A Weekend in Paris

Two days after I got back from Sevilla, Chris arrived in Paris along with the rest of his study abroad group for a weekend excursion.

Finally! A nice day while Chris was here

It was beautiful out on Friday as I made my way into the city to meet up with Chris. I found my way to the hotel they were staying at without my map or directions, pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Chris was waiting for me when I got there, and we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. We grabbed paninis from a restaurant near the tower and sat on a bench and enjoyed the awesome view and weather. Because it was so beautiful out and we still had time to kill, we decided to finally go up in the Eiffel Tower. I had been here for 3 months and still hadn't done so! Since all the tourist destinations in Paris are now officially on winter hours, the very top was closed. We decided to take the stairs to the 1st and 2nd floors since the line was much shorter and it was much cheaper. The number of stairs we had climbed was marked every 5, when we reached around 100, the guy behind us told us that he had read that there were around 600 stairs to the 2nd level, by 300 my thighs and calves were burning... despite all the walking I've done this semester, maybe I'm not in as good of shape as I thought! As soon as we got to the top though (and caught our breath), it was clear that no matter how tough the climb was it was worth it. Paris in the fall is gorgeous from the ground, but to have a birds eye view of the city and all the trees with their leaves changing was breathtaking. I think we could have spent hours taking it all in. As you walk around, there are signs pointing out all the monuments that you are looking at, which was quite helpful, otherwise I'm sure Chris would have been asking me and I would have been stumped on a couple of them! I remember going up in the Eiffel Tower when I was here in high school, but the view in the summer has nothing on the view in the fall, at least in my opinion! We spent quite a bit of time enjoying the view and avoiding have to walk back down all those stairs. After we finally built up the courage to brave the trip back down, we decided we deserved a treat and took the metro back to the hotel Chris was staying at to meet up with his group for a trip to the Louvre.

The tree-lined Seine

 

We made it back just in time for Chris to put his stuff in his and Michael's hotel room and met up with his group. We definitely took the scenic walk to the Louvre, I don't think I have ever walked so slow while in Paris, there was no doubt about it that we were a group of American tourists. As we arrived in front of the Louvre, it had just gotten dark and the entire museum and pyramids were lit up. Paris is beautiful by day, but there is something about Paris at night that is magical. Every monument and building looks even more regal and breathtaking than normal, which is not an easy feat. The city of lights definitely knows what it's doing! We spent some time taking some pictures outside the Louvre before heading into the museum. The separated us into two groups and I was able to sneak onto the tour that Chris' program provided. We visited many of the parts of the Louvre I had seen before, since they obviously wanted to show everyone the must-see pieces like the Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and Mona Lisa but it was nice to be able to hear the history behind the pieces and different facts about them as well as tips on how to look at the pieces to best appreciate them. I don't know much about art, so the guide definitely gave me insight into what I should look for.

Me and the Mona Lisa.

By the time we were finished with our tour it was getting late and we were STARVING. Somehow it ended up being me and the boys searching for food, I think we looked at every menu at every restaurant for a couple of blocks. I may be indecisive, but for a bunch of hungry boys to be struggling to make a decision, I was a little concerned. We finally settled on a Chinese restaurant. Yup, their first dinner in Paris was Chinese food, makes sense, right? I wasn't going to complain though because I've been craving Chinese for weeks now! We sat down and the waitress gave us our menus, it was quite entertaining to watch them struggle with the language barrier while ordering. Luckily, the food was all good, not as good as Chinese at home but it definitely hit the spot and will hold me over until I'm home!



On Saturday, Chris and the rest of the API group had a bus tour of the city in the morning, so I headed into Paris to meet up with them after. The weather was not nearly as beautiful as it had been the day before, but at least we got to enjoy one nice fall day in Paris! I met up with Chris and his two friends Greg and Zack at the Musee ClunyCluny is  six La Dame à la Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn) tapestries. They are considered to be one of the most impressive works of the Middle Ages in Europe. I have to admit, even though I'm not a huge fan of the art, it is extremely impressive when you think about how old some of those things are, and how well preserved some of them are! When we came out of the museum it was pretty nasty out, with a gross drizzly rain and chilly wind. We toughed it out though and walked through the Latin Quarter and Luxembourg gardens on our way back to their hotel to see what everyone else was up to. We ended up taking it easy for the rest of the night, just hanging out with everyone.

