It amazes me to be able to say it so casually, but I went to Paris! Yes, you heard me right, a few friends and I just went to Paris for the weekend. My roommate Sammie and our friends Olivia, Morgan and Sara all signed up to be part of the same tour to the magnificent City of Lights. So after our internships, we gathered and headed to Victoria station to meet the tour bus that would take us to Paris. Traveling to another country with just a purse and a backpack was the strangest sensation ever. I certainly had packed plenty for just a weekend but it still felt surreal.
Thankfully, Sammie and Olivia had traveled with this tour group the previous weekend, so they were familiar with the meeting point, so that part was relatively easy. Even better, it was right next to what felt like a gas station convenience store right in the station. So we were able to grab a bit of dinner and snacks for the trip.
We all piled onto the bus and Karleen, our tour guide ran down the plan - namely that we were going to drive to Brighton to pick up some more people for our tour before heading to France. I slept most of the way through that leg of the trip, despite the fact that the man in front of me had leaned his seat back pretty much in my lap.
From Brighton, we were finally on our way! I'd been wondering how the whole crossing the channel in a bus thing was going to work, so it was a bit mind blowing to find out that we would be going by train. As in our bus was going to get on a train and go under the channel. The train was huge! That was about as much as I established before falling asleep again because we were going to be traveling all night and jumping right into the tour when we got there at around 8:30.
When we eventually got to Paris, it was pretty much pouring. Thankfully, the first item on the itinerary was a guided coach tour, so we got to stay on board as we drove around central Paris.
Victory Arch in the rain!
Finally, the bus dropped us off right at the base of the Eiffel Tower! It was still a little dreary, but the worst of the rain had stopped. Our walking tour began with breakfast! Though the main group went to one cafe, they were only offering two options because of the huge group. Therefore, our little group plus Emily, an American college student who was by herself on the tour, went next door to another cafe where we found some fantastic crepes with Nutella! Yum! I thought I liked crepes before but having them in France was something entirely new!
After breakfast, our guide took us on a walking tour of some of the main sites of Paris. We hopped on the metro to Notre Dame! It was absolutely incredible to be there and walk around such a beautiful and influential site!
For me, the appeal was of course the historical value and general majestic nature of the building. It amazes me just how huge it is, particularly because of how long ago it was created. I can't even begin to imagine what went into building it. We were given some free time to walk though the main floor which was incredibly powerful, even though I'm not religious. What was even more incredible was watching Morgan look around because she is actually Roman Catholic, so the experience was even more meaningful to her.
From Notre Dame, we walked a bit further to the Louvre! They tell you that it's big, but until you get there and see this museum that covers so many buildings, you don't really believe them. Our free time for the rest of the day started there, so we were free to explore the museum as we chose. Of course, we had to go see the Mona Lisa. You hear about this piece of art your whole life and then all of a sudden it's right there in front of you! The crowd wasn't too bad, so I actually got to the front, about 5 feet away. While the painting itself is relatively small, looking at it and knowing the history it has seen and the many thousands of people who have passed by is incredibly powerful.
Mona Lisa Selfies!
We spent a bit longer in the Louvre, walking around to Aphrodite, Cupid, and a few pieces in between, but with so much museum, we eventually had to call it a day and move on. Thankfully, the sun decided to put in an appearance and we began our exploration! In case you didn't know, Paris is HUGE! We were navigating with our map, but everything looked so much closer on the map than it actually was. So walking anywhere took a bit longer than we anticipated. By this point, we were hungry and somehow managed to wind up at a pizza place which may be a bit odd for Paris but it was INCREDIBLE pizza. I got one with seafood on it to try something a little different and didn't regret it for a moment!
After lunch, our real adventure began! We had a few sites in mind that we wanted to get to, the first being Pompidou, a building designed to have the pipes and other generally exterior aspects on the outside. It was certainly far from pretty but a very interesting architectural design.
Our next destination was the opera house that inspired the story of the Phantom of the Opera! Since that's one of my favorite shows, I was very excited to see it. Apparently, the idea for the story came when a crystal from the chandelier fell and killed an audience member.
But before we could see that, we had to find our way. We found it on the map and had a good plan, but didn't quite anticipate the distances involved. We also made a few stops on the way to find French wine and macaroons! Yum. I didn't know what macaroons were before this trip but now I'm craving another. They're this great cookie-ish thing with a slightly crisp outside and chewy inside and is delicious!
After we finally got to the opera house, we began the next leg of our trip to the Victory Arch, built by Napoleon. Sadly, it was getting late by this point so we had to rush a bit and exhaustion was starting to creep up on us. But we did make it to the arch without getting too lost. However, at this point we only had 15 minutes before meeting the tour group, so we decided to hail a cab. Thankfully, Sara speaks fluent French which had saved us a few times throughout the day and helped now. Between 5 of us, the fare wasn't too bad and we were perfectly on time.
The Eiffel tower is absolutely gorgeous at night.
After all that walking, getting back on the coach was an absolute blessing and we were all very excited to get to the hotel. Thankfully, we were only at that hotel one night because the rooms were about the size of an average dorm room and there were 3 of us in each one. But you can do anything for one night and we really were just there to sleep and recover for the next day. Emily, Morgan and I shared a room and had a bit to recover before we went and found dinner.
The next morning came too early, but the hotel thankfully provided breakfast and more importantly, COFFEE. Their coffee machine was the fanciest I've ever seen in a hotel and had options for things like lattes and mochas. Plus more Nutella!
I was very glad that day to have met Emily because the main tour portion of the day was an optional trip to Versailles that cost and extra 30 euros and my companions from FIE decided against it. However, I wanted to go and was very excited to have a friend to go with! So most of the tour group piled on to the bus for the ride. The best part was that we were able to doze off a bit on the way.
The gardens of Versailles are absolutely incredible, even in January! I can't even begin to imagine what they would be like in spring or summer! Emily and I took a walk around, but couldn't even cover a tiny fraction! You really could spend a few days just exploring these beautiful gardens.
I do have to admit that my favorite part was the fact that I met a cat in the garden! He was super sweet and actually let me pet him and seemed to really like me! I miss my kitty so much and meeting another one did help me a lot.
From Versailles, we took a short walk to a local traditional food market. Emily and I bought a baguette and walked around eating it while looking at the various fruits and such. We found a stand selling French wine and each bought a bottle - I'm developing quite the taste for wine while over here!
The final stop of the day was Montmartre, the very Bohemian area of Paris that contains the Moulin Rouge and was where they filmed the movie! We got some souvenir shopping done there before getting back on the bus to head home!
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