Parlez vous francais?

Less than 3 days after I returned home from Italy, it was off to Paris! I didn't even really unpack my backpack, I just switched clothes out and made sure I had enough socks.

Luckily this time we (Lisa, her two friends, and I) didn't have to leave hours ahead of time to get to an airport; we just left after everyone was done with class and headed to the train station to hop on the Eurostar. I actually can't express how nice it was not to have to deal with an airport for this trip. The train ride was just so much more pleasant and much less of a hassle. Not to mention we finally got to take the Chunnel.

We got into the  Paris train station in the early evening and after trying to figure out the metro for 15 minutes, gave up and decided to take a taxi. (Every city's metro seems twice as difficult after using the Tube all semester). It took about half an hour to reach our apartment, but we got to see a bit of the city at night, and a lot of it was already decorated and lit up for Christmas. Our apartment turned out to be right down the street from the Arc de Triomphe and was probably the nicest place we have stayed all semester. It was an actual apartment with a bedroom, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room and it was great not to have stay in a hostel.

After dropping off our stuff, we walked towards the Arc which heads a main street, and found a little Italian restaurant to eat dinner (It was the cheapest thing we could find). After dinner we walked down the street a  bit more and briefly stopped in a McDonald's to take advantage of the free wifi because in Europe, you take advantage of the free wifi wherever you can find it. Normally, I wouldn't mention something like this because it's not really that important, but within the McDonald's there was a whole bakery section which included a tray of macaroons. None of us had tried macaroons before and we knew they were a French thing so we figured we might as well try one here where they are cheaper and see if we like them. Each of us got a chocolate one and found to our delight that they were really good! And these ones were coming from McDonald's so we knew they had to be even better some place else! In any case, once we were finished, we headed back to the apartment to go to sleep.

The following morning we left our apartment and headed towards the one and only Eiffel Tower. Since we could see it from our street we decided to walk and with it as a reference point, we never really needed a map. It only took us about ten minutes to get a bridge where we could cross the river in order to get to the Tower's base. It goes without saying that it was beautiful and an amazing work of architecture and engineering. I've never seen anything like it, and it might have been one of my favorite monuments to visit, especially because when it lights up at night, it is even more breath-taking. And it's kind of amazing to think about how it draws so many visitors from around the world every day just to look at it because of how strong a cultural symbol it is for France.

We took a couple of close-up pictures, and after dodging some Gypsies (they were my least favorite part about Paris), we walked away from the Tower and through the park so we could get landscape pictures of it. Lisa and I had a grand time striking ridiculous poses in front of it or attempting to get a jumping, in-the-air picture so I have included some here for your amusement.

We probably spent an inordinate amount of time taking pictures, but hey, at least it was fun. After, we got some hot chocolate from a nearby stand because it was freezing outside! I wasn't expecting Paris to be that cold (it was nearly 15 degrees different from London) and we were actually freezing most of the weekend. Even with gloves and a pea-coat, it was hard to be outside for more than 20 minutes unless you were moving around. So after our hot chocolate, we went to the other side of the tower to catch a Hop-on, Hop-off Bus that we had paid for previously since we knew Paris was a huge city and it would probably be the easiest way to see everything we wanted to.

However, this particular company or bus was not up to par. Having taken multiple of these buses in other cities and having a good experience, I was expecting this one to be good as well, but it was the worst I've ever taken. It only came every hour when it advertised that it came every 20 minutes and there were never enough seats--they even left some people behind because there wasn't enough room after they had already waited in the cold for an hour! So by the time we got on the bus it was already late afternoon, and almost too late to really see anything else as it was getting dark. Instead, we got off at the next stop after to Tower: the Place de la Concorde, a massive square where Paris's giant Ferris Wheel is.

(The London Eye is more impressive though). After walking through the square, we found ourselves at the foot of an enormous Christmas market that stretched nearly all the way to the Arc in the distance. Dozens of these little Christmas stalls selling everything from food to jewelry lined the street on both sides and there was even Christmas music playing. It might have been a little early, (it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet) but it was still great and we spent another couple of hours there wandering up and down and browsing. I even got some lovely hand-made earrings from a jewelry stall as well as a crepe (because how can you go to Paris and not get a crepe?).


Saturday was our bigger sight-seeing day. We got up a bit earlier so we could fit everything in, which almost didn't matter because the stupid bus took forever again (by the time it came I couldn't feel my feet) and we had to avoid at least a dozen gypsies. Our first and only stop using the bus was the Louvre. I loved being able to see the giant glass pyramid in person having read about it in The Da Vinci Code.

And the Louvre was even bigger than I thought it was! I'm not sure how else to describe it other than to say it was massive--you could probably spend days there and not see everything it has. And the exterior of the building and the surrounding area with the pyramids and fountains is beautiful. Of course, once inside, the first thing we went to see was the Mona Lisa. Having been warned beforehand, I knew that she, or I suppose her painting, was much smaller than pictures of her make it out to be, but I found it hysterical that the painting across from her basically took up an entire wall and here she is barely bigger than a textbook and behind a wall of bullet-proof glass. We waited in line to get our pictures with her before moving on to look at some more famous pieces of art including the Sphinx and Mary Magdalene--though in reality we saw only a fraction of what the Louvre houses. 

After the museum we decided to walk to our next destination--the Lock Bridge. I was actually really excited to see the Lock Bridge because I had heard of it so many times before and had always wanted to see it in person. For those of you who don't know the Lock Bridge or Love Lock Bridge as it is also known is where sweethearts go to place a lock, usually engraved with their initials, around the rungs of the bridge and then toss the key into the river. The idea was first inspired in a book and has gained a lot of popularity as the locks now appear in many places across Europe--though the Lock Bridge in Paris is the most famous. After a little bit of a walk we did indeed find the bridge--it would be hard to miss. There must be thousands of locks along the sides of the bridge; you couldn't see the sides of the bridge for locks, and it was just as cool as I imagined it would be. I couldn't really explain to you why; but I really loved being able to see it. Of course, none of us had anyone to put a lock on the bridge with but we had a good time pretending for pictures.

After the Lock Bridge, we walked through the streets of Paris to find Notre Dame. Walking turned out to be much better than taking the stupid bus because we got more of a feel of the city, and even though the people might be rude, the city itself is beautiful. I think that's one of the reasons I liked it much much more than I originally thought I would. All of the buildings and parks are just beautiful. We eventually found Notre Dame and it looked just like I remembered it from the Disney movie!! Ha ha. I liked Esmeralda much better than the Gypsies that hang around the city though. In any case, the cathedral is gorgeous, which prompted several pictures. We didn't go inside though because the line was enormous and it was freezing outside. Instead, we walked to find a cafe where we could get something hot and we found a bakery where we got the most delicious eclairs!

We hung out there until it got dark and then headed back over to the Eiffel Tower so we could climb to the top!! And I know I said this before, but the Eiffel Tower at night might have been one of my favorite things to see. The line to take the lift all the way to the top was too long to wait outside in so instead we opted to climb to the second platform--over 600 steps. Oh yes, you read that right. 600 steps. In reality, it didn't feel that bad and we took a lift to the very top of the tower which offers a view from over 915 feet--and the view was completely worth it! A 360-view of Paris at night is worth anything. It was awesome. And after we had spent some time at the top (it was very windy) we headed back down to get one last crepe from a nearby stand, which might have been the best crepe I've ever had with strawberries and Nutella.  Also, as we were eating our crepes, we got to see the Tower sparkle as it does every hour on the hour at night, and really how can you not be happy when you are eating a crepe in Paris under the sparkling Eiffel Tower? Needless to say, it was a fantastic end to the weekend.