Hall of Mirrors

On Sunday a huge group of people decided to go to Versailles. Somehow I was picked to lead the pack to the train station and to make sure we got on the right train and to the palace. Luckily, I had been there before and had an idea of how to get there, otherwise it could have been interesting! Everyone was super excited when I told them about the Ticket Jeune that is available for people under 26, unlimited rides for all zones for only 6.85 euros, a huge deal. I'm actually surprised that their visitor guide didn't mention it, it saves you a ton of money and is the main reason I've been able to afford to go into Paris on so many weekends. Once everyone bought their train tickets, which took quite some time, there were quite a few of us (I'm sure the ticket agent loved us, not) we hopped onto the metro to catch the RER out to Versailles. Luckily, we only had to change trains once, I don't know if I would have been able to guide everyone through multiple train changes. We arrived at Versailles about 45 minutes later, and when we got of the train, we discovered the weather had changed while we were on the train, it was now windy and rainy, what a let-down. No fear though! The obnoxious vendors that are all over the big tourist destinations selling Eiffel Tower key chains and other souvenirs were prepared, as soon as we walked out of the train station, they were selling umbrellas for 5 euros, luckily Chris bought one for us to share, it was definitely worth it! We walked through the little town up to the MASSIVE castle. Each time I go there I forget just how huge it is. You can't help but understand why the French revolted, no one would ever need a house that big. We walked up and realized that the line was pretty long but the ticket office was closed, then someone pointed out it was the first Sunday of the month, PERFECT! All museums and monuments are free to the public on the first Sunday of the month, this was turning out to be a much cheaper day than expected. The line moved pretty quickly and we headed into the castle. Our group ended up getting separated along the way, and somehow Chris and I ended up losing everyone else! We wandered through the castle listening to our audio guides and marveling at how detailed everything was. I'm pretty sure if I hadn't won Chris over with how detailed French architecture is before, I had by the time we reached the hall of mirrors. Versailles is a lot different from any of the Alcazars in Spain!

Luckily, by the time we finished up inside, it had stopped raining and we were able to go out in the gardens for a little bit. A lot of the smaller gardens were already closed for the winter and the fountains weren't on, but it was still impressive and I was glad Chris was able to see them, you don't fully visit Versailles without going to the gardens! Despite the dreary weather, it was pretty to see all the fall colors everywhere throughout the gardens. We only spent a short amount of time actually wandering around though, it was freezing so we decided to head back into Paris and find everyone we had lost during our visit.

Sunday night was the groups last night in Paris, so of course we had to go see the Eiffel tower sparkle! We walked down toward the Eiffel tower, trying to stay warm despite the very chilly fall night, at least it wasn't still raining! We made it to the tower with the perfect amount of time to spare to take a couple of pictures before the sparkling began. It was warmer than last time Chris was in town so we were able to get a couple more pictures than we did last time (besides we didn't have to ask random people to take them for us). After the tower was done sparkling and we were done taking pictures we decided to go get dinner. We ended up going for pizza, which was really good, and it was great to have a warm meal after being out in the cold all day!

Monday, was their last day in Paris, but their flight wasn't until later, so we had most of the day to work with. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating at all. We decided to go to the Pantheon and even in our short walk from the metro stop to the Pantheon it was MISERABLE. It was freezing out and super rainy and the wind kept blowing the umbrellas inside out every 5 seconds. Definitely not the best note for them to leave Paris on. I think we were just happy to get inside when we got to the Pantheon. We spent a lot of time wandering around. The Pantheon functions as a mausoleum containing the remains of distinguished French citizens, we were able to see the tombs of: Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie & Pierre Curie, and Braille, along with many others. It's so weird to think that the bodies of these people you have read about in books are buried in those tombs! After the Pantheon we headed back out into the miserable weather and grabbed lunch at McDonalds, the first heated, covered place we saw. Because so many of the museums and other places are closed on Mondays the boys decided to head back to the hotel and stay warm and dry until they had to head to the airport with the group and I went back to Cergy, to face the reality that my two week fall break had ended and it was back to school.

I cannot think of a better way to spend my last weekend of fall break than in Paris! It was such a fun weekend, despite the weather not always cooperating. After fall break, my traveling is over and it is now time to focus on ending the semester. I'm not really looking forward to the study part of study abroad...