That weekend we jetted off to Paris. Our flight was very, VERY early on Friday morning, and we got to experience the famous "Ryan Air" for the first time. We were corralled into a small room like animals, then shuttled across the terminal to climb up the stairs to the plane. As we were getting on, people from the previous flight were still getting off. Needless to say, I put my coat over the headrest to avoid getting lice. The flight wasn't too bad, but the landing was ROUGH. When we landed, everyone on the plane clapped, and the pilot played celebratory music. It was definitely cause for a celebration that we had made it there safely. Since Ryan Air doesn't really fly directly into the city, we had to catch a shuttle bus into the heart of Paris. We were dropped off at a metro stop that was in walking distance of the Arc de Triomphe. We started to walk, and on our way stopped into a little bakery to get some bread. We realized right away that what everyone says about Parisians is true--they don't like Americans. My friend Kat tried to ask, in English, what was in one of the breads, and the woman replied (in perfect English) "I don't speak English, you have tot speak to me in French". Thankfully, I had taken 6 years of French, which was just enough to say a few grammatically incorrect sentences with a brutal accent. I got laughed at, naturally, but I guess that's better than what happened to Kat.
We finally made it to the Arc de Triomphe, and like everything else I've seen over here, it was HUGE. No picture can do it justice. We walked around underneath for awhile, just admiring the grandeur. The Arc de Triomphe is at the top of the "Champs Elysees", which is a big shopping street in Paris. As we walked along the street, we noticed that there were Irish flags flying everywhere, which was odd. We later found out that they were actually the flag of the Ivory Coast, a former French colony in Africa. The president of the Ivory Coast was there that weekend, smoothing out the formerly bitter relations between the two countries, and establishing a defense plan with the French President, Sarkozy.
As we continued to walk, we stumbled upon a little slice of Heaven on Earth: Laduree. This is one of the oldest tea shops, known for their famous "macarons". I cannot even begin to describe just how delicious these things were. My mouth is actually watering just thinking about them. I got 5 mini ones-- pistachio, vanilla, blackberry, almond marshmallow, and chocolate. All of them were gone in a matter of seconds. They were hard on the outside, and soft on the inside, and absolutely melted in my mouth. Without a doubt, one of the top 5 best things I have ever consumed.
Next, we went headed towards the Louvre. The Louvre and the Place de la Concorde were beautiful. The buildings and fences and everything were green and gold, with gorgeous fountains and plants and statues. We were preettyy pressed for time, so unfortunately we didn't have time to wait in line 3 hours to see the Mona Lisa. I know, embarrassing. Hopefully I will get back there someday. After the taking a banana nutella crepe to the face, we walked along the river to the Sainte-Chappelle Basilica.
My friend had learned about the Sainte-Chappelle Basilica in her art history class, and I'm so glad she did because otherwise we wouldn't have known about it. It is made entirely of stained glass. The architects had to design a special flexible paste to hold the windows together on the curved walls. It was a sunny day, so the way the light shone through was soooo pretty.
Next, we headed to the Notre Dame. We stopped for ice cream along the way, which was good, but not as good as Sundae School! The Notre Dame was almost overwhelming. It was beautiful outside and in, and the amount of people that were there was fascinating. When I signed the guest book, I was the sixth person to sign on the page, and the first person to sign in English. It was really moving, and awesome to know that I was in such a famous and special place to so many people.
After the Notre Dame, we walked around for awhile and did some shopping. Paris is EXPENSIVE. I'm glad I'm not there for the full semester. Then we headed to our hostel, which was just north of the main city, in the Montmarte area. We got an absolutely delicious dinner near our hostel. I even tried duck! It was baked in a mashed potato casserole, and it was very salty but delicious.
Since we had been up since 4am, we called it a night pretty early. On Saturday morning, we woke up and realized it was rainy. Typical Paris I guess. We got a nice breakfast at our hostel, and explored our the area around us for a bit. We made it to the Sacred Heart Basilica, which was also gorgeous. All the churches are starting to blend together honestly, but this one was very distinct. While we were inside, there was a group of nuns doing a prayer service, which was pretty cool to witness. From the steps of the Basilica there is a beautiful view of Paris. Although it was foggy, we could still see the Eiffel Tower in the distance.
Since it was rainy, we figured it was the perfect day to check out the Musee D'Orsay, which is famous for its impressionist work. I'm honestly not a huge museum person, but this place was great. Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, all the stuff you learn about in school. My friend Kat is big into art history, which is great because she can tell us about some of the paintings. The thing that always blows me away is the amount of detail in some of these paintings. In Renior's "Le Moulin de la Galette", there are dozens of people, each one with a totally different face. The other cool thing about a lot of the art is that up close it doesn't look like much of anything. The way that they can just dab paint onto a canvas and make a beautiful scene is crazy to me. We spent a large portion of the afternoon in the Musee D'Orsay, and it was very enjoyable. But, after awhile, we were all anxious to get to the Eiffel Tower!! Thankfully, by the time we left the museum, it had cleared up and the sun was out!
After a lot of meandering through the streets of Paris, with a stop for a banana nutella crepe along the way, we finally reached the Eiffel Tower. HOLY COW that thing is big. Words honestly cannot describe it. We took a lot of pictures under it, but unfortunately the line was farrrr too long to get to the top. I didn't mind though. Instead, we got hot chocolate around the corner, and waited for the sun to set so we could see it lit up!!! Right after sunset the lights went on, and every hour, on the hour, it sparkles. We went out to take pictures of it lit up, and just as I turned away, my roommate, Shannon, SCREAMED and jumped on me. I have never seen anyone more excited about something. I turned around and sure enough, it was sparkling! One of the coolest things we have ever seen.
After a quick stop into Laduree for 6 more macarons (and not an ounce of regret), we headed back to our hostel. We got another delicious dinner right nearby. There was not a word of English on the menu, so with the help of my less than elementary French skills and Google Translate, we were able to avoid a couple of things, most notably the "young rabbit meat". I got a salad with warm goat's cheese, and salmon in a delicious cream sauce with steamed vegetables. Don't get me wrong, I love the food in Italy, but I LOVED the food in Paris. It might have been one of the best parts. We had another early night because our flight left at 9am on Sunday morning, so we went home and passed out.
Paris is ABSOLUTELY a place that I want to go back to someday. I know that there is so much more there that I missed, but I feel like I hit a lot of the main sights, and it was a great weekend overall.
Once again, after all of the traveling, it was nice to get back to Rome. While I have loved everywhere I've been so far, I am so so SO glad to be able to call Rome my home. I can get bored pretty easily, but I'm pretty sure I could live in Rome for a few years and still not see everything it has to offer.
Arc de Triomphe
Place de la Concorde
Louvre
Sainte-Chappelle
Notre Dame
Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower Sparkling!!
I have a lot coming up this week, but I will keep trucking with the posts. Things to look forward to for next post: the "Snowpocalypse" in Rome. Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment