This weekend we went to Paris and I fell in love with the city after the three short days we were there. Our flight was early Thursday evening so by the time we got there it was almost midnight so we just went to sleep. The next morning we woke up and had our first Parisian croissants, they were fantastic of course. We found a brochure for a walking tour at the hostel so we went and did that during the morning until the middle of the afternoon. The girl was from Paris and she was very funny, with lots of jokes about the French and other nationalities too. She brought us by some things we probably wouldn't have gone to by ourselves, like the fountain where Anne Hathaway throws her phone in The Devil Wears Prada and to a gold statue of Joan of Arc. We walked around for 3 and a half hours on the tour and by the end we were starving. We found this French pub place by the Eiffel Tower and I decided to be gutsy and get a duck salad. It was.....interesting. I mean, it wasn't horrible but I probably wouldn't order it again. Next we went to the Eiffel Tower and took a million pictures. I fell in love with the Eiffel Tower and I think most of the pictures I took are of it. Haha! Afterward we stopped at a bakery and I got a real eclair and some macaroons! Our friends that had gone to Paris over spring break let us know that on Friday afternoons if you are under 26 and not from Europe you get into the Louvre for free! We took advantage of this opportunity of course and went and visited the Mona Lisa!! It was so crazy to see something so famous right in front of us. It was surrounded by bullet proof glass and there were tons of people taking pictures of it. Leonardo Di Vinci would have been really happy with himself. We walked around the museum a little more and looked for things we recognized or thought looked cool in the map. The Louvre is SO big that if you looked at every piece of art for 30 seconds you would be in there for 2 months. How crazy is that?!?! We left the Louvre and went back to our hostel to get ready to go out to a pub crawl we found through the walking tour. When we got off the metro to the meeting spot the first thing we saw was the Moulin Rouge! It was all lit up and looked fantastic! I wish we could have seen the show. The pub crawl was really fun because we went to 4 different bars and met lots of people from all over the world, we even met some people from South Africa! The next morning we got up early and went to the Sacre Cour, which was about 5 minutes from our hostel. The Sacre Cour is a church that is at the highest point of Paris and you can see a great view of almost everything! The church was gorgeous and we were really glad we were so close to it. After that we went back to see the Moulin Rouge during the day time and everyone wanted to get Starbucks, which was across the street. Next we went to the Notre Dame! After waiting in a short line we made it inside! The inside of the cathedral was amazing and the stained glass windows were like none I have ever seen before. Seeing it in real life really made me want to watch the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Apparently the book that the Disney movie is based on was written by a French writer to save the church and Disney doesn't give him any credit at all, our tour guide said that's why the French hate Americans. Haha! Next we went to see the Arc de Triomphe, which is in the middle of an insanely busy round-about. There are no street lines and people just go wherever they want. Apparently people get into accidents there like every 30 minutes. By that time we were starving again so we went back to the Eiffel Tower and got some picnic materials from shops a few streets from it. I got a baguette, hummus, some cheese and quiche! We were all stuffed after our large picnic so we just laid by the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed the beautiful weather we had that day. We went back to where the Arc de Triomphe is and shopped around a bit but none of us found anything too special to buy. Next we went to the unofficial memorial of Princess Diana, which is a replica of the torch of the Statue of Liberty. It's placed on top of the underpass where she died and people have written all over the wall to leave messages to her; people even bring flowers and notes in respect for her. It was really sad to see it, especially after being in London. We went back to our hostel to get a sweater, because it had gotten colder by then and then we headed out to the Eiffel Tower once more to see it lit up at night, go up to the middle of it and watch the light show. We saw an amazing 360 view of Paris from the tower and the whole thing lit up just had a certain magic about it. After we got down we found a sidewalk cafe with French Onion Soup and Creme Brule, which were the two requirements we decided a place had to have. By this time I was starting to feel nauseous and all I wanted was some soup. We saw the Eiffel Tower glittering in a reflection of a building and I ran out of the restaurant to get a picture of it sparkling; it's my favorite picture I took the whole trip! (and the one at the top of this post!) We finally got back to the hostel and it was about 1 am and we had to leave for the airport at 5 am. I think I got some kind of flu or something because I felt absolutely horrible all night and when we woke up super early I felt even worse. Traveling here doesn't take the same amount of time that it does in America. Let me tell you how our traveling went that day. 5am: Leave for airport and take a taxi to the bus station. 5:30am: Leave the bus station. 7am: Arrive to airport. 9:15am: Plane leaves. 11:15am: Plane arrives and we get onto bus shuttle to train station. 12pm: Arrive at train station in Rome. 12:48pm: Leave on train to Orvieto. 2pm: Arrive in Orvieto and take funicolare and then take bus further up the hill. 2:30pm: Finally arrive at my apartment after 10 HOURS. Imagine having a fever and wanting to puke your guts out for 10 hours. Anyway, I survived without passing out and minus the sucky part at the end I am absolutely obsessed with Paris and could have spent an entire week there!! Despite what people think, the French don't hate you simply because you are American and I had only fantastic encounters with every French person I met. I can't wait to go back someday!
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