Just a weekend in Paris

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I know this should have been written a long, long time ago, but I was busy…sorry. Anyways, here is the recap of my second weekend trip: Paris, France. I ended up going to Paris with two girls that I made friends with from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Ashley Berkant and Kate Buchanan. Going with these girls was the best idea ever because they were so efficient, prepared, and both took French in high school…score!

So, we fly out of Heathrow on Friday afternoon and get to Paris in the evening. After a little confusion over which hostel we actually booked, we made our way via the metro to the hostel. It was a really great place, and if I could remember the name right now, I’d tell you all where to stay for a decent price in Paris. Anyways, we got to the hostel and basically passed the heck out. Thank goodness British Airways gives a delicious meal on the 1 hour flight or we would have starved…haha. Our room was a 4 person room so we had a roommate. I am blanking on her name, but she was originally from Australia, now working a few hours outside of London at a boarding school. The students were on a fall break, so she took a vacation to Paris for the week. Oh yeah, and she was about 18 years old. She gave us all sorts of insider tips about how we could possibly do all of Paris in one weekend. Thanks to her, we did.

Saturday morning we woke up and went to the Eiffel Tour. Holy crap!! That thing has sooo many stairs. I was absolutely terrified. The asthma and fear of heights totally kicked in, but I made it to the top. It was a cloudy day, but we still took some amazing pictures. It was beautiful. After the Eiffel Tour, we hopped on the metro and went to Notre Dame. Before we went in, we had lunch at a café nearby. Croque Messier and a glass of red wine…delicious!!! Anyways, Notre Dame was gorgeous but I felt like we were being herded through like cattle. Then, on our way to San Chappell, we did some shopping at some street vendors. I bought some pretty nifty prints…I’m excited. San Chappell had the most amazing stained glass. I’ve spent a lot of time in various parts of Europe admiring stained glass and I really do enjoy looking at it.

Now it was time for the Louvre. I apologize to all those art fanatics out there because I didn’t see nearly enough of it, but we thought we had more time in there than we actually did…they were closing earlier than we expected. So, I saw the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and lots of Dutch and Flemish art because Ashley was interested in it. I’m not an art buff, so this stuff didn’t really excite me all that much. Hence: the Sparknotes® version of the Louvre, which is just a part of the Sparknotes® version of Paris. After the Louvre, we walked down the Champ de Ellyses towards the Arc de Triumph. We tried to find a nice café to eat at along the way, but everything we found was closing up early. Eventually we went to this lovely place called Café Roma…yup, Italian food of all things. But, it was delicious so that was okay. After a delightful meal, we walked to the end and took pictures of the Arc. Then I turned around and I saw IT: the Eiffel Tour all lit up at night. Ashley and Kate were kind enough to bear with me as we walked over so I could see it up close. WOW. It was beautiful and it completed my weekend jaunt to Paris. I was sooo happy. We ate crepes with nutella and admired the Eiffel Tour in all its glory, in all its lights. Amazing. And then, exhausted from our long day, we went back to the hostel to sleep.

Sunday morning we woke up, packed up our stuff, and headed for Versailles. After a little mix up on the train, we made it there and then had to stand in line for about an hour and a half to get tickets. Then there was another line to get in. But, it was totally worth it. GOSH. That place is enormous…the palace, the grounds/gardens, everything is just massive. It was way cool though. I’m so glad we got to go there, even if the Hall of Mirrors is undergoing partial renovation/construction right now. It was still impressive. After a lovely day at Versailles, we headed for the airport. We did some last minute souvenir shopping, ate, and waited for our gate to finally be listed. Suddenly, before I knew it, I was back from my weekend in Paris to await Kelly’s visit in just 5 days…

Paris was amazing and I wish I had some of my own pictures to share. Unfortunately, I made a boo-boo and deleted the pictures off my camera, thinking I had put them on my computer already. Oops. Luckily, Ashley and Kate both took a lot of pictures as well, and I’m even in some of them. So, I’ve got some photographic proof of being in Paris, which is nice. Anyways, the weekend in Paris was much less stressful and much more relaxing than Rome was. I think that I definitely prefer Paris to Rome, if I had to choose.

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