PARIS!

I just got back from Paris yesterday! I am completely exhausted….we managed to pack basically EVERYTHING into two full days! Paris was absolutely amazing. It was so beautiful and picturesque! I went with my friends Kelly, Lauren, and Elise. Among the four of us we managed to navigate around Paris pretty easily with none of us knowing a word of French! We all had quite the adventure…I’ll start from the beginning:

Friday, February 2nd
We woke up at the crack of dawn….or rather before the crack of dawn (3:30am!) to catch our taxi over to the Waterloo station. We had a 5:30am train ride on the Eurostar. I don’t think any of us really managed to sleep on the train. We played card games and read our books for most of the way. When we arrived in Paris we were a little bit confused as to how to get to the Metro…everything was in French!!!...hmmmm…I wonder why?!? Finally, we managed to get ourselves down to the Metro and bought 2-day passes. We figured out the stop (Anvers, in case you wanted to know) that we needed to get off at to go to our hotel, Hotel le Regent Montmartre, and asked someone at an information desk how to get there. After walking for what seemed like an eternity we still couldn’t find our hotel!!! We traced our steps back and realized that it had been right in front of us and we had walked right past it….ummm….we’re all degree-seeking people….we’re smart, really! So, we dropped our luggage at the hotel, found a quick bite to eat, and made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. We took several photos there and tried to get a better look at Paris, but it was pretty foggy! We headed over to the Eiffel Tower where we decided to climb the steps to get to the 1st and 2nd floors….we were pretty out of breath at that point, but managed to have a spectacular view of the city! We took a short elevator ride to the top of the tower (a little bit scary considering how far up we were!). The view from the top was really awesome, a little too foggy, but still worth it! All of us were pretty famished at that point from climbing the stairs, so we ate a nice meal on our way to the Louvre. THE LOUVRE…..something I had been waiting so long to see. When we finally saw the glass pyramid I have to say I almost started to tear up. I remember seeing pictures of the Louvre so many times in books or on television, but I never envisioned myself being there….it was truly an out of body experience! We made our way inside and hit all of the main attractions: the Mona Lisa (that was a no-brainer!), Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, Napoleon’s Apartments, some Rembrandt self-portraits, and my personal favorite, two Vermeer paintings!!! By that time we were so completely exhausted that we couldn’t even stand to take the Metro to our hotel…we all opted on taking a taxi home where we had a nice “conversation” with the French speaking Chinese taxi driver. He taught us the proper way of saying Anvers! We pretty much all crashed when we got to our hotel…which was much nicer than our flat in London. We all had our own beds and a private bathroom…I felt like I was in paradise!!

Saturday, February 3rd
We woke up early to eat our FREE breakfast at the hotel, then we walked to the area around Sacre-Coeur. The views were absolutely beautiful!! We walked to the top of the hill by Sacre-Coeur and went inside for a while. It was so quiet and peaceful inside so I decided to take a moment and reflect. I thought about how fortunate I was to be there and how appreciative I am of everyone and everything for getting me to this point. The area outside was so picturesque…nice cobblestone streets with little shops and cafes lining either side. We did a little shopping and then made our way over to the Opera Garnier! This part of our day really got me excited because I LOVE the Phantom of the Opera story, so it was really great to see the opera house where the story takes place. It was everything I imagined it would be…and more! “The Phantom of the Opera is there…inside your mind!” Errr…something like that, but yes. We ate at a nice café by the opera house and then went over to Notre-Dame. The only thing I could think of when we saw the cathedral was Quasimodo ringing the big bell, shouting, “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!” We decided to take a tour of the towers which required us to walk all the way to the top on very long sets of spiral staircases…I’m never going to look at stairs the same way ever again! However, in the end, it was all worth it. We got to see the huge bell and we went to the very top to get the most amazing view of Paris. From the top we could point to all of the major attractions we had been to. The gargoyles at the top of the cathedral really reminded me of my dad (he really likes gargoyles!!...I took some pictures for you!). The climb back down was slightly nauseating and made us all a little dizzy…but again, the things we do just to say we did them! We were all pretty beat after Notre-Dame so we went to the hotel and chilled for a bit. After a while we ate dinner near our hotel and ate chocolate crepes for dessert! Since we had been to all the nice parts of Paris, we decided that we needed to see the more gritty side…so we made our way to The Moulin Rouge! It was pretty neat at night…everything was lit up, including the many neon “Sex Shop” signs lining either side of the street! Alright, so it wasn’t the classiest part of the city, but at least we can say we were there! We finally went back to the hotel after that where we all proceeded to pass out. We woke up early this morning…had our FREE breakfast…..and made our way back to the train station. We waved goodbye to Paris and took our 3 hour train ride back to London.

Long story short (hahaha), I really enjoyed my time in Paris. I definitely want to go back before I leave Europe to just take some time to relax and enjoy, now that I’ve done all of the tourist things. I will never forget my first (hopefully not last) trip to Paris! Enjoy the pictures (I'm working on posting them!)!!!