time when we’re not always texting or calling throughout the day, its kind of nice spending the day just exploring.  We took the metro to Montmarte area because we had heard it was a fun place to go at night, but by the time we got there all of the restaurants were closing (it was going on 11)…. we ended up eating at a fast food pizza/kebob place—girls all in dresses and boys in their khakis.  So that didn’t work out as we’d planned but we still had a fantastic day nonetheless.  Montmarte is also where Moulin Rouge is! After dinner we walked around the streets for a little then headed home.

The next morning Kelsey and I woke up early to go see Luxembourg Gardens.  We had read that they opened at 7:45 so we got there around 9:00, but to our dismay they were closed…. Not sure how we missed that they were closed on Sundays, or maybe it was just a weird reason they were closed that day but it was disappointing because from the outside it looked really pretty.

Afterwards we headed back to meet with everyone else and make our way to Sacre Coeur.  It was absolutely amazing, they even let us in during the service, which was really cool to see. I wish we had more time so that we could have climbed to the top, but it was still a great view from the outside of all of Paris.

 

Afterwards we headed back to the train station to catch our train around 1:00 to head home.  It took us a little longer to get to the train station than expected and we ended up having less than 20 minutes until our train left to get food or wait 10 hours.  On the way to Paris NONE of the connecting trains had food and we were taking the same route home. Megan and I looked outside but didn’t see anywhere nearby to get food.  Then Lindsay comes in and says she saw the golden arches (I think this trip has made me eat more Mcdonald’s than I EVER eat at home… its disgusting but it’s the fastest and usually cheapest).  We had like 0.2 seconds to decide so we just grabbed our bags and ran to McDonalds--- it was either that or a $15 sandwich consisting of only bread and cheese….  I must tell you this was the SLOWEST moving McDonald’s I’ve ever been to in my life.  We got our food and had about 6 minutes to sprint back to the station and get on our train.  Luckily we made it, but it took a few minutes of catching our breath before we could finally eat.  After settling down on the train and enjoying our food we all fell asleep.  With about an hour to go until our connection Megan and I quickly woke up from a very loud crash.  Something had hit the window RIGHT where Megan’s head was and it shattered!! Luckily it was double-paned glass so only the outside window broke but it was so startling to wake up then have a million French people around you panicking and screaming in French that you don’t understand a word of. 

Just to be safe, Meg and I switched seats so we wouldn’t be at the broken window for the rest of the trip.  When we arrived for our connection our train was delayed by about 15 minutes… which would make us late to our next train.  This is one of the fun parts about traveling by train, we got off with 5 minutes to cross from the French side of the station to the Swiss side of the station.  Picture 12 Americans SPRINTING through the train station-- dodging passerbys and all laughing uncontrollably because we know how ridiculous we look.  We must have been quite a sight.  We made it with about 30 seconds to spare then off we were again.  We got home a little before 1:00 am, a successful but quick trip to Paris.  I hope I can go back one day to spend some more time there.  I would have loved to see musee d’orsay or just sit in a Parisian café and enjoy the pastries and real French cuisine.

Next Stop—Roma!